Getting married in Cortona

Cortona charges residents nothing at all — every setting, every day. For non-residents it publishes a full table:

There are reductions where the couple's parents live in Cortona — €400 in the council chamber on a Saturday morning, for example.

On top sits the stamp duty: one €16 *marca da bollo* for the banns if both of you live in Cortona, and two — €32 — if one of you lives elsewhere.

For comparison, Florence charges non-residents €2,500 to €5,100. For a small wedding where fixed costs are a large share of the budget, that difference is not a detail. The full table is in our cost guide.

Cortona is built up a slope, and the difference in level between the bottom of the town and the top is considerable. Streets are stone, often stepped, and frequently steep enough to be hard work in formal shoes.

This matters for a wedding in a way it does not for a holiday. Older guests, anyone with a mobility difficulty, and everyone in heels will feel it. Plan the day so that people are not asked to climb between the ceremony and the reception, and arrange transport within the town rather than assuming a five-minute walk.

Say so in the invitation, too. Guests who know to bring flat shoes are guests who enjoy the evening.

The town is served by Camucia-Cortona station, in the valley below, on the line between Florence and Rome — which makes Cortona reachable by train from either city.

One caveat worth passing on: RFI describes Camucia-Cortona as a "stazione senza servizio di assistenza alle persone con disabilità e a ridotta mobilità" — a station with no assistance for passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility. It has two platforms, no lifts to them, no raised boarding platforms and no tactile guidance paths. For guests who need help, arrange a car from a larger station instead.

Florence and Pisa are the nearest airports, with Rome an alternative depending on where guests are flying from. From the station, the town is a climb — by car or taxi, not on foot with luggage.

A small walled town with Etruscan foundations, Renaissance churches and a main square that fills with people in the evening. It has been well known to English-speaking visitors since the 1990s, so it is neither undiscovered nor overwhelmed — the crowds are real in high summer and thin quickly outside it.

The view is the reason people stay. The town looks west across the Valdichiana, which makes for long evening light and, for a wedding, a genuinely striking backdrop that does not require leaving the walls.

Compared with Montepulciano, the other hill town in this corner, Cortona is larger, better connected and cheaper to marry in.

The regional pattern applies — driest and hottest in July and August, most comfortable in May and early June, wetter in September and October. See our best months guide.

Altitude helps a little in summer, and the town catches the evening breeze. But the climb is harder in heat, so a July wedding here should put the ceremony late in the day and provide water and shade for anyone waiting outdoors.

The comune's settings, from the registry office to the Fortezza Medicea, at the fees above.

Small historic venues inside the walls, suited to dinners rather than large parties.

Country estates and agriturismi in the Valdichiana below the town, which is where larger weddings generally take place, with Cortona as the ceremony setting and the backdrop.

Vineyard properties in the surrounding hills.

The venues guide covers what to ask; Arezzo is the nearest city.