Where you can legally marry on Lake Maggiore

This page covers four comuni on the Piedmont shore of Lake Maggiore that legally marry couples who live abroad: Stresa, Verbania, Arona and Baveno. Each comune (the local council) has its own villas, halls and gardens, its own fees and its own rules. They are examples only: most comuni on both shores hold civil weddings for couples from abroad, and venues, fees and days change from year to year.

A legal wedding in Italy has to take place somewhere the comune has approved: one of its own buildings or gardens, or an outside venue it has authorised, such as a villa or hotel. Everything below is on a comune’s approved list, so a wedding there is legal and counts at home.

Isola dei Pescatori: the fishermen’s island off Stresa

Stresa marries couples on Isola dei Pescatori, one of the three Borromean Islands and the one with a working fishing village. The outdoor setting is the coda, the narrow tip of the island, where the comune sets out a table, two armchairs for the couple and about 30 white chairs facing the water; you can also rent 40 square metres there for a buffet. If it rains, the ceremony moves into the comune’s sala on the island, which seats about 15.

For couples who live elsewhere, the comune charges €750 on the island on a weekday in office hours, €1,250 on a weekday outside them, and €1,750 at weekends (2022 tariff, still the one the comune publishes). Stresa marries on Saturdays from 10:00 to 17:00 and on Sundays until noon. Couples from abroad need a certificate of no impediment (the nulla osta), and if you need an interpreter, they sign an oath at the comune a few days before the wedding, so the two of you and your interpreter need to be in Stresa a few days ahead.

Isola Bella and Isola Madre, the two islands with the Borromeo palaces and gardens, are not on Stresa’s list of approved places.

Stresa: the municipio and two villas

On the mainland, Stresa holds weddings in the Sala del Sindaco in the municipio, a historic hall that holds about 30, for €500 in office hours, €1,000 on a weekday outside them and €1,750 at weekends (same tariff). The comune has also approved two private villas in Stresa, Villa Frua and Villa Muggia, where you can marry and stay on for the reception. They follow the island’s fee scale, with the villa’s own charge on top.

Verbania: Villa Giulia and three smaller settings

Verbania is across the bay from the islands. Villa Giulia, the comune’s 19th-century villa on the Pallanza waterfront, costs couples who live elsewhere €1,500 (2024 tariff).

The comune also holds weddings in the municipio in Pallanza for €500, and for €600 in the Museo del Paesaggio, a landscape museum in Pallanza’s old centre, or in Villa Maioni, the library villa in Intra (all 2024 tariff). The date is agreed with the registrar, subject to the venue being free. The fee is paid 30 days before the wedding, and the witnesses’ details are due ten days before.

Villa Taranto, with its botanical gardens, is not on Verbania’s list.

Arona: the park of the Rocca Borromea

At the southern end of the Piedmont shore, Arona marries couples in the park of the Rocca Borromea, the ruined Borromeo fortress on the hill above the town, which looks across the water to the Rocca di Angera on the opposite shore. The ceremony is in a garden area by default, with an indoor hall for up to 50 as the wet-weather option, or by choice.

The comune charges couples who live elsewhere €500 during office hours and €800 outside them (comune page, August 2026). There is one wedding a day, between 10:00 and 18:00, and none on Mondays, when the Rocca is closed. For the garden, the couple brings everything, from the registrar’s table to the chairs and any gazebo.

Baveno: the municipio and its garden

Baveno, just north of Stresa, marries couples in its municipio: the Sala del Sindaco, the council chamber, or the building’s garden, with the council chamber as the wet-weather option. The comune can also send the registrar to other approved locations outside the municipio for up to two hours. The comune confirms its fee when you book.

Baveno takes requests at least 30 days ahead, holds no more than two ceremonies a day, and allows one Sunday a month in place of that week’s Saturday. Rice and confetti are banned, with a €150 cleaning charge.

What these have in common

In every case the registrar conducts the ceremony in Italian, and if either of you does not speak Italian, the law requires an interpreter, who cannot be one of you. The paperwork you need depends on your nationality and is the same whichever comune you choose, and on Lake Maggiore the documents or the request need to reach the comune about 30 days before the date. What changes from one comune to the next is the setting, the price, the days it marries and how far ahead it takes bookings. The outdoor settings on this page are the tip of Isola dei Pescatori, the garden of the Rocca Borromea at Arona and the garden of Baveno’s municipio.

If one of these places is the one you are picturing, or you have somewhere else on the lake in mind, book a call or message us on WhatsApp with your date and roughly how many guests, and we will find out what the comune there can offer.

Checked October 2026.

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