Villa Sofia is a family house before it is a wedding venue. Three generations of the Sofia family have been bound up with this nineteenth century villa at Sirtori, in the Brianza hills of the province of Lecco, for more than fifty years, and they opened it to guests as a way of saving the family home and keeping its memory alive. A wedding here is booked as a stay rather than an afternoon. The villa, its park and its pool are reserved for two or three days, so the couple and their closest family arrive the day before, marry, and wake up in the same house the next morning.
A house in the Curone hills
Sirtori is a small comune on the hills of the Merate area, first recorded as Sirtores in 865. It lies about 35 kilometres north east of Milan and 13 kilometres south west of Lecco, in Brianza, the hill country between Milan and Lake Como that the Milanese have long used as a summer retreat and that made its name in furniture. The villa stands at Via Lissolo 9, inside the Parco regionale di Montevecchia e della Valle del Curone, a protected area of about 3,800 hectares across twelve comuni. The park was created in 1983 to stop this last open stretch of Brianza before Milan from being built over. Its woods hold chestnut, beech and oak, and badgers and squirrels have been reintroduced to them.
The house covers about 700 square metres over three floors. Its rooms have high ceilings and original wooden floors, and the interiors were put together by the family who live in them rather than by a design practice; some rooms are reworked each year. Art runs through the place, in light installations, painting and sculpture, and Natalia, who welcomes every guest and sees them off, also leads painting retreats at the villa. Riccardo looks after the house, the grounds and the practical running of each stay.
A weekend rather than a day
The difference between a wedding here and a wedding at a conventional venue is time. A couple does not hire rooms for a few hours; they take the house. For two or three days the bedrooms, the park and the pool belong to the wedding party alone, which leaves time together on the day before, the celebration itself and the morning after. The villa is let as a home and equipped like one: a full kitchen, a barbecue area with a wood-fired oven and a long communal table, a play area for children, WiFi throughout and private parking inside the gates.
Most of what a wedding needs is brought in. Couples choose their own caterer, florist, musicians and planner, and the family will pass on contacts built up over the years for each of those, with no obligation to use them. The caterers they work with serve seasonal Italian and Lombard menus, from aperitivo tables and antipasti to a plated dinner and a dessert table. Massages and other treatments can be arranged in the house before or after the wedding, and the family offer a private cooking session for the wedding party, sharing traditional recipes during the stay.
Vows beneath the wisteria
The park is the centre of a wedding at Villa Sofia. Its pergola is carried by a centuries old wisteria and is used for symbolic ceremonies and for dinners outdoors; the park also holds a rose garden, a pond and the pool. Ceremonies on the property are symbolic ceremonies or blessings, held under the pergola, on the lawns or, if the weather turns, in the glass veranda. A civil marriage with legal effect takes place at the local town hall.
The wisteria usually flowers in April, though the exact weeks shift from year to year, and the roses follow in June. In mid May the sun sets at around a quarter to nine, which leaves daylight for a ceremony in the late afternoon and drinks outside afterwards. Spring weather in Lombardy is changeable and summer afternoons can bring short thunderstorms, so an alternative plan for rain belongs in the planning whatever the month.
Long tables in the park
Up to 70 guests can sit down to dinner, which sets the scale: this is a house for a wedding of family and close friends. In fine weather the tables go out into the park, under the trees or beneath the pergola, strung with lights for the evening. If the weather turns, dinner moves indoors to the main rooms on the ground floor and the panoramic veranda, a glass room that opens onto the park through tall windows, with the pool beyond.
June has the longest evenings of the year, and the light lasts well beyond sunset, so dinner on the lawn can begin while it is still daylight. It is one of the most requested months for weddings in northern Italy, and a Saturday in June is often booked a year or more ahead.
Indoors, the main rooms are white walled and hung with contemporary paintings, and they lead straight into the veranda. Music can follow the whole day, from the ceremony and the aperitivo to dinner and the party afterwards, with musicians or a DJ suggested by the family or chosen by the couple.
Goats, chickens and the family dogs
The villa has other residents. Dogs, cats, goats, rabbits and chickens live in the park and roam freely, and they are as much a part of a stay as the pool. For children they are a constant entertainment, and with a play area and open lawns the villa suits a wedding weekend at which several families bring young children.
Rooms for the closest family
The house has four double rooms, one triple room and a bridal suite with its own bathroom, enough for the couple and their nearest family to stay under one roof for the whole weekend. Other guests stay nearby, and the family can advise on rooms close to the villa. Breakfast made with local ingredients, daily housekeeping and a personal chef are among the services for groups staying in the house, and breakfasts, brunches and dinners can be prepared on request, which helps with the days either side of the wedding.
Between Milan and the lake
Lecco and the shore of Lake Como are about twenty minutes away by car and Milan is under an hour, so guests have somewhere to go on the day before or after: an afternoon on the lake in summer, a day in the city. The nearest airports are Milan Bergamo and Milan Linate. September brings the grape harvest to the hills of the Curone park and weather that is usually more settled than in spring. October brings autumn colour to the woods, shorter days and more availability among photographers and other suppliers. Around Ferragosto, on 15 August, many Italian businesses close for a few days, so suppliers for a mid August date should be booked early. Wedding weekends at the villa start from €10,000.
For more weddings on this side of the lake, read our Edit on Villa Nascosta, browse wedding venues in Lecco and Brianza or open the Lake Como Wedding Atlas.
Choosing the month
The decision that shapes a wedding here is the month. In fine weather the ceremony, the drinks and the dinner all take place in the park, so the date decides what is in flower over the pergola and how long the light lasts at the table. Read the Villa Sofia profile and check your date.
