We really enjoyed our stay at Hotel Relais il Chiostro di Pienza
Hotel Relais Il Chiostro di Pienza is located in the heart of Pienza, a Renaissance city planned by Rossellino – following the will of Pope Pio II, Enea Silvio Piccolimini.
This ancient monastery of the fifteenth century with a wonderful view over the Orcia Valley offers comfortable and functional rooms, thanks to its particular structure. Hotel Relais Il Chiostro di Pienza guaranties comfort and enjoyment.
We stayed at Hotel Il Chiostro di Pienza for five nights in late August, after a few very hot days in Rome. We decided to stay at Hotel Il Chiostro di Pienza after reading a few hotel reviews at Tripadvisor, and we found the best deal at Hotels.com.
Pienza is a lovely walled village with incredible views across the valley. Pienza has a good number of restaurants and cafe’s. It also has great shops selling a wide variety of goods.
Hotel Relais Il Chiostro di Pienza was perfect for us. The restaurant, gardens and pool were very nice and really made the stay there very enjoyable. We got a room with a view over Val D’Orcia, and the lightning during sunset was simply stunning. The beds where comfortable and the room was furnished in a typical Tuscan style.
Hotel Relais il Chiostro di Pienza had a fantastic restaurant!
A delicious buffet breakfast is served on the terrace downstairs at Hotel Il Chiostro de Pienza, and a wide choice of bread, cereals, eggs, yoghurt and fruit was available.
Moonlight dinner at Ristorante La Terrazza del Chiostro with an amazing view over Val d'Orcia
The same terrace was transformed to Ristorante La Terrazza del Chiostro in the evenings. If you are on a budget and can only afford one three course romantic moonlight dinner, let this be the place. The food is absolutely excellent, and just trust the waiter for wine recommendations. If you have to eat a cheap pizza or lasagne for a couple of nights to afford it, it will definitely be worth it.
We had planned the trip a few months in advance, and the reason we chose Pienza was the cities and the places in the area that we wanted to see….by bicycle!
We had been in touch with Cicloposse, a company that arrange organized cycling trips in Tuscany, to rent bikes. Guiliana and Marco at Cicloposse was so helpful and a made the cycling trips a real pleasure. I highly recommend them if you want to see Tuscany by bicycle. We visited Montepulciano, Montalcino, the Monastery of Olivieto de Maggiore and several other typical Tuscan towns. I’ll write more about that in another post.
We used the Hotel Relais il Chiostro di Pienza’s “parking” garage, and to be honest, I don’t remember if we had to pay an extra fee for it. If we did, it was worth it 
Every time we needed the car, we just told the lady in the reception and two minutes later the car was parked outside the hotel. Same when we came back, we just leaved the key in the reception and they took care of it.
Hotel Relais il Chiostro di Pienza have a swimming pool that is located on a terrace below the restaurant and is a great place to relax and swim. You can just ask for towels in the reception. We never had time to use it unfortunately, as we spent the days cycling.
Seriously…., you need to be in good shape to go cycling in Tuscany. The rolling hills of Tuscany is not for beginners. I was so tired each afternoon when we got back to the hotel, that I fell asleep after a nice shower. Then my husband had a hard time trying to wake me up a couple of hours later to get out to eat.
Pienza is an interesting town and a good base for touring around Tuscany. It is big enough not to get boring, yet small enough to make you feel at home.
