Spao Borgo San Pietro AquaeOrtus

Having read the reviews on here previously I was a bit sceptical but they could not be more wrong. This is the most beautiful setting and all the staff are helpful and the rooms are clean and our room had the most fantastic view. cannot recommend this gorgeous venue enough.

This venue is no doubt absolutely beautiful, it has been renovated to a very high standard, but sadly that's where the compliments end. Unfortunately it is run by greedy money making thieves. We had the unfortunate experience of loosing A LOT of money with these people. We booked this as our wedding venue in 2020 just before COVID, we put down a deposit and signed a contract. As we do not live in Italy we decided to send large amount of extra money to the venue, rather than regularly sending small amounts of money and losing on the exchange rate (this money was not part of any deposit or contract, we did receive a receipt for it). When COVID hit we unfortunately had to cancel the original date and reschedule our wedding. (Please note at this time no vendors had been booked, and no contract for food etc had been signed). We agreed to change the date. As the new date approached we realised again due to COVID it would not be possible. We had to make the difficult decision this time to cancel our wedding. At this point we asked for the additional money we had sent over to be returned to us, this is when they decided to ignore all our emails and calls. We understood that we would not receive the deposit back, but we did not think we would have any problems receiving back the additional money we foolishly trusted them with. They have refused to communicate with us at all since cancelling our wedding. We have even suggested that if they did not want to give us our money back they could please give it to a charity, which they have also declined to reply to. I also want to add that just before originally booking this venue we were actually warned by friends of our that these were very deceitful people, only out for money. Stupidly we thought there is always two sides to every story and we were sure the same thing would not happen to us. It has taken a long time for me to be able to write this review as the whole experience has just been so damaging. Due to losing the money with these crooks we have still not been able to have our dream wedding as we have had to start from scratch with our savings again. But I feel it is only right to write this review because I would hate for these people to do what they have done to us to anybody else and keep getting away with this!

Prior to composing this review I read SPAO management responses to previous google reviews where accusations of defamation have been made. Therefore it would seem important to mention that I am person with integrity, who upholds ethical behaviour both professionally and personally. This review will consist of my objective experience of events that occurred during the weekend of 25.08.2023. I have read the managements previous comments that criminal damage was caused during the wedding I attended. I feel it is necessary to expand on this statement. We were staying at SPAO for our friends wedding. On our first evening, upon returning to our room my somewhat heavy handed husband caused accidental damage to our apartment front door. The damage was made to a panel and to the beading dislodged. There was no damage caused to the door frame, door handle or the locking device. My husband attempted to put the beading back into the frame. In doing so this was very loud!! I would like to add that claims of my husband being ‘so drunk’ are completely false. For many years my husband has limited his alcohol intake due to being type 1 diabetic, at the time of the incident he was experiencing hypoglycemia. Which can exhibit much of the same behaviour as an intoxicated person. In hindsight, my husband has stated once rectifying his blood glucose levels he should have notified the management about the damage. Allowing them to make the repairs with the correct tools, rather than his hand! (I will attach a photo of the door to this review). The following day I was woken to numerous, very loud knocks on our door at approximately 7:30am. I opened the door to Stefano, another member of staff and the bride. At this point I would describe Stefano as irritated, he asked me which door was damaged, before I had chance to respond he walked into the apartment which required me to step aside. I then advised it was the one he was stood next to. Stefano and a member of his staff examined the front door, they had a conversation in Italian and then he spoke to the bride about speaking to the groom. I attempted to give an explanation to why the damage had occurred but Stefano left. Not long after, Stefano returned to our room with a female member of staff I think this might have been his daughter. My husband came down the stairs, and sat on a chair at the dinning table. Stefano became highly agitated, he was verbally hostile, intimidating in manner with a threatening body posture. Stefanos daughter remained calm throughout, her interactions were minimal. Stefano would not allow myself or my husband to give a rationale to why this damage was caused. Stating he did not want an explanation. Whilst sniggering, Stefano repeatedly called my husband a ‘very violent man’ he attempted to impersonated him by vividly moving his arms around whilst saying ‘I’m a very macho man’. My husband remained seated throughout, it was felt that Stefano was attempting to provoke

