Getting married in the open air, but in a park or monumental garden: for those who wish to celebrate their wedding ceremony en plein air, the Val d’Orcia not only offers stunning fields with cypress trees and views over the hills, but also places that were designed by famous architects and landscape architects.

One of the most beautiful gardens in the area is without a doubt La Foce. When Antonio and Iris Origo purchased La Foce in the 1920s, they called upon English architect Cecil Pinsent - who had already worked for Bernard Berenson at Villa I Tatti in Florence – to restore the main buildings and create a big garden. Built between 1925 and 1939 and designed to valorize the Renaissance villa and expand the spectacular view of the Val d’Orcia and Monte Amiata, it is a formal Italian garden with box hedges and lemon trees in terracotta vases.

Travertine steps lead to the rose garden and a wisteria-covered pergola bordered by lavender bushes. Terraced slopes gently climb the hill where cherry, pine and cypress trees grow among wild broom, thyme and rosemary, and a long walkway lined with cypress trees lead to a stone statue from the XVII century. A place for the wedding of your dreams.

In San Quirico, weddings, including civil ceremonies, can be celebrated in the Horti Leonini, a magnificent sixteenth century park in the centre of town. A classic Italian garden, the work of Diomede Leoni - Michelangelo’s friend - the Horti Leonini is divided into two levels. On the first level, there are geometric walkways lined with box hedges, behind which a statue of Cosimo III de’Medici, dating back to the second half of the seventeenth century, emerges. In the upper garden, where a medieval tower that was destroyed during the last World War once stood, there is a big open space in the middle of centuries-old oak trees.