Where you can legally marry in Sicily
The casa comunale rule, the towns' own ceremony places, authorised private venues, what the comuni charge, and the paperwork. Married in Sicily runs this whole process for you, in Italian and English, for one fixed fee agreed up front.
The key rule: an authorised location
An Italian civil marriage or civil union must take place at a location authorised by the local comune, known as a casa comunale. Traditionally that meant the town hall. Today it covers considerably more, and it comes in two forms: places the comune itself owns, and private venues the comune has formally authorised.In Italy, civil marriages and civil unions are covered by the same authorisation. A place verified for one is verified for the other, so same-sex couples have exactly the same choice of legal venues.
The towns' own places
Sicilian comuni own some of the finest buildings on the island, and many have brought them under their casa comunale precisely so that couples can marry in them: castles, cloisters, watchtowers, palazzi on the main square. You book through the comune, there is no venue company involved, and the fee is set by the comune, in most towns a modest one.They are also close to invisible online. Municipal ceremony sites do not have glossy brochures or appear on wedding venue directories, there is no marketing budget behind them, and the tariffs sit in Italian council documents. The result is an unforgettable wedding at a very reasonable cost.
Trapani: a palazzo on the piazza, or a tower above the sea
Trapani is an old port town below medieval Erice, with ferries to the wonderful Favignana. Its comune offers a range including Palazzo D'Alì, the nineteenth-century town hall on the main piazza, and the most popular, Torre di Ligny: the esplanade by the seventeenth-century watchtower standing on the very tip of the sea wall, with water on three sides. The tower needs a specific additional authorisation, which we arrange as part of the booking. Palermo airport is about an hour and a quarter away, and Trapani's own airport, with a smaller choice of UK flights, twenty minutes.
Best for: couples who want the sea at the ceremony without a beach venue, or a dignified wedding on the town's main piazza.
Erice: a medieval town above the clouds
Erice sits on a mountain top above Trapani, a walled medieval town of grey stone lanes with views over the salt pans and out to the Egadi Islands, and it is often literally in the clouds. The venue everyone wants is the Castello di Venere, the Norman castle built over the ancient temple of Venus. The castle doubles as an exhibitions venue, so its calendar is committed months ahead and summer dates are close to impossible. The cable car up from Trapani is part of the day.
Best for: couples who want the medieval town and sweeping views, and do not mind a little mountain weather.
Marsala: a fourteenth-century cloister
Marsala holds its civil ceremonies at the beautiful ex Convento del Carmine, a fourteenth-century convent whose arcaded cloister now houses the town's picture gallery. The town is twenty-five minutes from Trapani airport, and the Stagnone lagoon with its windmills and salt pans is just up the coast.
Best for: couples who want cloistered quiet and a setting with seven centuries behind it.
Ortigia, Siracusa: baroque lanes with the sea on every side
Ortigia is Siracusa's old heart, a small island of baroque lanes and sea on every side, joined to the city by two short bridges. Its cathedral square may be the loveliest in Italy, and the Duomo itself is built around the columns of a Greek temple, still visible in its walls. The comune authorises eleven of its own places for ceremonies: a former church, palazzo halls giving onto Piazza Duomo, garden courtyards, and an ancient quarry turned garden for open-air ceremonies from April to October.
Best for: couples who want baroque Sicily and a town they can stay in, with the ceremony a short walk from everything.
Palazzo dei Duchi di Santo Stefano, Taormina: the famous one
Taormina is probably the most famous place in Sicily, and its comune's ceremony venue matches the billing: one of the town's finest medieval buildings, a fortified fourteenth-century palazzo in dark lava stone and pale Syracuse limestone, set in its own garden near Porta Catania. It is currently the only location in Taormina authorised for civil ceremonies, and in recent years the palazzo's exhibition programme has taken out much of the summer, so realistic dates sit outside high season and go early. Comune fees across Sicily are modest by wedding standards; Taormina's are the highest of them, and the table below has the figures.
Best for: couples who want history and architecture, Taormina on the doorstep for photographs and celebrations, and a ceremony with real sense of occasion.
Each comune also sets its own calendar. Siracusa takes no weddings the day before or after a public holiday, several towns block certain dates altogether, and outdoor sites are usually open only from April to October. We confirm all of this with the comune in writing before you settle on a date.
What the comuni charge
The legal act is identical everywhere. The fee is not. These are the published rates for non-residents at the comune sites above, current as of August 2026. Most comuni set further rates for Sundays, public holidays and ceremonies outside office hours, and some restrict which Saturdays they will marry you at all. We confirm the rate for your date in writing with the comune before you book.