We recently attended a wedding at the end of August at SPAO borgo - it is a fairytale setting with lovely accommodation. The chef is passionate about his craft and the food was excellent- and that is where the fairytale tale ends. SPAO is owned by a man who has lovingly restored it but doesn’t want to share it despite taking thousands of pounds of your money to have it as your venue for the weekend. He is unprofessional and rude and has no idea how to run a high end wedding venue and once he has your money he dictates what may or may not happen. This could be a stunning venue if it was run by a professional management and events team but it’s not. The owner cannot decide if he wants it to be a high end B and B, hotel or wedding venue, currently it’s none of these things as it does not offer the level of service that is required for such establishments. The majority of the staff are young and untrained and brought in for the event. There were a handful of professional staff who appeared stressed and intimidated by the owner,when he was not on site they were more relaxed,friendly and helpful. Everything is hired in ,including glasses ,of which there were insufficient and resulted in us being given plastic cups to drink wine from - originally staff said for safety then they admitted they didn’t have enough when we pointed out that glass bottles of beer were being given out! When you have over 60 people staying for a 3 day wedding and you are informed by the owner you cannot bring in any food or drink,not even water, despite all accommodation having a kitchen area and a fridge, you would expect staff , food and drink to be available from at least 7 am to 10.30 pm Wrong- food and drink were only available at limited times and non existent on Sunday evening or any time if not booked well in advance and timings changed at the whim of the owner. You couldn’t even purchase a bottle of water in the afternoon despite the temperature being 38 degrees. One security guide appeared to be on site during the evening ( with 2 caged dogs that barked continuously in the early hours of the morning) but this was more to prevent intruders rather than be available for guests. We refused to let this unpleasant and aggressive owner, he confronted the groom and another guest aggressively on more than one occasion, ruin our weekend. Nothing could detract from the love and emotion that surrounded the wedding ceremony. However it provided unnecessary stress and upset for the bride and groom on what should have been their dream wedding. Please think very carefully before you consider and engage with this venue- they sell you the fairytale but deliver a nightmare. The response will of course say lies and defamation but this is an honest and truthful review.

I cannot articulate how important it is to avoid this venue at all costs. It's a shame, because the venue itself is beautiful but it cannot mask the ugliness that lies beneath it, ugliness perpetuated by the management and ownership. I will not be able to explain succinctly enough the full list of issues that we experienced whilst dealing with this man (Stefano Magini) but I will do my best to summarize: - When we visited prior to the wedding to conduct our tasting, Stefano shouted at our wedding planner, screaming 'SHUT UP' in her face. Entirely unprofessional, rude and aggressive. In hindsight this was obviously a huge red flag but we naively put it down to it being a bad day. - We had an agreement that alcohol will be pre-purchased in advance. We did this, he took the money and then throughout the wedding he withheld this alcohol. This resulted in an undersupply and us having to take the remainder with us when we left. Very inconvenient. Additionally, bars would close early & staff would disappear meaning no availability of soft drinks, water or alcohol after a point in time. I really was quite embarrassed for him and his incompetence. - The first night we had issues and phone calls were made that the staff refused to pick up. The following morning the owner came up to me and accused me and my guests of being aggressive, violent and abusive to members of his staff. He told me that they were scared of me and they had to 'escape'. Everything that he said was a complete fabrication. A fantasy. That same morning I spoke to the 2 ladies that were working the previous evening and confirmed that no such event had taken place, it was a completely made up version of events. Baseless accusations without any proof or evidence. - The owner's fairytale was shared with me & my wife on the morning of our wedding. I cannot state clearly enough how aggressive this man became. He screamed in my face & he squared up to me, putting his nose to mine. He then repeatedly shouted 'You want to hit me? Go on hit me'. It was honestly tragic, very sad. Obviously, on the morning of my wedding I had no intention of entering into a physical altercation. We remained calm to ensure that the day could go ahead as planned. Thankfully our wedding planner soon arrived and managed the remainder of this conversation. - Once we were no longer dealing with him, we were told that the owner was repeatedly abusive to our wedding planner and her team. I'm sure she will provide her own account of events in due course. - They consider themselves a 5* venue but their service standards are worse than mediocre. No food available in the evening, a bar that closes early and no staff on hand to field questions or support on any issues. Service worthy of a Hostel charged out at 5* prices. - On top of all of this he managed to make many of our guests feel uncomfortable by loitering around and occasionally trying to engage them in unpleasant conversation. It was creepy and a clear