Borgo di Recenza: A Woodland Wedding in the Val di Merse, Near Siena
Most Tuscan weddings happen on open hilltops, in vineyards beneath a wide sky. A wedding at Borgo di Recenza ends somewhere different: among the trees. Tucked into the Val di Merse, one of the quietest and most wooded corners of the Sienese countryside, this is an estate where the celebration can finish with dancing in the woods, lights strung between the trunks and the forest closing softly around you. I'm Francesco Caroli, an Italian wedding photographer, and as a wedding photographer in Tuscany I'm always drawn to places that offer something other than the postcard. For a destination wedding in Tuscany with the hush and shade of the forest rather than the glare of the open hills, Recenza is a genuine discovery.
You feel the seclusion on the way in. The estate is reached by several kilometres of unpaved white road through the woods of the Val di Merse, across an old iron bridge over the river Merse itself. By the time you arrive, the modern world has fallen away entirely — which, for a wedding, is exactly the point. This is a place to disappear into for a few days with the people you love.
An Etruscan Settlement, a Manor of Fake Windows
Recenza's history is remarkably deep. It began as an ancient Etruscan settlement, its presence first recorded around the year 1000, and it appears by name in the Statute of the Municipality of Siena in 1262. The borgo grew up around the Pieve di San Giovanni Battista — one of the earliest parish churches in the Val di Merse, mentioned in a papal bull as far back as 1189. At its centre stands a manor house of Lombard origin, transformed during the Renaissance into a villa and, at the end of the 18th century, owned by the governor of Siena in Napoleon's time, who gave it the elegant neoclassical façade it wears today.
That façade hides a charming quirk I love to point out: it is composed of alternating real and false windows, a piece of 18th-century theatre, with two opposing flights of stairs once linking the stately home to its farm. The Ministry of Cultural Heritage has called it a rare and well-preserved example of a late-18th-century farmhouse villa, and formally listed it as a historic home. You stay among genuine history here, not a reproduction of it.
Do you want a wedding under an open sky, or one held in the arms of a forest?
The woodland setting gives a day a completely different mood — softer, more intimate, more cinematic. It is the kind of atmosphere I love to capture on film.
See how I film a Tuscan weddingTwo Places, One Estate: Where You Marry and Where You Stay
A wedding here unfolds across two parts of the same estate. You celebrate at the Fattoria Cerreto a Merse, the wedding venue proper, while your guests stay a short distance away in the villas of the historic Borgo di Recenza — close enough to feel like one gathering, separate enough that the celebration and the rest are never on top of each other. The villas sit in peaceful countryside and are designed for comfort, privacy and authentic character, the perfect place to settle into before the day and to recover gently afterwards.
The Fattoria Cerreto a Merse itself, with roots reaching back to the early 1000s, offers a sequence of beautiful, distinct spaces for the day. There is a garden beside the family chapel, looking out over a valley of woods and hills where the sunset turns the sky warm and rose-coloured — ideal for a symbolic ceremony. There is a broad, welcoming garden in front of the house for the aperitif and buffets. And there is the courtyard at the foot of the main façade, an elegant, timeless setting for the wedding dinner. Each space can be shaped around you, for a wedding of almost any style.
Dancing in the Woods
The detail that gives Recenza its signature, though, is what comes after dinner. The celebration moves into the woods to dance — a forest dance floor under the trees, a setting I have rarely seen elsewhere and never tire of photographing. There is something quietly magical about it: the music drifting between the trunks, the warm light caught in the leaves, the guests carried off into the trees as the night deepens. It is the kind of moment that turns a lovely wedding into one people talk about for years, and it photographs like nothing else.
When did you last dance under the trees, instead of under a marquee?
The forest dance is the image couples remember first. It is worth planning the evening so the camera is ready when the celebration moves into the woods.
