Destinations
A Destination Wedding Guide to Italy
My fiancé proposed with a ring and a plate of cacio e pepe, which, in hindsight, was a strategic error: it settled the destination before I'd even said yes. The only question left was which Italy — because it turns out there are about four of them, and I want all of them.
Why Italy
Italy is the only country to claim three spots in our top ten destination wedding locations — Amalfi, Tuscany and Lake Como — and I'd argue that's still underselling it, because it left out Puglia entirely. Nowhere else can I choose between a villa that appears to be floating on a lake, a cliff above a lemon grove, a medieval hilltop town and a whitewashed farmhouse in an olive orchard, and still have dinner be the best part of every option.
Because that's the thing: Italians already know how to throw a wedding. Long tables, five courses, a band that starts after midnight, sugared almonds by the handful. You aren't importing a party; you're joining one that's been running for centuries. And your guests won't need convincing — "come to Italy for a long weekend" is the easiest RSVP anyone will ever send.
Where to stay (and say “I do”)
Lake Como — for the cinematic
Como is the Italy of old films and very new money: Belle Époque villas with gardens running straight into deep green water, mountains on every side, and a boat waiting at the jetty. Villa del Balbianello on its wooded point at Lenno is the one you've seen in the photos (and in Star Wars, and in Casino Royale); Villa d'Este at Cernobbio is the grand hotel that hosts the whole weekend. Guests stay in Bellagio, Varenna or Menaggio and travel by ferry, which makes even the commute to the ceremony feel like part of it. It's elegant, expensive, and best for smaller weddings where the villa is the whole show.
The Amalfi Coast — for the drama
Positano gets the postcards, but my heart is set on Ravello, perched high above the sea: Villa Cimbrone's Terrace of Infinity is a row of marble busts gazing out over what feels like the entire Mediterranean, and Belmond Hotel Caruso has a cliff-edge pool that should be illegal. Down at sea level, Amalfi town holds civil ceremonies in its own town hall. Fair warning: this coast is vertical. Everything involves stairs, boats or a minivan driver with nerves of steel — build it into your timings and pack your guests flat shoes for the evening.
Tuscany — for the long weekend
This is the wedding as house party. Rent a borgo — a restored hamlet with a chapel, a pool and rooms for sixty — in the Val d'Orcia or the Chianti hills, and the whole celebration lives in one place for three days: welcome dinner on the terrace, ceremony among the cypresses, recovery lunch by the pool. In May the fields go red with poppies; in September and October the vineyards are mid-harvest. Florence and Siena are close enough for a day trip, and the best estates book eighteen months out.
Puglia — for the ones in the know
Down in Italy's heel, the south does things its own way. Couples here marry at a masseria — a fortified farmhouse turned boutique hotel — under thousand-year-old olive trees, then dance in a whitewashed courtyard until three in the morning. Borgo Egnazia is the famous one; dozens of smaller masserie around Ostuni and Fasano do the same thing at a fraction of the price. Add the cone-roofed trulli of Alberobello, beaches that rival the Greek islands, and food that's simpler and somehow better, and Puglia is the best-value Italian wedding I've found.
Sicily deserves an honourable mention — Taormina's clifftop hotels and the Greek theatre below Etna are hard to beat — and Rome is the layover that will happily steal three extra days of your itinerary.
- 1 Lake Como stay & marry
- 2 Tuscany stay & marry
- 3 Amalfi Coast stay & marry
- 4 Puglia stay & marry
- 5 Mount Etna adventure
- 6 Milan fly into
- 7 Rome fly into
- 8 Naples fly into
Beyond the ceremony
Italy could stop at the food and still win. Luckily it doesn't.
- Walk the Path of the Gods. The Sentiero degli Dei runs high above the Amalfi Coast from Bomerano to Nocelle — two to three hours of cliff-edge views over Positano and Capri — and finishes with some 1,500 steps down into town. Make it the hen party: a morning of panting, an afternoon of spritz, a lifetime of bragging.
- Take a boat to Capri. Charter a classic wooden gozzo for the wedding party, swim off the Faraglioni rocks, and let someone else worry about the speedboats. Your guests will talk about this day longer than the cake.
- Rise above Tuscany. Dawn hot-air balloon flights drift over the hills around Siena and the Val d'Orcia — a mist-filled valley at sunrise, a glass of prosecco on landing, and the morning-after-the-wedding photo nobody else has.
