The wildest and most intense corner of Italy, an island of baroque golden towns, a smoking volcano, and the cliff-top glamour of Taormina above a sea that is never far. A Sicilian wedding runs hotter and more dramatic than the mainland, with Greek temples, Etna wines, and a warmth that stretches the season well past summer.
Italy recognises civil unions, not same-sex marriage, so a same-sex wedding in Sicily is a symbolic ceremony, and couples make the legal marriage at home or in a marriage-equality country (nearby Spain or Portugal are common). Opposite-sex couples can hold a legally binding civil marriage here. Either way, the celebration is yours; only the paperwork has a postcode.
It is the most cinematic and the most intense wedding in Italy. The island offers three quite different stages: the cliff-top glamour of Taormina with Etna smoking behind it, the honey-coloured baroque towns of the southeast, and the wineries on the volcano's black slopes. The heat and the drama are the point, and the season runs long, so weddings in late September and October still feel like summer. Outside Taormina it also costs noticeably less than the famous northern regions.
Three corners of the region pull in slightly different directions. None is more correct than another; they are simply moods. The three below are the ones worth knowing first.
We are mapping Sicily sub-area by sub-area, from Taormina to the baroque southeast to Etna. Be first as each one opens, with the honest legal notes that come with it.
The quiz reads your taste and points you to the regions, and the kind of ceremony, that fit you.