Castello Del Nero - Podere San Filippo

We stayed at Podere San Filippo in a two bedroom apartment with our 1 year old son and nanny in June 2024. The property was beautiful, the apartment was comfortable, and Alberto at the front desk went out of his way to make sure we had a wonderful experience, organizing activities and restaurant reservations and accommodating any last minute changes. He was great with our baby and very kind to us. He deserves a gold medal and a raise! Thank you Alberto! That being said, other than the lovely Alberto, I probably would not recommend Podere San Filippo to other families. While it is on the property of the COMO and is advertised as part of it, the hotel unfortunately makes guests at Podere feel like they do not belong there. Despite being told upon initial booking that all charges incurred at the hotel would be added to our apartment bill at the end of our trip, for the majority of the trip they demanded we pay for every charge after each experience at the hotel with our credit card. We were told it would cost 75 euro per person per day to use the (small) hotel gym, and that we were not allowed to use the hotel pool (the pool at Podere does not have any services). Moreover, we had a car (essential if you're staying at Podere), but whenever we went out to do activities alone, our nanny and son were essentially stranded at the apartment because the hotel does not provide any sort of shuttle service to and from the apartments, and it's a 25 minute walk uphill on a dusty road. There is no room service or food delivery, though it would be very easy for the hotel to batch a nightly food delivery to Podere if they chose to. In regards to the COMO itself, we were not that impressed with the wine tastings or the food tour of Siena that we booked through them, and we did not think that the food was that great (though we did not dine at La Torre, the Michelin starred restaurant). I did enjoy my tennis lesson, but I certainly would have regretted staying here if we had paid double the amount per night for a room at the hotel. In sum, I do not think this property is worth the price you pay for these rooms when there are so many villas you can rent nearby at a similar nightly rate without the amenities of a hotel, since the most of the amenities aren't really available to Podere clientele.