The hour
outside
Florence.
Tuscany is the part of Italy I have photographed most, and I live in the middle of it. That is worth something practical rather than romantic: I know how long the transfer really takes, when the light leaves a walled garden, and which half of a plan is going to need translating before the day begins.
Why an hour
outside the
city is the
right hour
Almost every Tuscan wedding I photograph happens between thirty and ninety minutes from Florence. That is not an accident of taste — it is the radius inside which a villa can hold a hundred people, guests can still get to an airport, and I can be at the venue before anyone else without anybody paying for a night.
It also means the landscape does half the work. Chianti in June, the crete around Siena in September, the badlands above Volterra in July: three completely different photographs of the same region, depending only on when you decide to get married.
Selected workSeptember,
if you can
choose
Tuscany, in September
Siena and the crete
Abbeys, castles and the bare hills south of the city — the part of Tuscany that photographs best in September, when the ground turns.
Abbazia di San Galgano Castello di Badia Berardenga Villa Podernovo Borgo Sant'Ambrogio Villa di Geggiano
Chianti
Vineyards, stone farmhouses and long tables outdoors, half an hour south of my front door.
Volterra and the west
The badlands, the borghi and the country running down towards the sea — emptier, hotter, and worth the drive.
Lucca and the coast
The north-west corner, where the hills are greener and the sea is forty minutes away.
- Best months
- May, June and September. July and August are photographable but hot enough to move the whole day later; a ceremony before six in August is a decision you feel.
- The light
- Sunset sits close to nine o’clock in late June and slips back to around eight by the start of September, which is why September weddings tend to have a better hour after dinner and a shorter one before it.
- Distances
- Florence to Siena is about an hour. Florence to Volterra or Lucca about ninety minutes. Almost everything on this page is inside that radius, and I drive to all of it.
- Language
- I work in Italian with the venue and the suppliers and in English with you, which removes most of the small frictions of a wedding abroad before they happen.
Getting married
in Tuscany?