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The
Perfect Hideaway for
Weddings In Italy
Weddings in Southern Italy - An Essay on
This Region
It boasts three
Greek temples rivaling the Acropolis; Roman
ruins;
Saracen
watchtowers; one of the world’s largest monasteries;
Italy’s
most pristine fishing villages;
Capri-like cliffs and landscapes; the food and wine of
Italy, still authentic;
miles of
golden, and black volcanic beaches;
idyllic inns and hotels,
and a
way of
life that was lost in Europe fifty years ago.
Yet, amidst the world’s most visited country, it is undiscovered,
unspoiled - making it a very special destination for Southern Italy
Weddings.
A Very Special Location for
Weddings in Southern Italy
Picturing the region’s
sensuality takes mental gymnastics. Take a deep breath.
Slowly imagine the mountains of Colorado back-dropping California’s Big
Sur, both hewn-out, towed and packaged into tranquil and crystal blue
Mediterranean seas. In your image, locate the peaks and
cliffs most inhospitable for construction and carefully stroke in a few
precariously hanging medieval villages. Dot in an Saracen
watchtower quilted in red, purple and fuchsia Bougainvilleas, still
stubbornly guarding against brigantines and pillaging pirates. Add a
sumptuous, sinful, sea-edged Mediterranean villa - just to jealous over,
a perfect wedding in Italy venue.
Gently work-in a vineyard, a gnarly ancient olive grove with its peasant
and grumpy donkey toiling under sun. Border your picture with
majestic Mediterranean Cypress trees, reflecting in coves and bays.
Now, close your eyes.
Soak-in the distant shepherd playing penny whistle to contented sheep
and goats. Sit on cliffs listening to lappings of gentle waves in
the tide-less sea below; and to cow bells echoing through steep
mountain passes and gorges – every note noted jerkily by every ear of
every guarding dog.
Relax your nostrils and
breath, savoring orange and lemon blossoms and their equally perfumed
leaves left nightly on pillow’s edge; breath deeply savoring the intense
sweet fragrances of jasmine, lavender, and the purple wisteria that
soften and hue the harsh grey ancient stones of tumbling cottage and
castle walls.
Keep those eyes closed. Bite
into dawn-fresh wood-oven breads of 80 different villages, each named
and claimed and famed as Italy’s best - all crunchily and nuttily
delicious. Sip a new wine – a vino locale, far far from
Italy’s best, but still divine - and sulfur-free. Stroll the countless
vineyards and orchards or meander morning markets feeling, touching,
poking, prodding the lucent moist softness of the day’s produce - if
they are not in season, they are not there.
Peer into your eyelids.
See the endless rows of two acre toiled-over “farms”, bequeathed to the
last sons of last sons of family black-sheep – some with ancient ruined
homesteads and barns that I pine to see resurrected and living and
red-tiled and mossy roofed again. Peer again! See the
black-garbed, stiff-backed, sun-dried peasant’s wife or widow with load
on head. Say “Buongiorno”. See the toothless smile.
To repeat, it is one of the
most stunningly beautiful, and historically and culturally significant
corners of the world. It is romance, it oozes romance.
See the region - ideal for
Southern
Italy Weddings.
Ask the Italian government,
ask the United Nations (UNESCO), ask the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Or better, ask Hemingway. No one picked the undiscovered or
hideaway quite like Hemingway. Little has changed since his sojourn to
the
fishing village of Acciaroli. This region is so goddamn
profoundly beautiful and culturally significant they are all, except
maybe Hemingway, tripping over each other to “protect and preserve”.
And who knows about Hemingway. The Italian government has created
not one but two national parks – the
Cilento
and
the
Pollino. The Cilento is an eco-sphere of nature and
human-living. It is eighty odd mountain and coastal villages
privileged with seas and beaches and cliffs. It is the “sister
city” of Yellowstone. The remote mountains of the Pollino shelter
one of Italy’s last wolf packs.
UNESCO has designated
numerous spots as World Heritage Sites. The Cilento is
“designated”. As is Paestum with three magnificent Greek temples,
which unlike even the Acropolis are so in-tact leaving little architecturally
to the imagination, but overwhelming the senses and demanding endless
rhetorical whys and hows. Its museum hosts 2500 years of Greek
and Roman history and few guests. Paestum is not “in”, like
the rest of the region. Tourists pass it by driving twelve hours
more to Sicily’s “ordinary” Agrigento. Thousands fly
over it to Athens to see much the same except blasted by excessive
noise, construction, hawker rudeness, and lung robbing pollution.
Yet, an hour away from Paestum there is Pompei, Herculaneum, Capri,
Sorrento, and the jewels of the Amalfi coast - Positano, Ravello,
and Amalfi. Three hours north is Rome.
The WWF has designated as
“Oases”
the wetlands of Persano,
the caverns
at Morigerati, and the gorges and bridges of
Gole del Calore. Persano is one of the four or
five “fly parks” in Italy for birds as they migrate between Northern
Europe and Africa. It is home to Italy’s rarest otter.
