Say your vows at a Chianti wine resort with a private chapel

The heart of the estate is Villa Altaserra, a 15th-century Medici villa with ochre plaster and green shutters. Inside are 1,000 square meters of beamed rooms furnished with Tuscan antiques. Around it sit stone farm buildings and a herringbone-brick courtyard with a terracotta statue in a shell niche. Travertine pool terraces are lined with white-canvas deckchairs. The Winery House adds a contemporary note above the cellars, with six-meter ceilings and designer furniture. Lavender, agaves and a row of six tall cypresses frame nearly every view.

Etruscan and Roman finds show this land was farmed long before there was a villa. During the long wars between Siena and Florence it served as a watchtower guarding the mouth of the Val d'Ambra. The Medici owned it from the early 1400s and were the first to turn it to agriculture. The Carpini family bought the estate in 1954. Sergio Carpini, a textile designer whose fabrics dressed Armani and Versace, gave up industry for wine in 1988. His daughter Guya and her husband Marco Patrizi run it today, and finished the switch to organic farming in 2022.

Siena's Piazza del Campo, the Duomo and the Torre del Mangia make a morning's trip. Arezzo answers with Piero della Francesca's frescoes and its famous antiques fair. Rapolano Terme's thermal pools are 20 minutes away for the day after. A polo club with four fields borders the estate, offering lessons and horseback rides through the vines. Hot-air balloon flights over Chianti launch nearby. The Chianti Sculpture Park is a 40-minute drive, and the Valdichiana golf course is about the same.

Two pools, and they couldn't be more different. Carpe Diem, 10 by 6 meters, sits beside Villa Altaserra with deckchairs on the travertine and a putto fountain at one end. Tramonto, 20 by 8 meters, is the quiet one among the Selvamaggio vines with a view across the valley. An artificial-grass tennis court and a bowls green wait beside the vineyard, with a coach available on request. Cellar tours, tastings, yoga sessions and bike rides fill a lazy day between events.

Most couples fly into Florence and drive south for about an hour and a half. Pisa and Perugia are two to two and a half hours, Rome closer to three. The resort can arrange airport transfers, and there's free private parking for the whole party once you arrive. The nearest train stations are Bucine, on the Florence to Arezzo line, and Castelnuovo Berardenga on the Siena line. Both are around 20 minutes away. There's even a helipad on the estate for anyone arriving in style.

Twenty rooms across five houses sleep 44 guests, with six extra beds bringing it to 50. Villa Altaserra holds seven of them, including the Master Bridal Suite and a two-bedroom Library suite. The Winery House, above the cellars, has three rooms for nine. La Colonica Oliveto, an old farmhouse in an olive garden, has four rooms, a fireplace and a barbecue for nine more. Six stone Garden Suites with private gardens take couples. Breakfast is by the in-house chef, rooms are cleaned daily, and check-in is at 4 pm.

The Master Bridal Suite in Villa Altaserra is the natural dressing room. Wooden beams overhead, dark parquet underfoot, a painted antique wardrobe and an arched doorway that frames the first look at the dress. The light comes in low and warm. With the whole villa yours, bridesmaids and flower girls spread across the neighboring rooms. The pool deck below is where everyone gathers before walking together to the ceremony lawn.

Most couples say their vows in the Italian Garden: a clipped lawn below the villa with a gravel circle for the two of you. Six tall cypresses stand as the backdrop, wooded hills beyond. The comune of Bucine has made the estate a seat of its civil registry, so a ceremony here is legally binding. Our planner in Italy helps you with the paperwork to file with the town hall and booking the registrar. For a religious rite or a blessing there's the consecrated chapel of Santa Maria in Selvamaggio. It seats 20 inside, with room for 100 in its secret garden. The vaulted Ceremony Hall keeps a rainy day indoors.

Dinner for up to 70 goes on the Panoramic Terrace, a terracotta-tiled platform with a stone balustrade and string lights on iron poles. Behind the cypresses, the Val d'Ambra fades to blue. Larger parties dine along the Avenue, the plane-tree drive into Villa Altaserra. One long table runs beneath the canopy there and lanterns hang from the branches. Altaserra's Square and La Piazzetta host the aperitivo hour. The Tramonto pool, 20 by 8 meters among the vines, does daytime pool parties until 7 pm.

Every wedding meal comes from the estate's approved caterers, and the wines on the table are the estate's own. There are seven labels: Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon on their own, a Merlot and Cabernet blend, a rosé, a white and a Vin Santo. Pizza, gelato and barbecue carts can roll in for the welcome night. The Wine Bar is open from breakfast to evening throughout your stay. The sommelier's La Toscana tasting in the Barriccaia pairs three reds with crostini, pecorino and cold cuts.

Outdoor music stays at background level and ends at 11 pm, which suits an evening of long dinners under the plane trees. Then the party moves underground. La Barriccaia, the former barrel cellar, has the estate's dance floor and its own bar. Music runs there until 2 am among the old barriques. It's the one place on the property built for dancing, so the sound stays put and the countryside keeps its silence.

The three-night rental is built for a wedding weekend. Day one usually opens with a welcome event from 6 pm. Think a wine tasting in the Barriccaia or a pizza night by the Tramonto pool. Day two is the wedding. Day three is for the pools, a farewell brunch or an extra event if you want one. Our wedding packages for Italy wrap the venue, the planner and the vendors into one fixed price.