Get in touch about your weddingReaching Borgo di Recenza: Notes for Couples Travelling from Abroad
Borgo di Recenza lies in the Val di Merse, in the comune of Sovicille, in the province of Siena — wonderfully secluded, but not far from the city. For international couples and their guests, Siena is around half an hour away, with Florence and its airport roughly an hour and a half to the north and Rome's airports a longer drive south, broadening the range of long-haul connections. The final stretch is several kilometres of unpaved white road through the woods, so I'd strongly encourage guests to arrange transfers or a suitable hire car, and to allow a little extra time and drive it slowly — that road is part of what keeps the place so blissfully private. The estate is on the Strada Comunale di Recenza, 53018 Sovicille (Siena).
What Couples Ask Me Before Choosing Borgo di Recenza
How does the legal side of marrying in Italy work for a foreign couple?
A legally binding civil marriage in Italy is performed by Italian authorities, and the documents required depend on your nationality. Most couples coming from abroad need a sworn declaration of no impediment to marry — usually arranged through your own country's consulate or embassy in Italy — together with further paperwork, and it is best begun several months ahead. At Recenza, most international couples hold a symbolic ceremony in the garden beside the family chapel, overlooking the valley, and complete the legal formalities separately at a nearby town hall such as Sovicille or in Siena. My honest advice is to confirm exactly what your two passports require early, because that single detail shapes the whole timeline.
Where do we marry, and where do our guests stay?
The two are part of the same estate but in slightly different spots, which works rather well. The wedding itself takes place at the Fattoria Cerreto a Merse — the ceremony garden, the courtyard for dinner, the woods for dancing — while your guests stay nearby in the villas of the historic Borgo di Recenza, a short distance away on the same property. It means the celebration has its own dedicated setting, while everyone sleeps close at hand in comfort and privacy. It's worth planning a little transport between the two for guests, especially late at night.
What are the spaces for the ceremony, dinner and dancing — and what if it rains?
Each stage of the day has its own setting: a garden beside the family chapel, looking over the valley of woods and hills, for the ceremony; the garden in front of the house for the aperitif and buffet; the courtyard at the foot of the neoclassical façade for dinner; and the woods themselves for dancing. Every space can be adapted to your numbers and style. Because Tuscan weddings here run through the warmer months, an outdoor celebration is the norm, but it is always worth agreeing a sheltered alternative with the team when you plan — and, to a photographer's eye, soft rain on these woods and stone only deepens the atmosphere.
Is there a chapel for a religious ceremony?
There is a family chapel at the Fattoria Cerreto a Merse, and the garden beside it makes a beautiful, intimate ceremony spot overlooking the valley. The wider estate also carries deep religious history, having grown up around the ancient Pieve di San Giovanni Battista. Whether a formal Catholic ceremony can be celebrated on site is best confirmed directly, since a religious wedding carries its own requirements — documentation through your home parish and diocese, with time to move it between countries. Many couples opt instead for a symbolic ceremony in the chapel garden, which allows complete freedom over the words and ritual.
When is the best time of year to marry here?
Late spring and early autumn are the classic windows, with comfortable temperatures and beautiful light over the valley of woods and hills. The woodland setting gives Recenza a real advantage in the heat of high summer, when the trees offer shade and the forest stays cool in the evening — ideal for dancing late. Autumn is especially lovely here, when the woods of the Val di Merse turn and the light grows golden and long. Whichever season you choose, the forest gives the day a softness that open, treeless venues simply can't.
What makes Borgo di Recenza special to photograph?
It's the combination of deep, atmospheric history and a genuinely unusual natural setting. I can frame the neoclassical façade with its curious real-and-false windows, the courtyard and the chapel garden over the valley, and then — most distinctively — the dancing in the woods, which gives me images very few Tuscan venues can offer. The forest light, dappled by day and warm and intimate by night, lends the whole album a mood that's softer and more cinematic than the open hilltops. For couples who want their photographs to feel a little different, Recenza delivers exactly that.
