Castello La Leccia wedding

La Leccia is a small castle on a hill near Castellina in Chianti, in the middle of the Chianti Classico zone.

The estate makes wine, and the castle has been restored with contemporary interiors behind the medieval walls: tradition outside, clean lines and modern rooms within. Around it there is a courtyard, a reception terrace, an Italian garden, a lemon house with its own garden, a tower garden, a panoramic swimming pool, a wine cellar and a private chapel.

Siena is 38 minutes south and Florence an hour and five north.

The hire takes all of it, and at this size the spaces are used in sequence rather than chosen between.

The castle’s own chapel, holding 45 guests, for a blessing or a symbolic ceremony, with sole use of it on the wedding day inside the hire.

The enclosed courtyard and the terrace beside it, where the aperitivo and the dinner happen.

Formal planting on two sides of the castle, with the lemon house at the end of one of them.

The cellar where the guided tasting happens, and a private spa with a sauna and a steam bath, both inside the hire.

A Castello La Leccia wedding starts from €100,000, and for optimal results we recommend budgeting €150,000 all-in for 30 to 45 guests.

Ten thousand euros a night, over a three-night stay, for all seventeen rooms.

That figure carries the buffet breakfast, a guided visit to the cellar with a tasting of the estate’s organic wines and olive oil, sole use of the chapel on the wedding day, the panoramic pool, the private spa, the parking and daily cleaning.

A further fee under €2,000, covering the porterage on the wedding day, site security until two in the morning, extra housekeeping and restaurant staff, and assistance with the suppliers through the day.

The estate caters a rehearsal dinner or a day-after lunch for up to 45 guests itself: a pizza dinner from €50 a head, a pasta dinner from €50, or a barbecue from €60, with drinks excluded.

Unusually, the estate publishes the list, and it is a clear one: photography and video, the band or DJ, the SIAE music tax, hair and make-up, flowers, transfers, lighting, the planner’s and suppliers’ meals, the delivery and collection of hired equipment, and gazebos in case of bad weather.

That last line matters more than it looks, and the estate deserves credit for printing it rather than letting it emerge later.

Among the spaces listed at La Leccia there is a courtyard, a terrace, two gardens, a lemon house, a cellar and a chapel. There is no dining hall. So the wedding dinner is outdoors, and the wet-weather plan is a structure that someone has to hire, deliver, build and take away.

For a wedding of 45 that is a manageable cost rather than a frightening one, and there are weeks in May and September where the risk is small. But it is a real line in the budget and it is the first thing we price here, because a couple who has budgeted €30,000 of hire and nothing for rain has not finished budgeting.

We always get a gazebo quoted at the same time as the venue, and we put it in the first budget rather than the last.

Two figures in this brochure are 45: the chapel holds 45 guests, and the castle’s own kitchen will cater for up to 45.

The courtyard, the terrace and the Italian garden are seated against the layout rather than to a fixed figure, so the capacities we plan from are the chapel’s and the kitchen’s.

So we plan against 45. For a wedding of 60, we draw the courtyard layout with an outside caterer and agree it with the estate in writing before we promise a couple anything. Thirty-four beds across the castle and the dependance also suggests a party of about this size was the intention.

Thirty-four people in seventeen rooms, in two parts.

The castle itself holds twelve rooms for up to 24 guests, with contemporary interiors and an airy feeling behind the old stone. The dependance adds five modern rooms for ten more, and comes with a large fully furnished kitchen and a sitting room of its own, which makes it the natural choice for an extended family travelling with children.

Thirty-four beds against a wedding of 45 means a handful of guests stay nearby. Castellina, Radda and Siena are all within the half hour, so that is a short transfer rather than a problem.

The castle is at Castello La Leccia, in the comune of Castellina in Chianti, in the province of Siena.

Siena is 38 minutes and Florence city centre an hour and five.

Florence Peretola is an hour and nine by road. Bologna is an hour and 56 and Pisa two hours and two, and both carry more long-haul traffic than Florence.

Perugia is two hours and nine and Rome Fiumicino three hours and 45.

Sitting between Siena and Florence with both inside the hour is the classic Chianti Classico position, and it means the guests who are not sleeping at the castle have a real choice of where to stay.

A small castle, an all-in nightly figure, and dinner in the open air.

The gazebo is not in the hire, and there is no dining hall.

The estate names it on the not-included list and there is no dining hall among the spaces. We get a structure quoted at the shortlist stage so the budget is honest from the beginning.

Forty-five is the number the castle is built around.

The chapel seats 45 and the kitchen caters to 45. For any list larger than that, we agree the courtyard’s seated layout with the estate in writing before the list is drawn.

The dependance is a house rather than a corridor.

Five rooms with their own kitchen and sitting room is a house rather than a corridor, and it solves the problem of small children, early bedtimes and a party running late in the courtyard.

The cellar tour is already inside the hire.

The guided visit and the tasting of the estate’s wines and oil are already inside the hire. Rather than buying a separate welcome evening, we build the arrival night around something that costs nothing extra.

Magic Day plans weddings at Castello La Leccia from the first conversation to the final farewell. That means the three nights of sole use and the wedding fee priced as one venue line, a gazebo quoted alongside them rather than after, the seated capacity of the courtyard confirmed in writing, the chapel held for the blessing, the cellar tour used as the welcome event, the castle’s own kitchen booked for the rehearsal dinner and the day after, an outside caterer appointed and briefed for the wedding itself, the dependance allocated to the family with children, the SIAE licence settled, and the 2027 rates re-confirmed before signature.

We have worked Tuscany for years. Tell us the dates you are considering and how many people are coming, and we will tell you what the nights come to.