Where you can legally marry in Siena and the hill towns nearby

This page covers Siena and four hill towns within an hour of it that legally marry couples who live abroad: San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Montepulciano and Castellina in Chianti. Each comune (the local council) sets its own settings, fees and hours. These five are examples: most comuni in the province of Siena 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: its own buildings, courtyards and 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.

Siena: the Palazzo Pubblico on the Campo

Siena’s comune marries couples inside the Palazzo Pubblico, its medieval palazzo on Piazza del Campo, which also houses the Museo Civico. The Sala del Concistoro has a ceiling frescoed by Domenico Beccafumi and a marble doorway attributed to Rossellino, and holds 50. For a couple from abroad it costs €700 on a weekday or a Saturday and €1,200 on a public holiday (2019 tariff, republished by the comune in October 2024).

Higher up, the Loggia dei Nove is the palazzo’s fourteenth-century open loggia, looking over Piazza del Mercato to the countryside: an outdoor setting under a roof, for up to 80 at €1,500. The Sala del Mappamondo, with Simone Martini’s Maestà on the wall, costs €5,000 whoever you are, needs separate permission from the heritage authority, stays open to museum visitors while you marry and allows no music.

Siena marries every day of the week, from 10:30 to 18:00 between March and October and until 17:00 in winter. Each ceremony lasts up to 30 minutes, with the hall yours for half an hour either side. There are no weddings from 26 June to 4 July, around the July Palio, or from 10 to 18 August. Rice is thrown outside the main door only, and confetti and petals are not allowed anywhere in the building. A lift takes up to 15 guests if you book it a week ahead.

Siena beyond the Campo: a library, a theatre and medieval fountains

The comune has other settings across the city. The historic reading hall of the Biblioteca degli Intronati, the city library, costs €1,000 and marries on weekdays and Saturday mornings. Palazzo Patrizi, on the same days, holds 50 and costs €400. The foyer of the Teatro dei Rinnovati costs €1,500, and the Fonti di Pescaia, medieval fountains in the open air, €2,000.

The comune has also authorised four private venues, where its own fee is €500 and the venue charges separately: Le Volte di Vicobello, the Grand Hotel Continental, Palazzo de’ Vecchi and Villa Scacciapensieri. All of Siena’s fees on this page come from the same tariff.

San Gimignano: Dante’s hall and a cloister garden

San Gimignano holds weddings in the Palazzo Comunale, beside the Torre Grossa. The Sala di Dante is named after the poet, who spoke here as an envoy from Florence in 1300. The palazzo’s courtyard is the open-air option in the same building, and the former Conservatorio di Santa Chiara, now a museum, offers the Sala Fieschi, its exhibition halls and an inner garden.

When you are both foreign citizens, the comune charges €1,100 for the Sala di Dante or Santa Chiara and €1,300 for the courtyard (tariff set November 2025). Weddings are on days that are not public holidays, from 09:30 to 14:00 between April and September and from 11:00 to 14:00 in winter; other days and times are by request to the comune. Photographs and filming during the ceremony need a separate request form.

Monteriggioni: inside the walled ring

Monteriggioni is a thirteenth-century ring of walls and towers on a hill north of Siena. The comune’s tourism office lists the Sala Dante Alighieri inside the walls for about 40, and three comune gardens within the walls for between 25 and 80. Below the hill, the abbey hamlet of Abbadia Isola has a cloister and the Sala Ildebrando, for about 100. Monteriggioni does not publish its wedding fee online; the comune confirms it.

Montepulciano: a fortress garden and a lake

Montepulciano’s comune holds weddings in the Palazzo Comunale’s council chamber, which looks onto Piazza Grande, and in its Sala della Giunta and cloister; in the inner cloister of the Fortezza and a gazebo in its garden; in the Teatro Poliziano and the civic art gallery; and outdoors by the Lago di Montepulciano nature reserve, below the town.

The fee for a couple who live elsewhere is a flat €1,000 for every venue and every slot, Saturdays and holidays included, plus €100 for cleaning anywhere outside the Palazzo Comunale (2025 tariff). The comune has a named member of staff who shows couples the settings.

Castellina in Chianti: a tower in the Chianti hills

Castellina marries couples in the Rocca, the medieval fortified tower on Piazza del Comune, in the Sala del Capitano, the council chamber or the inner courtyard. For a couple who live elsewhere it costs €600 on a weekday and €800 at weekends, with €100 off if you stay overnight in the comune (2026 tariff). The comune also authorises historic houses and agriturismi in the hills as wedding venues, at €1,000 on a weekday and €1,200 at weekends plus the venue’s own charge.

Saturday weddings are from 10:00 to 12:00 or 16:00 to 18:00, and Sunday weddings in the morning only. The piazza is inside the limited traffic zone, so cars need a permit from the municipal police.

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, not on the comune.

The outdoor settings on this page are Siena’s Loggia dei Nove and the Fonti di Pescaia, San Gimignano’s courtyard and Santa Chiara garden, the gardens and cloister at Monteriggioni, the Fortezza garden and lakeside in Montepulciano, and the Rocca courtyard in Castellina. What changes from one comune to the next is the setting, the price, the days it marries and how far ahead it takes bookings.

If one of these places is the one you are picturing, or you have another Tuscan hill town 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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