Tuscany

Cypress-lined hills, vineyards and stone villages around Florence and Siena — villas and wine estates for long summer evenings.

Photographers When to marry here

Tuscany is the Italy of postcards: rolling hills with lines of cypresses, vineyards and olive groves, stone farmhouses and medieval towns on the hilltops. Florence, whose historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, lies in the north; the Chianti hills run south towards Siena, and beyond them the Val d’Orcia, another UNESCO landscape.

Weddings here tend to last a weekend: a villa or a wine estate with rooms for the guests, a ceremony in the garden or in a village church, and dinner at a long table outside as the hills turn gold. Some couples take a whole restored hamlet, a borgo, for everyone.

A bride and groom laughing by the Arno in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio behind them

A couple in silhouette between two cypress trees

Morning mist between the hills of the Val d’Orcia

Through the year

When to marry in Tuscany

May, June, September and October are the classic months: warm days and cooler evenings in the hills. July and August are hot, above all in Florence and the valleys, so ceremonies move to the end of the day. Autumn rain builds through October; November is the wettest month of the year.

January: Quieter
February: Quieter
March: Quieter
April: Good with planning
May: Best
June: Best
July: Good with planning
August: Good with planning
September: Best
October: Best
November: Quieter
December: Quieter

SpringThe hills at their greenest, poppies in the fields by May and fresh, clear light. April still has showers — keep a covered plan in mind.
SummerLong, hot days, sunflowers and golden wheat, and warm nights made for dinner outside. Around mid-August, at Ferragosto, much of Italy is on holiday.
Harvest and autumnThe grape harvest runs through September into October, then come the olives. Mist lies in the valleys in the morning and the vines turn red and gold.

Places

Where couples marry here

The kinds of places — ask your photographer which ones they know well.

Villas and their gardens
Renaissance and country villas with lawns, lemon trees in pots and long views — the ceremony, the dinner and the rooms in one place.
Wine estates
Estates in the Chianti and around Montalcino and Montepulciano: a ceremony between the vines and wine from the same hills at dinner.
Hill towns and borghi
Medieval towns and small restored hamlets: a ceremony in the church or the town hall, then portraits in lanes of stone.
Florence itself
Palaces, cloisters and gardens above the city, and the river at dusk for portraits.

Light

How the light falls

Low, rolling hills catch the late sun from every side, so the golden hour is long and the cypresses throw long shadows. In spring and autumn the mornings often begin with mist in the valleys. Summer middays are bright and hazy — the light everyone comes for is early and late.

Travel

Getting there

Fly into Florence or Pisa, or into Bologna or Rome and take the fast train. In the countryside a car — or a driver for the guests — is all but essential.

Photographers