In short: Near Florence, choose Villa Gamberaia for its water garden, Villa La Petraia for the view of the Duomo and Villa di Maiano for a full wedding. In the countryside, Vignamaggio in Chianti and La Foce in the Val d’Orcia are the classics; near Lucca, Villa Reale di Marlia offers garden theatres and eleven guest suites. Most private villas host symbolic ceremonies, while legal weddings take place at municipal venues.
When people imagine a wedding in Italy, most of them are imagining a Tuscan villa: a gravel drive between cypresses, a stone loggia, a long table under the lemon trees and a valley going gold at sunset. The good news is that Tuscany really is full of them. The catch is that “villa” here can mean a Medici palace run as a state museum, a Renaissance garden that opens for ticketed visits, or a private estate that you rent, whole, for three nights.
We photograph couples and weddings across Tuscany, from the hills above Florence to Chianti, the Val d’Orcia and the plain around Lucca. These are the ten villas we recommend for photoshoots, weddings and events — what they look like, what you can book, and how to time the light.
At a glance
- Within 30 minutes of Florence: Villa Gamberaia, the Medici villas of La Petraia and Castello, Villa Bardini, Villa di Maiano.
- Countryside estates: Vignamaggio in Chianti, La Foce in the Val d’Orcia.
- Around Lucca: Villa Reale di Marlia, Villa Garzoni, Villa Torrigiani.
- For full weddings with accommodation: Villa Reale di Marlia, Villa Gamberaia, Vignamaggio, Villa di Maiano.
- Legal ceremonies: many private villas host symbolic ceremonies; legal civil weddings take place at municipal venues. In Florence these include Palazzo Vecchio and other city-run halls.
- Best months: late April to June, and September to mid-October for the harvest light. August is hot and many families are away.
- Budget with us: Florence sessions from €500, Tuscan countryside sessions from €1,400; full-day weddings from €2,800.
1. Villa Gamberaia, Settignano — Florence’s most perfect garden
On the hill of Settignano, twenty minutes above Florence by the number 10 bus, Villa Gamberaia has a garden that historians regularly call one of the finest in Italy. A long grass bowling alley runs the length of the property; on one side a grotto garden of shells and statues, on the other a water parterre of four reflecting pools edged with clipped box and closed by an arch of cypress, created in the early twentieth century by Princess Ghyka. Beyond the balustrade, the whole Arno valley.
Visits: the garden opens to visitors with a ticket (around €20 in recent listings), but it sometimes closes for private events, so check before you go. Weddings and events: the villa promotes itself for weddings, private events and fashion shoots. Planners describe symbolic ceremonies in the garden, receptions in the ground-floor halls, a wedding season from April to November and a minimum stay when you rent the main villa. Get the terms in writing.
Photographer’s tip: the cypress arch at the end of the water parterre makes a natural frame — we place the couple inside it and shoot from the far end of the pools.
2. Villa La Petraia and Villa di Castello — the Medici villas
On the northern edge of Florence, two Medici villas sit a short walk apart, both part of the UNESCO site Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany. La Petraia rises behind a terraced garden, its medieval tower turned into a Renaissance belvedere, and looks straight down the valley to the Duomo. Villa di Castello next door has one of the earliest formal gardens of the Renaissance, with an artificial grotto full of carved animals.
Both are state museums with gardens that feel almost private on weekday mornings. Photography: personal photos are part of a visit; a professional session with a client needs permission from the museum office, so ask well ahead. Photographer’s tip: at La Petraia, shoot from the lowest terrace up towards the villa and tower in the late afternoon, when the façade turns golden.
3. Villa Bardini, Florence — wisteria and the best view of the Duomo
In the Oltrarno, on the slope between Ponte Vecchio and Forte Belvedere, the Bardini garden climbs a hillside in terraces and a long Baroque staircase. From the villa’s belvedere you look straight across the river to Brunelleschi’s dome — the most romantic view of the city that does not involve a crowd at Piazzale Michelangelo. In late April a tunnel of wisteria flowers along the terrace and the garden becomes one of the most photographed places in Florence.
Good to know: entry is ticketed; the villa hosts exhibitions and private events. Best time: opening time, mid-April to early May for the wisteria. Photographer’s tip: the stone balustrade with the Duomo behind is the shot; arrive at opening to have it to yourselves. For more city ideas, see our guide to the best places to propose in Florence.
4. Villa di Maiano, Fiesole — the villa from A Room with a View
In the olive groves below Fiesole, Villa di Maiano is a fifteenth-century estate that appeared in James Ivory’s 1985 film A Room with a View. It is now a dedicated wedding and event venue, with a chapel for religious ceremonies, an Italian garden for outdoor receptions in summer, and frescoed halls — the Red Room and the Tapestry Room among them — for dinners. Listings give capacities of up to about 300 guests, and the neighbouring Fattoria di Maiano has rooms for guests.
Best for: a full wedding ten minutes from Florence that still looks like the countryside. Photographer’s tip: the olive terraces below the villa catch the last light over Florence — we take couples there during the aperitif.
5. Vignamaggio, Greve in Chianti — a Renaissance wine estate
Just outside Greve in Chianti, Vignamaggio is a rose-coloured Renaissance villa surrounded by vineyards and a formal garden of clipped box and topiary. Kenneth Branagh filmed Much Ado About Nothing here in 1993, and the estate has long been linked to Lisa Gherardini, the probable sitter of the Mona Lisa — a claim historians treat with caution.