Private venues the comune has authorised
The second form of casa comunale is a private venue that a comune has formally authorised to host legal ceremonies on its own premises. This is how a legal wedding happens in a garden or on a beach, with the reception in the same place. Here you pay the venue for the hire and the comune for the ceremony. The authorisation needs to be current, so it is worth having someone confirm rather than taking a listing's word for it: many venues advertise a "space for a civil ceremony" when what they mean is a symbolic one. Most of these venues also work to minimum guest numbers, set by the venue rather than the comune, so the table below carries the numbers alongside what each place is.
Thalos, Augusta: a garden estate beneath Etna
Thirty minutes south of Catania airport, Thalos is a private estate of citrus gardens, pools and a stone amphitheatre with Etna on the horizon. In late spring the gardens carry the scent of zagara, the Sicilian orange blossom. The comune of Augusta has accredited Thalos for civil ceremonies, so the legal wedding takes place in the gardens themselves, with the reception following on site. Exclusive hire starts around €3,800; smaller groups can often agree a reduced rate. There is accommodation on site for the wedding party, and the venue works well from spring through autumn.
Best for: couples picturing a garden ceremony with mountain views, a full reception in one place, and easy airport logistics for guests.
Blasé, Marzamemi: a legal ceremony on the beach
Marzamemi is an old fishing village on Sicily's south-eastern tip, a few kilometres from Noto. Blasé sits directly on the sand, and it is authorised by the comune for civil ceremonies, which makes it one of the few places in Sicily where the legal marriage itself can happen barefoot on a beach. It hosts anything from two guests to about a hundred and twenty, with dinner on the terrace and the sunset over the water. Venue hire runs from about €1,000 to €2,300. It is a seasonal venue, open roughly May to September, so it does not suit autumn or winter dates.
Best for: elopements and smaller weddings, couples who want the sea as the setting rather than the backdrop, and summer dates.
Deja vu, Furnari: the beach facing the Aeolian Islands
The beach at Furnari, on the north coast between the promontory of Tindari and Capo Milazzo, looks straight out at the Aeolian Islands. Deja vu sits on the sand with a pine grove behind it and a terrace over the beach, and the comune has made it part of its casa comunale, so the ceremony held there is the official one rather than a symbolic version of it. It hosts weddings from around fifty guests and has a long run of real weddings behind it. Catania airport is about an hour and a half away.
Best for: couples who want a sea-facing ceremony and sunset over islands, with dinner a few steps from the sand.
Villa Garufi, Biancavilla: vows among the vines
On Etna's south-western side, Villa Garufi is ten hectares of vines, olives and citrus with the volcano behind, about fifty minutes from Catania. The estate is convenzionata, under formal agreement with its comune, so a ceremony held among the vines is the legally binding one. Minimums are sixty guests on a weekday and eighty at a weekend, with room for up to two hundred and fifty.
Best for: couples who arrived dreaming of an Etna vineyard wedding and want the ceremony itself there.
Borgata Baldazza, Linguaglossa: an estate in the chestnut woods
An eighteenth-century estate on Etna's northern slopes, just under an hour from Catania: chestnut woodland, gardens, an olive grove, a pool and fifteen rooms, so the heart of the party sleeps where the wedding is. It publishes no minimum number, takes up to about a hundred and seventy guests, and menus start around €100 a head.
Best for: a mountain setting with rooms on site and no minimum to negotiate.
Casa Modò, Riposto: the old wine press
Forty minutes from Catania, between Etna and the sea, Casa Modò is a restored palmento, the old wine-pressing house, now light and modern inside, with a garden, a pool and a winter garden room for cooler months. It takes weddings from twenty guests to about a hundred and eighty, the most flexible range of any venue on this page.
Best for: smaller weddings and elopements that still want the reception on site.
Casale Graffetta, Ispica: open country in Noto's corner of the island
Twenty hectares of countryside in the south-east between Modica and the sea: courtyards, gardens, terraces, olive trees, a pool, and six rooms plus bungalows sleeping a dozen or more on site. It works from fifty guests to about two hundred, with menus among the most reasonable on this page, and Noto, Modica and the baroque south-east are all within reach. About an hour and a half from Catania.
Best for: couples set on the Noto corner who want the legal ceremony and the celebration on one estate.
L'Agorà di Segesta, Calatafimi-Segesta: a Greek temple across the valley
In the hills of western Sicily, about half an hour inland from Alcamo Marina, L'Agorà di Segesta looks across the valley to the Doric temple of Segesta, alone on its hill as it has been for nearly two and a half thousand years, with the ancient theatre above it. The terraces face the temple and the sun sets behind it. It is a larger-numbers venue, from eighty guests up to three hundred and fifty, with gardens, a pool and menus from about €100 a head.
