Palazzo di Varignana

Outstanding hotel in every respect. My only suggestion would be freshly squeezed orange juice at breakfast.

Huge, luxurious hotel complex in the hills of Emilia Romana, a good 30 minutes from Bologna. The resort has countless buildings, various restaurants, a golf course, numerous pools and a spacious spa area, all neatly and thoughtfully integrated into the landscape. It is all very modern, even though an attempt has been made to create a historical charm. Especially at breakfast you realize that you are in a large hotel complex, otherwise you have enough space (at least outside the high season). The spa area is spacious, and the private spa in particular is worth a visit. The combined wine and olive oil tasting in the adjoining vineyard is a must-do, and the restaurant “Le Marzoline” is definitely worth a visit. A great base for exploring the surrounding area for a few days.

We reserved a week (6 nights) at this hotel. The reservation process was not easy. Any question you ask, they ask you to send an email. That’s fine as that is the way things work in Italy. However, they did not answer emails. We thought to ourselves that if the reservation process is that challenging, maybe that is a sign. Nonetheless, my wife decided to try one last time and all fell into place. We should have listened to our first impression and instinct. The hotel is beautifully located on an elevation which gives nice views. The rooms are modern and nicely decorated and equipped. However, the service is far from the 5 stars they claim to be. Prior to our trip, we tried to enlist their help to recommend and possibly reserve visits fro prosciutto tasting, cheese tasting, and wine tasting. The front desk staff was not responsive. Called and spoke to the manager. She managed to reserve wine tasting but none of the others. “They never got back to me” she said. Hmmm. OK. A little strange that a 5-star hotel of this size would not be able to reserve these things, which are super common in the area as we found out upon taking on the task ourselves. We served as our own Concierge. Reserved visits and it was not as hard as she made it seem. The prosciutto and cheese makers got back to us just fine and reserved a visit. We had reserved a suite and a room. Upon arrival, we were informed that the room was upgraded to a suite. Nice! Unfortunately, after the first night, using the shower resulted in flooding the room. The night person who was on duty was very nice and did his best to help clean the water but could not fix anything. The next morning, we informed the day staff and they were to look into it. In the interim, we were told not to use the shower. Not the response we had hoped for. No “we can move you to another room. Sorry for the inconvenience, etc..” The next day, workers came to fix it - supposedly. Upon returning after a hot day visiting the area, we tried to shower: flood again! Next day, spoke to the same front desk manager. It turned out that they “fixed” the bathtub, which was not at all leaking. She acknowledged this was miscommunication between her staff and herself. She did not offer anything more than “I will speak to them”. We are now 3 days without a functioning shower. Workers returned the next day and we were informed by email that the shower cannot be fixed. They offered to move us to 2 different rooms. We are now nearing the end of our stay. And the prospect of packing everything and moving when we have 2 nights left was less than appealing. Had this bee offered initially, rather than 2-3 days later, it might have been better. We explained this. We also expressed dissatisfaction about the whole situation, including the miscommunication that took place that led to further delay to figure out the issue, our inability to use the shower in the room, etc. The manage simply offered “I will speak to them”. No show of any apolo

probably the worst resort i’ve been to and i’ve traveled worldwide. Advertised as from 1705 but actually built in 2008 . The place reminds me some hotel of perestroika 30 years ago in Russia. It does not feel Italian and could be anywhere else in the world . No service , no room service, to towel service at the pool. Nothing is like advertised. Definitely not to relax but more for a cheap convention or tourist group. very sad as i’ve travelled from California to see it in person, left the following morning to a much nicer place in Tuscany and they would not refund me anything as policy ‍♂️.