It is a working wine estate with accommodation and a long record of weddings: ceremonies in a nearby church or in the garden, dinner al fresco above the pool and dancing in the cellars. Photographer’s tip: the low wall at the edge of the garden looks over vineyards and cypresses; at golden hour it is the classic Chianti portrait without leaving the venue. Our Tuscany photoshoot guide lists more Chianti locations.
6. La Foce, Val d’Orcia — gardens and the zigzag cypress road
La Foce is the estate that the writer Iris Origo and her husband restored from the 1920s onwards, with a garden by the English architect Cecil Pinsent: hedged rooms, a lemon garden and a cypress-lined path that looks over the bare clay hills of the Val d’Orcia towards Monte Amiata. The garden opens for guided visits on set days, and the estate rents houses on the property.
Opposite the estate, a white road of cypresses zigzags up the hill — one of the most photographed views in Tuscany and a stunning backdrop for engagement and pre-wedding portraits at sunrise, when mist sits in the valleys. Photographer’s tip: shoot the road from above with a long lens, then walk down to it for close portraits among the cypresses. Never stand on the road itself; it is in use.
7. Villa Reale di Marlia, Lucca — Napoleon’s sister’s gardens
Eight kilometres from Lucca, Villa Reale di Marlia was bought in 1806 by Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister and Princess of Lucca, who remodelled the villa and its park. Its sixteen hectares hold a sequence of extraordinary garden rooms: a Water Theatre, a clipped-yew Green Theatre where Paganini performed, a Lemon Garden with about 200 potted citrus trees around a seventeenth-century fish pond, a Spanish garden, Pan’s Grotto and a lake that reflects the villa.
Weddings and events: one of the most complete wedding venues in Tuscany. The estate offers two reception areas, garden spaces for ceremonies, a chapel and eleven suites in the villa for guests; third-party listings give seating for up to about 300 guests. Photographer’s tip: the Lemon Garden at sunset is our favourite cocktail-hour location in Tuscany.
8. Villa Garzoni, Collodi — a Baroque theatre of staircases
Between Lucca and Pistoia, the Garzoni garden is one of the most theatrical Baroque gardens in Italy: double staircases, topiary, statues and a long water cascade climbing the hillside to a statue of Fame, with the villa perched above the village. Collodi gave its name to Carlo Lorenzini, who wrote Pinocchio under the pen name Carlo Collodi, and the village has a Pinocchio park as well as a butterfly house in the garden.
The garden is ticketed. Photographer’s tip: the staircases make dramatic full-length images; we shoot from the bottom of the parterre with the whole stair and villa stacked behind the couple. Ask the garden about professional photography and events before booking.
9. Villa Torrigiani, Camigliano — a Baroque façade near Lucca
A few kilometres from Marlia, Villa Torrigiani has one of the most ornate façades in the Lucca hills — loggias, statues and coloured stone — behind a long avenue of cypresses and reflecting pools. Its hidden Garden of Flora, with a grotto and water jokes, adds a playful corner for portraits. The villa hosts weddings and private events and is still privately owned; ask for current availability.
10. More Tuscan villas worth knowing
- Villa medicea di Poggio a Caiano — Lorenzo the Magnificent’s villa, with a classical temple front and curving double staircase; a state museum between Florence and Prato.
- Villa Grabau, Lucca — a neoclassical villa with a lemon house and English park, popular for weddings.
- Villa medicea La Ferdinanda, Artimino — the Medici “villa of a hundred chimneys” west of Florence, with a hotel and event spaces on the estate.
How we plan a Tuscan villa photoshoot or wedding
1. Decide what you are booking. A museum villa gives you a backdrop for an hour; a private villa gives you a home for a weekend. We help you work out which one your plan needs.
2. Separate the legal and the symbolic. If you want a legal wedding, it usually happens at a municipal venue; the villa then hosts the ceremony your guests will remember.
3. Time the countryside light. Val d’Orcia and Chianti are at their best at sunrise and in the last hour before sunset. In summer we split the day: portraits early, celebration in the evening.
4. Plan the driving. Distances look short on a map, but hill roads are slow. Florence to Greve is about 45 minutes; Florence to the Val d’Orcia is about two hours.
5. Use a second photographer for big estates. At Marlia or Vignamaggio, ceremony, aperitif and dinner can be far apart; two photographers catch both the guests and the portraits.
See our wedding photography packages (we cover all of Tuscany), our destinations, or the complete guide to Italy’s most beautiful villas for photoshoots and weddings.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get married in a Tuscan villa?
Yes. Villas such as Villa Reale di Marlia, Villa di Maiano, Vignamaggio and Villa Gamberaia host weddings. Most private villas hold symbolic ceremonies, while the legal civil ceremony takes place at a municipal venue such as Palazzo Vecchio in Florence or the local town hall.
Which villas near Florence are best for a photoshoot?
Villa Gamberaia for its water garden, Villa La Petraia for the view down the valley to the Duomo, and the Bardini garden for its wisteria tunnel in late April.
Do I need a permit to photograph at the Medici villas?
Personal photos are part of a visit. A professional session with a client needs permission from the museum office, so ask well before your date.
How far are Chianti and the Val d’Orcia from Florence?
Greve in Chianti is about 45 minutes from Florence by car; the Val d’Orcia is about two hours.
What does a Tuscany photoshoot cost with Vela Arte?
Florence sessions start from €500, Tuscan countryside sessions from €1,400 and full-day weddings with two photographers from €2,800.
chianti · Destination Wedding · florence · Luxury Villas · tuscany · val d'orcia · Villa Photoshoot · Villas · Wedding Venues
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