Le Torri Gemelle Villa

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We booked this holiday last minute with "Simply Travel" when the weather failed (again) in Britain.
The price was a little short of £2000, compared to the brochure price of around £3500.
Good points:
The accomodation (part of one of the famous towers) is really well designed and attractive. Kitchen a bit gloomy but well equiped.
San Gimignano is a brilliant antidote to all those man made tourist resorts, very atmospheric at night.
The views from the top of the tower are awesome (and I never use that word)
The hire car (included in the price) and flights were excellent.
The Holiday Rep', a lady in her early 60's, was excellent, and did everything in her power to sort out our "Issues"".
The overall holiday experience was good, but now for the other bits which could easily have ruined it, and will stop us from returning.
BAD POINTS:
The accomodation smelled badly when we arrived. I traced it back to a caraffe full of stagnant water on top of a wet and rotten mdf shelf in the boiler cupboard. Obviously a long standing leak which had been ignored, and took three visits by different plumbers to sort. The smell dissipated after several days.
The accomodation was poorly cleaned, with dust rising from the sofa etc.
Pigeons were in abundance, and their dried offerings blew into the rooms all the while (No air conditioning)
Fire extinguishers were out of date, with one empty.
First job on arrival was to defrost the ice choked fridge myself.
The stairwell to the top of the tower (after the lift) looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in years - full of dust, flaking paint and bits of plaster etc.
All in all, it was starting to look shabby and in need of decoration.
THE NOISE! You are bang in the middle of town, which has its benefeits, and it's a very nice town to be in the middle of. But the noise rises from the narrow streets until the early hours. You are on one square and next to another, so at night there is likely a performance, and at 5.00am (THATS AM) they are either putting up or taking down the stage. The streets are spotless, but that's because the mechanical sweepers also patrol incredibly loudly at 5.00am. Weekly market, excellent though it is, also goes up under your window early morning. Oh yes, if all this hasn't got you out of bed, then the bell tower on the other side of the square will. It is still very efficient. I nearly forgot the unfortunate lady opposite our window, who, regular as clockwork, (2.00am) had VERY loud nightmares - we initially thought she was being attacked! Perhaps we should have expected at least some of this, but it would have been nice to have been forewarned (maybe not about the nightmare woman)
CAR PARKING in San Gimignano is at a premium (cars are not allowed inside the walls) which the brochures tell you. What they don't tell you is that with the weekened Euro, and a bit of a price increase in 2008, it will probably cost you in excess of £200 to park your car for a fortnight. That on a public car park, which on a regular basis you will not be able to get on to.
Simply Travel follow up to my several pages of comments / complaints on the above ?? Nothing whatsoever. They didn't even acknowledge receipt (given to Rep)
If I had paid £3500 I would not have been happy!
Hope this helps.