- Hike a live volcano. If you're going south, a guided sunset walk on Mount Etna — the craters, the black lava fields, the whole of eastern Sicily below you — is the most unforgettable thing you can do in Italy that doesn't involve a plate.
- Make the rehearsal dinner a pasta class. Hand everyone an apron and a nonna: by the end of the evening forty people have made orecchiette, two uncles are competing over technique, and everybody eats the evidence.
A hen party that starts on the Path of the Gods and ends with a spritz in Positano — try matching that at home.
When to go, month by month
Italy's wedding season is short and fiercely contested: venues on the lakes and the Amalfi Coast largely close from November to March, and May, June and September book out first. The calendar below shows the trade-offs. Temperatures are typical daytime highs for Rome and Florence (Lake Como runs a few degrees cooler, Puglia and Sicily a few warmer); price runs from $ (low-season bargain) to $$$ (peak).
| Month | Typical high | Rain | Price | My verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C / 54°F | Cities only; the coast is shut | ||
| February | 13°C / 55°F | Carnival in Venice, quiet elsewhere | ||
| March | 16°C / 61°F | Lakes and coast still waking | ||
| April | 19°C / 66°F | Wisteria season; watch for Easter | ||
| May | 24°C / 75°F | Prime — poppies and lemons | ||
| June | 28°C / 82°F | Prime; the longest evenings | ||
| July | 31°C / 88°F | Hot — sunset ceremonies only | ||
| August | 31°C / 88°F | Ferragosto: all of Italy is on holiday | ||
| September | 27°C / 81°F | Harvest gold — my pick | ||
| October | 22°C / 72°F | Tuscany’s best-kept secret | ||
| November | 16°C / 61°F | Truffles, rain, shuttered hotels | ||
| December | 13°C / 55°F | Candlelit cities; coast closed |
One catch worth knowing: August isn't just hot, it's Ferragosto. Around 15 August much of Italy heads to the coast, prices peak and plenty of inland suppliers simply close for the month. If your heart is set on summer, choose the lakes or mountains and make it a sunset ceremony. And October is underrated — the Tuscan harvest is in, the light turns gold and the prices start to fall.
Getting there
Rome Fiumicino (FCO) and Milan Malpensa (MXP) are the long-haul gateways: direct from New York in around 8½ hours, London in 2½, Dubai in 6, and one stop from Sydney or Melbourne. From there, Italy's high-speed trains do the rest — Milan to Florence in under two hours, Rome to Naples in about seventy minutes. Lake Como is an hour's transfer from Malpensa; the Amalfi Coast is an hour and a half to two hours by road from Naples (NAP), or by ferry from Salerno in season; Tuscany is served by Florence (FLR) and Pisa (PSA); Puglia by Bari (BRI) and Brindisi (BDS); and Sicily by Catania (CTA). Europe-based guests can usually fly direct to the nearest one.
The honest catch: a guest list split between Rome, Milan, Naples and Bari, arriving by plane, train, ferry and hire car, is a logistics puzzle with very Italian levels of drama. Collect flights, arrival points and hotels as part of the RSVP rather than chasing them one by one — our guide to organising guest travel covers the system.
The paperwork (and the party)
Good news: a legal wedding in Italy is genuinely within reach for foreign couples. You'll need a nulla osta — a declaration that you're free to marry — from your embassy or consulate in Italy, stamped at the local prefecture (some nationalities also need a sworn statement from two witnesses), then a short sworn declaration at the town hall a day or two before the ceremony, with an interpreter if you don't speak Italian. The civil ceremony itself happens in the town hall or a venue the municipality approves, and many of those town halls are frescoed palazzi. A Catholic church wedding adds parish paperwork and a pre-marriage course; a symbolic ceremony needs no paperwork at all and can happen anywhere you like. Same-sex couples can enter a civil union rather than a marriage — a local planner will confirm exactly what your home country recognises.
And then there's the party, which is where Italy really shines. Expect a long, slow feast rather than a three-course dinner, confetti — five sugared almonds for health, wealth, happiness, fertility and a long life — handed to every guest, and the whole room shouting “Evviva gli sposi!” every time you so much as stand up. In the south, the groom might even serenade the bride beneath her window the night before. I've already told mine to start practising.
I came to Italy for the pasta and stayed for everything else: lake villas, cliff paths, poppy fields and a whitewashed courtyard waiting for a very long dinner. Once you've picked your region, work through the practical sequence — budget, timeline, guest logistics — in our ultimate destination wedding planning guide. I'll be the one halfway up the Path of the Gods, regretting nothing.
