Castello della Castelluccia wedding

The castle was raised in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on the ruins of an imperial Roman villa, and its stone tower still stands over the whole complex.

For eight centuries it passed between noble families. The Muti lived here, pilgrims on the way to Rome slept here, and Pope Pius VII and Queen Christina of Sweden were both guests. Beneath the garden lie the tufa caves of the old Roman villa.

Restoration finished in March 2002, when the castle reopened as a hotel of 21 rooms, each furnished differently in antique style.

It is a four-star hotel with the scale of a house.

A Castello della Castelluccia wedding moves through the castle in the order it was built: the square first, then the terraces, then the garden above the caves, and indoors only when the night asks for it.

The small square at the foot of the tower, round a stone fountain. This is where guests arrive and where we pour the welcome drink, with the tower lit above them.

Shaded by centuries-old magnolias and looking over the castle’s park, the terrace takes the aperitivo and the symbolic ceremony, with the evening light coming across it.

The hanging garden is built over the tufa caves, with the castle on one side and the Veio park valley on the other. It takes the seated dinner on a dry night. At its centre a seventeenth-century stone rose window lies flat in the lawn, and it becomes the dance floor.

The banqueting hall, with wooden floors, a coffered ceiling and wrought-iron chandeliers. It is the rain plan for dinner and the room the party moves into after midnight.

Stone walls, a vaulted terracotta ceiling and a large fireplace. We use it for the aperitivo in the cooler months and for the last hours of dancing in summer.

A Castello della Castelluccia wedding starts from €150,000, and for optimal results we recommend budgeting €250,000 all-in for 80 to 120 guests.

The castle prices a weekend rather than a day. Its spaces come to just under €12,000 to just under €15,000 with VAT, depending on whether the wedding takes two days or three.

Catering is the castle’s own, and every menu is costed per head: the wedding dinner from just under €160, the welcome dinner and the farewell pizza party or pool brunch for considerably less. The hire runs for six hours on the day, and we add the hours after that to the budget from the start.

Outside the castle’s figures sit the flowers, the music, the lighting, the photographers and the transport. They are most of the difference between the venue and the all-in figure.

Music outside stops at midnight.

That is the castle’s rule: after twelve the volume comes down and the party moves indoors, so the hotel’s other rooms can sleep. Inside, in the Salone delle Feste and the Locanda, the evening carries on for as long as the hours have been bought.

We design the night around that move. Dinner and the first dances in the garden, the band’s loudest set before twelve, then a quieter second room that is already lit and stocked when the guests walk in.

The castle has 21 rooms and suites, sleeping up to 50, and a semi-Olympic pool in the park.

The rooms are blocked from a minimum of five up to all 21, and the couple’s suite comes with the wedding. On a three-day weekend we take every room, so the families, the wedding party and the closest friends sleep on site.

Everyone else stays in Rome, 28 minutes away, and comes out by coach.

The pool is sold to day visitors in summer unless it is booked privately for a pool brunch. We decide it at signature, because the farewell day depends on it.

The castle stands on Via Carlo Cavina, in the La Storta district on the north-west edge of Rome, inside the comune but out among fields, on the edge of the Veio regional park.

Piazza Venezia is 28 minutes by road, St Peter’s 25 and Roma Termini 29. Bracciano and its lake are 37 minutes north.

Rome Fiumicino is 28 minutes away and carries direct flights from the United States and the United Kingdom, so long-haul guests land within half an hour of the castle. Ciampino, for European flights, is 31 minutes.

We prefer Fiumicino for every guest who can use it. Ciampino sits on the far side of the city, and the ring road between them is unpredictable on a Friday evening.

The castle is a hotel with a wedding kitchen, and the details that matter are the ones about time.

Midnight decides the running order.

Outdoor music ends at twelve, so we bring the cake and the first dance forward and make the move indoors an event in itself, rather than letting the evening drain out of the garden.

Six hours go quickly.

The castle’s hire covers six hours on the day, and a long aperitivo eats into them. We set the overtime in the first budget, so nobody watches the clock at eleven.

The castle’s kitchen is the only kitchen.

Outside food and drink come in only with the castle’s consent. The cake, the pizza and the late-night stations all come from its own kitchen and pastry room, so we build the whole menu with the castle’s chefs, from the welcome dinner to the farewell brunch.

The legal ceremony happens in the city.

The castle sits inside the comune of Rome, so the legal ceremony happens at the Campidoglio and the symbolic one at the castle. We hold the Campidoglio on the Friday morning and the castle ceremony on the Saturday afternoon.

Magic Day plans weddings at Castello della Castelluccia from the first conversation to the final farewell, for 60 guests or for 180. The castle provides its spaces for the weekend, its 21 rooms and its own catering, and that is where its part ends. The flowers, the music and the lighting fall to the planner, along with the photographers, the legal ceremony at the Campidoglio, the guest hotels in Rome and the coaches out to La Storta.

What we know from working the castle is the shape of its night. The garden holds until midnight, the party moves inside after it, and every hour past the sixth is bought before the evening rather than during it. We also know the pool is shared unless it is booked, and that a three-day weekend comes together when every room in the castle is taken.

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