Best for: big weddings that want a view no other country can offer.
Alkamar, Alcamo Marina: a ceremony built on the sand
On the north-west coast between Castellammare del Golfo and Palermo, forty minutes from Palermo airport, the easiest arrival of any beach venue here. Alkamar is a casa comunale on the sea: the ceremony is set up simply on the sand, at the water's edge, with the reception steps away. It works with couples coming from abroad a great deal, and takes weddings from about sixty guests to two hundred and fifty.
Best for: couples who want the barefoot ceremony with the least travel for UK guests.
Palm Beach Banqueting, Casteldaccia: a palm grove east of Palermo
Casteldaccia is about forty-five minutes from Palermo airport. Palm Beach is a casa comunale of Casteldaccia: a sea-view hall opens onto a palm grove, the ceremony is set down by the sand, and a small pier runs out into the water that some couples use for their arrival. It works from about fifty guests up to three hundred.
Best for: bigger celebrations with easy Palermo logistics.
Hotel Club La Playa, Marina di Patti: the whole party under one roof
A beach hotel on the north coast looking out at the Aeolian Islands, with around seventy rooms, so the entire wedding party can stay where the wedding is. Patti's first civil union was celebrated here. It works to a higher minimum than most, from about eighty guests, and Catania airport is about an hour and forty minutes away.
Best for: large weddings where guests staying on site matters most.
At these venues you pay the venue for the hire and the comune a small fee for the ceremony. The guest numbers below are the ones each venue publishes, and a published minimum is rarely the final answer: we negotiate in Italian on your behalf, and minimums set for the local market often move for a foreign wedding, particularly outside high season. We confirm what we agree, and the authorisation itself, in writing before you book.
What the legal route involves
The paperwork is real but manageable with the right guidance:
A certificate of no impediment (CNI), obtained by giving notice at your local register office in the UK. The gov.uk "getting married abroad" service tells each couple their exact route.
A bilingual sworn declaration, a dichiarazione giurata, made before a British solicitor or notary and then legalised. British consulates in Italy no longer issue the nulla osta directly, and the CNI together with this declaration took its place, so most comuni ask for both. The required wording varies, so it is worth getting your comune's own form before instructing a notary.
An apostille on those documents from the FCDO Legalisation Office, then an Italian translation. Apostille first, then translate, so the translation covers the apostille too. Some comuni accept a certified translation, which we can provide ourselves; others require an Italian sworn translation, an asseverazione, sworn before a court, comune or notary in Italy, which we arrange.
A declaration before the registrar in Sicily, in person, a few days to a week before the wedding depending on the comune. The registrar draws up a formal record, the verbale, which you and your interpreter sign. Two British citizens not resident in Italy do not normally have a banns posting in Italy, but if one of you holds Italian citizenship, or either of you lives in Italy, a posting is required and the timings change.
The ceremony itself, conducted in Italian by the registrar, with an interpreter and two witnesses as required by law. The interpreter must be independent: neither of you can interpret at your own wedding, however good your Italian.
An apostille on the Italian marriage certificate so the marriage is recognised in the UK.
This may all sound confusing, but it is entirely doable with the right help on translation, interpreting and bilingual coordination. That is what Married in Sicily is for. We take the Italian side off you, from the first conversation with the comune through to the final apostille, so you get a lovely day and a marriage that is fully legal back home.The paperwork runs comfortably in four to six months, and Italian offices slow down in August, so build that in. Securing the ceremony date is the slower half: popular venues and comune sites go a long way ahead, sometimes a full summer more than a year in advance, so twelve to eighteen months is a sensible run at a sought-after date.None of it is difficult in itself. What catches couples out is the order, the deadlines and the Italian. That is the side Married in Sicily runs for you, from the first email to the comune through to the apostille on your marriage certificate.
How we help
Married in Sicily coordinates the whole process for one fixed fee agreed up front. We are bilingual and UK-based, so the comune correspondence, the document checking, the translations and the Italian side of the day itself are handled directly, not passed through an agency. We are not tied to any one venue or agency, we take no supplier commission, and you pay venues and suppliers directly, so the venue we suggest is simply the one that fits you.If you are weighing symbolic against legal, or want to know whether a particular venue can host a legal ceremony, book a free call and we will give you an answer you can rely on.
Talk it through
Tell us about the wedding you're dreaming of in Sicily. We'll talk through possible locations, the practical challenges and likely cost, so you leave knowing whether a Sicilian wedding is right for the most important day of your lives.
Prefer something quicker? Message us on WhatsApp. We usually reply within a couple of hours, not next week.
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Last updated: June 2026.