Latium, the land of Princes, Popes, Farmers and Craftsmen

Many people reading this blog have asked me to tell them a little more about Latium, the region where Country Weddings Italy is based and will concentrate most of its wedding venues. Although I obviously speak from a personal point of view, I truly think that this part of Italy is beautiful, and the beauty of it is that it's not crawling with tourists for most of the year, apart from the capital city, of course. 

So many parts of Italy are popular with overseas tourists. Tuscany is most certainly at the forefront in everyone’s mind when they think of Italy. The region’s tourist board has certainly had some very efficient marketing experts working for them in recent years, and they have the "material" to warrant that, without a doubt. The Amalfi coast is also very popular with Brits and Americans with its unique coastal scenery, and Lake Garda and the northern lakes in general have gained popularity thanks to the likes of George Clooney buying property in the area. Italy’s most beautiful cities, Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples are also known names in everybody’s vocabulary.

Latium (known as Lazio in Italian) is, in fact, the Italian region that is home to one of those names: Rome, the Eternal City, Italy’s capital, which gets its fair share of publicity worldwide and which everyone dreams of visiting at least once in their lifetime. It really is worth a visit and that could easily be incorporated into your stay here, as the city is never more than an hour's journey from wherever you stay in the region.  However, apart from Rome, we are somewhat spoilt for choice in this area of Ancient Roman, Etruscan and Renaissance history. There are architectural wonders to look at wherever you go.  There are Roman ruins, Etruscan tombs, medieval castles, spectacular countryside, rugged coastlines with its long, wide beaches, mountains for skiing, thermal spa towns and lakes for lazing by. A perfect, mini paradise!

We have already shown you a few venues and locations for celebrating your wedding in Latium in this blog. In coming weeks I will most definitely showcase some more. I could go on for hours and hours about the majestic beauty of the medieval town of Viterbo, Montefiascone, the village that produces the excellent Est! Est! Est! wine by the side of Lake Bolsena, the the Monti Sabini hills in the northeast corner of the region, with its olive groves that produces the most divine olive oil and superb country farmhouse hotels ...... but I often think that the power of words is sometimes just simply overcome by the power of pictures, and so I thought I would show you this short video of just some of the highlights of the Latium area. Feast your eyes on this!

Rustic Chic Lakeside Wedding Venue at Country Weddings Italy

Today we’d like to show you one of the locations that we visited recently and have decided to include in our range of Country Weddings Italy wedding venues. This 346-acre estate evokes a truly rustic chic atmosphere: it is a fully working farm that stands on the shores of a small lake just 30 minutes north of Rome. The farm owners have developed a restaurant renowned for the quality of its food and a farm shop selling all their own produce. The restaurant uses the farm produce in its kitchens; it even grows its own wheat to make the pasta!

The venue also offers accommodation for guests, in both double rooms, or beautiful self-catering apartments, created from the farm’s refurbished hay barn and stalls.  Anybody attending a wedding can make this a real holiday opportunity, staying around to enjoy the lakeside beach and bar, sailing boats, swimming, horse-riding and even cookery lessons.

Weddings here take on a bucolic style. The wedding reception decor and floral designs reflect the natural country setting, using local wild flowers and colours in keeping with or complementary to the environment. Couples can even choose to seat their guests on hay bales during a symbolic ceremony down by the beach, and after the excellent food served at the wedding reception, it is possible to hold an after-dinner beach party to continue celebrations until the early hours of the morning!

Daniela and I love this place, and the friendly family team that run all the estate activities. This is also a restaurant where I can already vouch for the quality of the food, I’ve already enjoyed Sunday lunch here with the family, eating and enjoying an excellent glass of local wine, and lazing by the water’s edge.

If you require further information about organising your wedding at this venue in Italy, please get in touch with us at: countryweddingsitaly@gmail.com

Lakeside Locations

Today Daniela and I are feeling very pleased with ourselves as our searches have led us to visit two locations that we both liked immensely. They are both situated near two of the lakes which lie to the north of Rome, one right on the lake shore. More of the wedding locations themselves when we have the photos to post on the blog, but in the meantime let me tell you about the area. Martignano, the smaller of the two lakes, is the water-filled crater of an old volcano, or maar, as they are correctly known. It is a lovely, peaceful area, away from the crowds, and perfect for a relaxing holiday. Picnics by the water, swimming, walking in and exploring the surrounding woods, rowing a boat or enjoying lazy snoozes in a hammock strung between the trees.....a perfect natural oasis, just 30 minutes from Rome. There are a couple of restaurants around the lake, but it is mostly still completely unspoiled and magical.

The farmhouse resort we visited at Martignano is just amazing: perfect views, mouthwatering menus in the restaurant (with many of the ingredients actually grown or bred by the owners), and lovely, characteristic rooms and apartments to stay in. Perfect for Country Weddings Italy and what we imagine to be the perfect setting for a country wedding. It is away from the beaten track, but easy to reach nontheless: Rome's major airport is a 40-minute drive away.

The second resort we visited today lies in the hills behind Lake Bracciano. This lake is much larger than Martignano, with 3 medieval lakeside villages, sailing schools, a ferry that travels in a triangular circuit between the three villages and several restaurants, campsites and hotels around its shores.  Motor boats are prohibited on the lake, apart from authorised vessels, to avoid pollution of the water, and it is, in fact, one of the cleanest lakes in Italy. The lake is the second in size in this region of Italy, and is also dominated by the famous Odescalchi Castle, an astounding castle built in the 15^th century, and still used today for lavish parties, events and weddings and also as a film location, as well as being open to visitors all year round.

