Castello di Santa Cristina

Overall I give Castello di Santa Cristina the best possible score of "extraordinary"! I hope you will enjoy this little piece of paradise as I have now indulged in 3 times. It felt like I had the true Italian experience, with beautiful accommodations, fantastic food, warm and caring staff and a fabulous riding adventure through gorgeous hills, fields and forests. The horses are absolutely lovely - well cared for, good mannered, happy to do their job and take care of you as you feel like you're riding through scenary from a film or postcard. The accommodations are so pretty and decorative, with deliberate attention to detail. And the staff are extremely kind and thoughtful. I even had a "welcome back" sign in my room on my recent visit. I must say they all went above and beyond to make me feel so welcome and well taken care of every day. The food is absolutely authentic, plentiful and truly wonderful. You get the feeling they really take pride in making sure you're enjoying every aspect of your stay at the Castello. I simply couldn't close this review without a huge shout out to the people who consistently made my stays so perfect. Cristina and Antonello are the ultimate hosts who genuinely care about every detail and want you to have an experience of a lifetime. I feel like I have made dear, forever friends not only with them, but with Viorel, Giulia, Kate and the others too. I can't wait to return again and again. Just a perfect equestrian vacation in every way!!

I have just returned from a fantastic week at Castello di Santa Cristina. Antonio & Cristina (and Karin!) made me feel very welcome as a solo traveller and they were very kind & hospitable. I feel very privileged to have stayed at their wonderful ancestral home. My two bedroom apartment was very comfortable, the 'Castle' is beautiful with such an interesting history. The grounds are beautiful and well cared for and the staff so friendly and accommodating. I was visiting primarily for a week long riding holiday but also to relax and to see some of the area. The horses are all of good temperaments, well cared for, fit, sure footed for the trails and are matched well to their riders ability. The countryside around the Castle is vast and beautiful. The riding guides, Kate and Zuzka were lovely and we had some fun on the trails . They ensured you went home with lots of photo's & video's of your rides which make for some great memories. I ventured out one morning to visit Civita di Bagnoregio - 'The Dying City' which is a fascinating place only 35 mins away (in a car) and well worth a visit. I did not hire a car during my stay but transfers were arranged by Francesca and the driver was happy to offer slight detours to show some of the highlights of Lake Bolsena along the way. There are numerous other equally interesting places to visit locally and Rome is only a couple of hours away so I will definitely plan to return one day soon when there is more time to explore and enjoy them fully. Overall, a really lovely week away. I would highly recommend a stay here and not just for horse riders. It's a beautiful place for a wedding or even just a few nights to enjoy the area. Thanks again for a lovely holiday x

There are two parts to this review — the things that everyone would experience and the things that made our particular stay unpleasant. Our general take was that the riding was alright and the grounds were pretty, but otherwise we can’t understand what other reviewers are raving about, and would recommend simply choosing a different riding vacation if you are flexible on location. The rooms matched what we expected from the pictures (rustic and needing small fixes / renovation) but the food was pretty awful (a lot of store bought pasta and poorly prepared chicken dishes; a cardinal sin for Italian hospitality!). Perhaps it was specific to when we were there, but we also found a stifling silence during our stay: room doors and walls were thin enough to require quiet if you wanted privacy; not much social engagement by the hosts (other than the owner’s wife who seemed lovely), even while riding — one was on the phone for about a quarter of a day-long ride; little encouragement to speak to other guests. Finally, the horses were good for beginners but not trained well enough for experienced riders, and did not receive amazing care (skin problems, cantering or trotting on hard surfaces, etc). Based on these factors and given the price, we probably would have rated at 2 stars, with the food being the strongest negative. For our personal experience, my wife and I were admittedly not the easiest guests, but even allowing for that, the manager and staff handled our situation abysmally. An hour after arriving, the owner told us remotely via a staff member that we would not be able to ride due to liability around my wife’s medical condition. Although we disagree that the medical condition has any bearing on riding (she rides at home in hyper-litigious America and a 100% ordinary waiver has been sufficient), we can at least understand why it made the owner nervous. However, they did not provide us with any options to resolve other than one which would make us miss at least two days of riding, and when we pushed back the staff member giving the message got defensive and gave us a patronizing lecture. Furthermore, nobody with decision making authority was available to negotiate for the next ~day, so we just had to sit in our room (silently) and eat (crappy) food while we mulled our vacation being ruined. In the morning our travel agent talked the owner into a different solution so that we wouldn’t miss out on riding, and told us the deal they had worked out. When we finally met the owner around noon he gave us the same patronizing lecture and put all the trouble on us, really emphasizing how much work he had to do to sort this out and saying what we should have done differently, when all he really needed to do was tell us when the new paperwork would be ready to sign. Just beforehand, the same staff member was also rude to us a second time over something completely unnecessary. We ended up getting to ride eventually, but we felt so uneasy socially that we de