Museums, golf courses and vineyards: original ideas for celebrating the civil rites of marriage
Getting married in Vinci: weddings in the land of Leonardo
Tuscany offers endless possibilities for celebrating special occasions, like baptisms, anniversaries and, above all, weddings. Villas, castles and farmsteads are ideal locations for receiving guests and for the nuptial apparatus in general. Whoever is looking for an original and historic setting could do worse than settling on Vinci for a breathtaking wedding in the homeland of Leonardo.
The little village in the Tuscan countryside, indeed, can offer the happy couple a number of Leonardian spaces, marinaded in a Renaissance atmosphere and buried deep in the heart of the landscapes that once inspired the genius.
If you are passionate about Leonardo's scientific and engineering works, you can decide to give your 'I do' among the exhibits in Vinci's Leonardo Museum. You can choose between the gallery in the Castle of the Conti Guidi and the more spacious hall in Palazzi Uzielli, which is used for temporary exhibitions.
Even Leonardo's birthplace is open to hosting ceremonies, especially in the spring and summer months. His family home, which was built in the fifteenth century, is surrounded by olive trees and affords a breathtaking panorama over Vinci and the hills of Montalbano.
Did you know that Leonardo was an avid drinker of Acquarosa, an aphrodisiacal drink for which the recipe can be found in the Codex Atlanticus? Centuries later, this 'water of roses' was also discovered in Villa Dianella, a sixteenth-century Medici villa installed in a beautiful park and equipped with a little family chapel. In the 1800s, moreover, it was the favoured residence of the Empolese poet Renato Fucini.
Among the hills of Vinci and Cerreto Guidi, Casale di Valle looks out over the vines, a charming, rural, yet refined residence. "Leonardo's vineyard" has been reconstructed here, modelled on the vineyard at his birthplace, where as a boy he loved to go to draw.
Put a nine-hole golf course on the Vincian hills and a restaurant that looks over the landscape: you will be surprised at how refined and tasteful a wedding venue the Bellosguardo Golf Club is. Here you can make your vows in an old family chapel.