The resort presents some amazing views of the surrounding countryside and is just five minutes from the nearest village, Trevignano Romano. It has a gorgeous swimming pool, beautiful cottages in the grounds for guests, and an excellent chef, or so we are told (we shall soon be able to vouch for this!) The place definitely ticked all our boxes as a wedding venue and as a holiday resort, and the couple owning and running the business are such friendly people that anyone staying there will surely love it. We hope to get some picture to you in the next couple of days, but in the meantime here is a picture of the afore-mentioned Odescalchi Castle, that is just a 15-minute journey from the country resort.

Vintage, Shabby Chic, Retro.....in Italy

I know that vintage-theme weddings are already a big hit in the UK and the USA, but here in Italy, the trend has only just started to arrive. All the wedding magazines are talking of “vintage, traditional and princess-like” wedding dresses for next year, 2012, after a good  few years of minimalist fashion, straight lines and no lace for the bride!

I personally ADORE the vintage look, be it clothes, interior design or just bits and pieces. I treasure my grandmother's bone china tea service, embroidered tablecloths, cut glass vases and all the old black and white family photographs, which are all spread around my home in the countryside north of Rome. I am also an avid crafter and vintage themes are a constant in my creations, some of which are now becoming extremely popular among friends and acquaintances as the vintage trend takes hold.

Daniela, my friend and business partner, is also a lover of everything vintage and “shabby chic”. Her house is a true treasure trove of her family heirlooms. I don’t think I have ever seen a house filled with so many fantastic pieces of furniture and finishings, all authentic! How, therefore, could we not envisage weddings with this type of slant to them? The very area where we have based Country Weddings Italy just cries out for ceremonies and receptions with an authentic vintage, bucolic or shabby chic theme. The farmhouse gardens filled with sunflowers, paeonies, hydrangeas and roses, the restaurants and country house hotels with their rustic chic furnishings, the castles and noble country homes filled with antiques and vintage drapes and ornaments.....talk about cutting costs, half the styling is done for you already in this setting!

I never got the chance to wear my mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress, but as I have got older (alas!), I have often thought that it would have been an amazing opportunity. Many wedding dress collections for next year in Italy have that “vintage” look. Below is a dress from the Errico Maria collections, a company based in the south of Italy that has been creating masterpieces for brides for over 30 years and a dress from Rosa Clarà, the Barcelona-based international wedding dress makers. I have also rummaged around and found some authentic vintage dresses for sale in Italy too, on the Tara Vintage website, (with a bricks and mortar shop in Bra – yes, that’s the name of the town - in the north of Italy), as well as the several vintage dress websites that have sprung up in the UK and US (one of the photos below is from www.poshgirlvintage.com, the California-based online vintage dress shop).
 Alternatively, for anyone who is a dab hand with a sewing machine, my searches have opened up a whole world of authentic vintage sewing patterns to me (unfortunately, I'm not one of the afore-mentioned "dab hands"). I recently spent hours enthralled by all the patterns available on www.sovintagepatterns.com, and have included a couple of their treasures below for you. For example, imagine a real 1930s dress pattern to be made using the wealth of fabrics on offer today, which can so closely resemble the gorgeous handmade silks and laces of yesteryear, but are maybe a little easier to sew, and more resistant to wear and tear.

Photos left to right from: sovintagepatterns.com, rosaclara.es, poshgirlvintage.com, sovintagepatterns.com and erricomaria.it

Where it's all happening

An expat friend here in Rome once told that choosing where to live in Italy had been a bit like pushing her nose up to the corner sweetshop window when she was a child, having to make that choice and knowing that however mouth-wateringly delicious the sweets you chose were going to be, you were always going to have to leave something else behind. There are just so many amazingly, stunningly beautiful places in Italy. I think I live in one of them, but I’m biased, of course!!

The choice is probably the same when couples decided to plan their destination weddings here. Just one look at the many websites offering weddings in Italy produces a myriad of images of perfect locations to suit just about everyone’s taste. When I decided to travel down the path of creating a wedding coordination and design business for overseas couples, there were a couple of tough decisions to take. How could I possibly cover all the possibilities? What to showcase and what to leave out, whether to go for the ever-so-popular locations, more likely to attract the crowds, or doing something a little different, more personal and in detail. I decided to follow my instinct. A limited area, less popular than the popular wedding destinations of Tuscany and Umbria, but, in my opinion and in that of so many of my visitors, just as, beautiful and breathtaking.

This area is wonderful, full of gorgeous scenery, history, archaeological site, interesting towns and villages to visit. I still love wandering around the streets of small towns on a Sunday morning, stopping at market stalls, and then onto the café for a cappuccino. So where is it, you ask. Stop being so vague, Nicola! The northern part of Lazio, or Latium as some call it, spreads from Rome to north of Viterbo, another splendid historical town. The whole area is filled with stunning scenery and amazing locations for a memorable holiday, or wedding. You can choose to stay in a castle or in a farmhouse, walk around olive groves or manicured gardens....

I know I’m starting to sound like an advert for the local tourist board, but I actually adore this place! I wouldn’t have stayed here for 21 years (and counting) otherwise, would I? If I were getting married, I know exactly what I’d want. To get married here, in my adopted region, with lots of shabby chic touches to the whole day. What more could a girl want??  Oh yes, Country Weddings Italy as my wedding coordinators!