5 awesome gay wedding destinations in Italy

Since our engagement in Cartagena in Colombia, we've been researching wedding venues and ideas for destinations for our own ceremony. We attended our friends' gay wedding ceremony in Gallipoli in South Italy and completely fell in love, feeling totally inspired at the same time.

Although Italy remains one of Western Europe's more conservative countries with regards to LGBTQ rights and still has a ban in place for same sex marriages, steps are slowly being taken in the right direction. In particular, civil unions for same sex couples (called “unioni Civili” in Italian) were introduced in June 2016. This has spiked interest in Italy as a destination wedding for LGBTQ couples.

Following on from our travels in Italy and researching the best places for our own wedding, we've put together our 5 best destinations for a gay wedding in Italy:

1. Gorgeous Gallipoli in Puglia

Gallipoli is the main gay hotspot in the Puglia region of Italy. Over the years it's grown massively with gay tourists, due to its mix of gay friendly beaches and fun gay events. This has made it ideal for gay wedding destination in Italy.

We attended our friends' Unioni Civili at Villa dei Fiori Eventi, located just outside of Gallipoli main town and absolutely loved it. The registrar from the town hall attended to officiate the ceremony, which was held outdoors.

Everything was spot on, from the choice of music, decor, food and music. Definitely one to consider, especially as Puglia has so much to offer gay travellers for a honeymoon. Also check out our 5 best gay friendly hotels in Puglia for more inspiration.

2. Venice: the ultimate fairytale wedding

We celebrated our first year anniversary together in this unique gorgeous city. Everyone knows and loves Venice whether it's from movies like James Bond “Casino Royale”, or from your history lessons at school. Venice has many options for gay weddings and is also the fairytale honeymoon destination for most months of the year.

3. Positano: amor on the Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage site with over 50km (30 miles) of coastline. It's located along the southern edge of Italy’s Sorrento Peninsula, around 1.5 hours drive south from Napoli.

We love the abundance of gay friendly luxury villas here as well as there being lots of things to do in the Amalfi Coast for a honeymoon.

4. Fabulous Florence in Tuscany

Tuscany is one of our favourite regions in Italy. The main city, Florence is a walking open air museum, filled with Renaissance architecture, and of course home to Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture.

5. Romance in the Italian Lakes

There are 5 major lakes in the Italian lake district – Lakes Maggiore, Lugano, Como, Iseo, and Garda, each with its unique character. We particularly fell in love with Lake Como, a glacier-lake with a maximum depth of 1,395 feet (425 meters), making it one of the deepest lakes in Europe. It's also one of our favorite romantic places in Italy. For Star Wars fans, you'll recognize it in Attack of the Clones when Annakin and Padmé were wooing each other…all of that was filmed right here!

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For more inspiration:

• Check out these gay friendly hotels in Venice
• These are the best gay beaches in Italy for showing off those speedos
• Have a read of our review of the gay friendly Magdalener Hof hotel in Bolzano, Italy
• These are the gayest cities in Europe
• Along with our favorite gay cities in Spain
• Top of that list is our gay city guide to fabulous Barcelona
• We also have a guide to the best gay beaches in Barcelona
• One for the best gay bars in Barcelona
• And this guide to the best gay restaurants in Barcelona