Borgo Corsignano wedding

Corsignano is a hamlet on seventy-five acres at Poppi, in the Casentino, the forested valley that runs north-east from Arezzo towards the Apennines.

This is a different Tuscany from the one on the postcards. The hills are wooded rather than bare, the valley holds Camaldoli and La Verna, and Poppi below has the castle of the Conti Guidi on its ridge.

The estate itself is a restored farm hamlet: stone buildings around courtyards, two outdoor pools, a spa, a fitness room, a private chapel, landscaped gardens, an amphitheatre and a lake.

The estate is hired whole, and it has more named spaces than one wedding day can use, so each part of the weekend gets its own.

The largest reception hall, an open space on two floors for up to 200, with an outdoor area and a fully equipped professional kitchen for the caterer.

A glass orangery with indoor and outdoor space, and the most adaptable room on the estate. La Limonaia del tango is a separate room, indoors only.

A barn turned ballroom, and a second ballroom that opens to the sky, with a covered section. Il Cielo Stellato belongs to the hours before midnight, and Il Fienile carries the dancing after it.

Three ceremony settings, the second with a covered terrace beside it for the drinks afterwards.

A terrace above the pools, a natural amphitheatre and a lake area, for the parts of a wedding weekend that are not the wedding.

Il Granaio, La Limonaia and Il Fienile are the three halls the estate sets aside as indoor alternatives, with Il Cielo Stellato as a further ballroom.

We treat the Granaio as the plan rather than the fallback. It holds up to 200, more than the estate’s limit of 150, so the whole wedding comes under one roof. A banqueting hall with a professional kitchen behind it is a good dinner room in any weather.

A Borgo Corsignano wedding starts from €300,000, and for optimal results we recommend budgeting €450,000 all-in for 100 to 150 guests.

Sole use runs from €50,000 to €70,000 with VAT, and breakfast is included. April, May and October take two or three nights, and June to September three.

That takes the 43 bedrooms, the three reception halls, the ballroom, the chapel, both pools, the spa, the fitness area, the security guards and the whole seventy-five acres.

Brought in. The estate keeps a list of preferred caterers, and a company from outside that list is approved in advance and works to the estate’s guidelines.

The caterer uses the estate’s professional kitchens for a single fee of €610. A caterer feeding 150 from a real kitchen rather than a van produces a different dinner.

The food on every day, the flowers, the lighting, the music, the furniture and the planner. Check-in is between two and six in the afternoon and check-out before ten.

Outdoor music stops at midnight.

Indoors the party carries on, with the music brought down to a moderate level by two in the morning at the latest. The pools and the spa close at seven in the evening.

So the night runs in two halves at Borgo Corsignano. Dinner and the first dances outside, then the walk into Il Fienile or the Granaio at twelve, with the second set already lit when the guests arrive.

Borgo Corsignano accommodation is 43 double bedrooms, in 16 apartments and eight suites, sleeping 86, all en-suite and air-conditioned, with breakfast included in the hire.

They are spread through the hamlet’s stone buildings rather than along a corridor, which suits a three-night stay. The suites are for adults only and no extra beds go in, so families take the apartments.

The estate holds 150 at dinner but sleeps 86, so a guest list of 150 leaves about 64 people off the estate. We take room blocks early in Poppi and Bibbiena, or in Arezzo for a larger overflow, and run coaches back down the valley at the end of the night.

The estate is at Corsignano di Sotto, in the comune of Poppi, in the province of Arezzo, in the Casentino valley.

Florence city centre is an hour and six and the airport an hour and 19.

Florence Peretola is an hour and 19 by road, Bologna two hours and 13 and Pisa two hours and 27. Rome Fiumicino is three hours and 48.

Siena is an hour and 57, which is further than Florence and catches people out: this is the Arezzo side of Tuscany, not the Siena side.

Camaldoli and La Verna up the valley, with the castle at Poppi below, give the guests something to do that is not a vineyard.

A whole valley estate, four halls, and every meal of the stay to plan.

Cater every day.

Takeaways and deliveries are unknown in this part of the Casentino, and the apartment kitchens are not set up for cooking. We build the full catering schedule, arrival dinner to farewell brunch, at the shortlisting stage.

Bring the ice.

The fridges at Borgo Corsignano have no ice makers. It is a small line on the caterer’s sheet, and we never leave it off.

Two nights in May, three in September.

The shoulder months take a two-night stay at the bottom of the range, and the summer months three at the top. May in the Casentino is pleasant, and the saving pays for a photographer and a band.

The civil ceremony is on the estate.

Borgo Corsignano is an official municipal venue, so the legal ceremony happens on the estate rather than at a town hall down the valley.

Magic Day plans weddings at Borgo Corsignano from the first conversation to the final farewell, for 80 guests or for 150. The estate hosts: the hamlet, the 43 bedrooms, the halls and the gardens for two or three nights. It asks every couple to bring a wedding planner, present for the whole event, because everything else comes from outside.

That means the caterer chosen from the estate’s list or approved from beyond it, every meal of the stay, the flowers, the music, the lighting, the marquee or fireworks cleared with the estate in advance, the civil ceremony prepared with the comune, and rooms down the valley for the guests who do not sleep on the estate.

What we know from working the estate is the shape of the stay: a caterer booked for every day, the ice on the caterer’s sheet, and the move indoors at midnight planned before the band is hired.

Tell us the dates you are considering and how many people are coming, and we will tell you what the nights come to.