La Barchessa di Villa Pisani

Lovely peaceful quiet hotel in the country with welcoming and professional staff. We stayed one night in two rooms, family of four, and enjoyed the delicious meal at Michelin restaurant (grateful the manager of the hotel to accommodated weary travelers last minute for that reservation). The wine pairings suggested were superb, and I'm picky about my wine! The ambience is really special, especially in the early morning for breakfast outside with a view to the Villa, you can hear the crickets and owls around you while you eat.. A little tip about the Villa; make sure to go to view from the backside loggia (to see from the canal which used to be functional and navigable for the Pisani brothers when Palladio first built). We really enjoyed seeing the Villa without anyone else there, you could really feel the elegance, and hominess of it now, and the modern meeting the classical in a way the Italians know how to do effortlessly. We enjoyed countryside and exploring Euganean Hills and Arqua Petrarca nearby after the heat in Verona and Padua, was a nice break from that. We would recommend highly for a one night or even as a base for a longer dip into the Veneto region since it's nicely situated near the highway, but quiet!

We have been coming to this hotel for several years and feel very comfortable here, but we have to say that in the last 2 years some things have changed for the worse. But let's start with the nice things. The hotel is located about 10 minutes from the highway exit and is therefore ideal for city trips to Verona or Vicenza. It is beautifully located, surrounded by a large park and with ample parking for the car. The hotel is beautifully and elegantly furnished and exudes a special charm. It has a pool - which is a bit out of the way, a small gym, a sauna, and a restaurant. The rooms are spacious and the beds are very comfortable - each room is individual. Breakfast used to be very good, with a small but nice selection of both sweet and savory items. However, on our last visits ( in the days of Corona ) a buffet was no longer available and you had to fill out a slip of paper with your breakfast preferences on the day of arrival. The concept seems good at first, but the breakfast staff was completely overwhelmed and the waiting times for food and drinks were very long! This brings us to the negative aspects. The hotel became more and more expensive in the course of our visits, but the staff became less and less! The service can not be performed by so few people to the full satisfaction of the guests. We noticed this in almost all areas, here we would like to mention the long waiting times. We are happy to accept additional costs, but we believe that the hotel management must pay more attention to the service staff! LESS IS NOT MORE HERE!! The restaurant has had several Chef's over the years, sometimes better and sometimes worse. The current Chef does a very good job and we are mostly satisfied with the food. The Maitre de Restaurant could be a little more authentic, we kept feeling like we were being ignored by him. We do not want to offend anyone, but less superficiality and more demand, promote the well-being of the guest as well as the turnover of the restaurant! The pool area was not very well maintained (long grass, dirty sun beds) moreover there is no bar service at the pool. I.e. that the ladies of the reception come as often as possible to the pool to ask for drink orders. All in all, the hotel needs more service staff. We would be very happy if the hotel management takes our criticism seriously, as we believe that with more service staff the hotel will again become the hotel that we have come to love so much. We will be back and send kind regards from Belgium.