The caverns of Morigerati
are among the finest in Europe. Bring a flashlight and good
walking shoes, then later drop in on the three old baronesses in their
“castle” just behind the church. We did - no call, no
letter, no 3rd party reference, no sets of encyclopedias for
sale
under the arm, not even a knock at the door - just a “Permesso!”
shouted with a heavy push of the medieval door. Then a wonderful
welcome. Of course, we were fronted with a pushy Swedish lady.
Some advice for prospective visitors - find that Swedish lady.
There is not a door that she felt was not inviting her in. And,
there was not a door that did not welcome her in. What a way
we grabbed life – from three less embarrassing steps behind her.
Gole del Calore
(throats of the river Heat). The river Calore, greedy to get to
the sea, rips and tears gullies and gorges (throats) from soft sandstone
mountains. Man never adds to nature’s beauty, but see the
three ancient stone bridges straddling the angry river – as natural and
as beautiful as nature herself.
Paestum is the northern
portal to the region. The southern portal is the hill-town
of Maratea
with it’s
enormous and tacky statue of Christ
perched high above the sea, literally back-turned on those brave
seafarers fighting anchovies in a catatonic Mediterranean sea.
Maratea’s Christ might be tacky, but I never fail to risk life peering
up at it while careening the serpentine cliff-suspended coastal road.
There is not a more beautiful coastline in the world. It is the
Amalfi, untouched, unspoiled, un-ruined, un-crowded, un-populated,
un-visited. It is the Amalfi as the Greeks found it – but with the
Christ. Maratea has forty four churches and three streets.
It is the picture perfect fairytale town - spires and ancient red roofs
-
just made for a room with a view.
Just down the road on the
coast is Acquafredda! It is a delightful mix of Italian hill-town,
Italian fishing village, and English country village. Unlike the
typical Italian village, tree lined roads edged with picket fences,
cottages, and villas meander above high steep cliffs. A softness and
gentleness pervades in contrast to the harsh stone, closed in against
the enemy confines of the typical hill-town.
Along the coast lies
Scario.
Its lungomare (sea promenade) pops from a painting, pops from the base
of mount Bulgheria. Perfect. Pristine. It is the south’s
Portofino - without the tourist spoilage.
And, of course, there are
the
beaches.
The region’s seventy miles of coasts host beaches of black-volcanic, and
golden sands. The water is gentle, blue and clear - every beach
surrounded by soaring cliffs or high mountains. Many are
reached only by
boat or helicopter.
“Blow You Away With Choice”
Wedding in Italy
Venues &
Packages
Do want
a hill-top church, seaside church, a mountain top church, a 12th
century cathedral, a small simple private church in a castle, or
ancient hill town basilica? The region has many hundreds of
churches from which to choose. Or, do you want a beautiful spot in
an Italian garden, at the edge of cliffs, on a mountains, on a beach, or
on an ancient sail boat?
Do want to get there by limousine or
car, ancient fishing boat, on foot, on horse back, or helicopter?
How about a fifteen course
banquet with elegant tables and settings, or a small intimate dinner by
candlelight in the mountains or by the sea or in a quaint village plaza,
or a garden buffet, or perhaps just an Italian sandwich and
$3 bottle of wine sitting on the beach?
Perhaps a wonderfully romantic
hideaway inn, or a
13th century castle,
perfect for a castle wedding in Italy, with private
chapel perched on a rock overlooking the sea; a beautiful
villa wedding in Italy, e.g.,
with 13 seaside
acres of Mediterranean coast with luxury villa and its own 17th
century honeymoon tower; a five berth antique sail boat; or even
a private party-beach with honeymoon cottage? Or just a
fun
hotel with action? Let us design the perfect destination wedding package
in Italy for you, in the wedding venue of your choice - we offer
the greatest choice of Italy wedding venues.
On-Location
Wedding Planners Italy & Management You Can
Trust?
Great wedding arrangements
demand great communication . Great communication from your
wedding planner in Italy demands more than a
common language, it demands shared cultural experiences.
For example, here in Italy the focus of the wedding reception is
food. It’s not music, nor is it dancing. US guests at a wedding
with no or inappropriate music or no dancing would be appalled. Place
cards are highly unusual for Italy weddings. Italians learn from birth their exact place
at any table and do not need place cards. Naked shoulders would
have some, but not all local priests running off the alter, as would
certain pieces of church music well accepted in the US and UK.
So the biggest event of your life could easily be marred without anyone
explicitly “screwing-up” - just lacking pertinent knowledge of the two
cultures. Shared cultural experiences with your
wedding consultant is a must. Local knowledge, as for golf, is
critical to the wedding business.
“Blow
you away with choice”, demands that the planning, consulting
and managing of weddings is done by someone with lengthy and
current experience of the local region. There must be
knowledge of and a strong relationship between your wedding planner and
wedding service vendors, local laws and government officials, and
the officiants.
To understand how much
choice we offer check out the following:
Finally, destination weddings
in Italy are best planned and managed by people who are physically in the destination area and who have lived in the
US and the UK for numerous years.
For
its
wedding planners in Italy,
Slow Dreams only employs
British & North Americans living in the local area.
Begin your new life with us with a wedding in the
South of Italy.
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reset March, 5 2005
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