Villaggio Narrante - le Case dei Conti Mirafiore

It’s interesting to note that Villagio Narrante at Fontanafredda Winery has three hotels on the expansive grounds…Mirafoire, Forestiere, AND Cascino Galerej. We stayed in the latter, an old farmstead on the top of a large hill among the vineyards converted into a 10 room modern hotel complete with indoor/outdoor swimming pool, beautiful grounds among the extensive vineyards, and a very nice small dining room wide open with glass to view the surrounding countryside…excellent breakfast every morning and dinner on some, but not all nights. Really friendly nice staff. The rooms were really nice and modern with new bathroom, etc. Of course, you have full run of the entire winery with Guido and Disguido restaurants down the hill. One large caveat. The road from down below is a twisting narrow road through the vineyards; and there is NO golf cart service, etc. You MUST have a car to stay here, period. And you MUST have a car to get around the hill towns and Alba. There are NO local cab services; you would have to arrange an expensive driver; and transfers to and from Milan Linate airport are very expensive. If you want to stay here, you NEED A CAR. And you will be driving to dinner even if you are eating “on premises” at Guido or Disguido. Having said that, no big deal; we did it and really enjoyed the place. The views are outstanding. Very well-kept property. Also understand you are in the middle of a very active top vineyard, and yes, you will get a few bugs in the room every day since they somehow get in under the door, or if you keep your window open for the great view…but they are slow and harmless…no big deal. We would definitely stay here again; and that would be over the Mirafoire where our friends stayed, even though that is walking distance from the winery, Disguido and Guido…the view and the pool/nice little restaurant, etc makes it special. There’s an outside hot tub too. These hotels are an easy 20 minutes to Alba, a half hour to Barbaresco, and right in the middle of Serralunga, Monforte d’Alba, Barolo, etc. So if you’re here for the wine scene, this is a great place to stay. We also did the tour/tasting at Fontanafredda Cellars, which was nice. Lovely place. It’s about a two hour drive from Milan-Linate, which has all the usal rental cars. Easy drive mostly on the autostradas (pay the 100 EU for the unlimited toll pass, and the gas included 92 EU was worth it…did all the driving around for four days on 3/4 tank of gas…into Alba for the White Truffle Festival, to Barbaresco for a day; and to Barolo another day). Driving in and around the hill towns isn’t for the white-knuckle driver though; much better to drive around during the day than at night where it gets a little testy with no lighting and few guard-rails. Which makes the Fontanafreda trio of hotels a nice play to stay because you can eat at the three restaurants and not have to go driving around at night for dinner.

We had a wonderful experience at the beautiful hotel with its amazing staff. However, we did face an issue: the air conditioning did not work during our five-day stay, and it was over 90 degrees outside. As a result, we had to purchase small fans to help us sleep comfortably.

Beautiful tranquil atmosphere. Friendly efficient staff

Stayed in a deluxe room with a view over the vineyard which was stunning. Stylish, modern and comfortable. Our issues with our stay were more about the information (or lack of) provided at check-in. There’s so much to do here, including a lovely woodland walk, cellar tours and probably other stuff we never found out. There is some information in the room but it’s general, rather than specific with times and prices. For example, to book the cellar tour we spoke to reception who claimed to have no details and then queued up in the busy wine shop to find out if they could help. Feels like a management issue rather than any individual. Why not have a sheet to hand out at check-in with all the details of all activities or something on the screen in the room. One final observation - felt like the real focus here is not on individual guests, but more on the large corporate events which seem to take place every day..?

This hotel is part of a world class winery and is remarkable in every way. Can not recommend more highly.

We stayed here for 3 nights as part of a VBT bicycling tour of Piedmont and Liguria. Our room was spacious and comfortable, with a little balcony that looked over the grounds, winery and vineyards. One of the coolest parts of the room was the in-room "wine cellar" that took the concept of the minibar to the next level, and with very affordable pricing...about 19 euro for a delicious bottle of sparkling wine. We had a lovely catered dinner in the spa building at the top of the hill one night and also ate dinner one night in the lobby restaurant. Both meals were excellent and paired with their delicious wines. The small breakfast buffet was complemented with made-to-order eggs. Through the VBT group, we received a tour of their wine cellar and a fun truffle hunting expedition in the woods on the grounds. Just a couple miles from the hotel is the cute town of Serralunga D'Alba, with a few shops, restaurants and even an Eataly outpost.