Getting married at Villa Cortine Palace
Villa Cortine Palace sits on a low hill above Sirmione's old town, set inside its own gated, roughly five-hectare park of cypress avenues, balustraded terraces and marble fountains, with Roman fragments worked into the grounds — a reminder that the site was a fortified garrison long before any villa stood here. The building itself has a layered history rather than a single clean story: a nineteenth-century residence stood on the site before Sirmione hotelier Franco Signori acquired it in 1952, and architects Cassi and Remella designed and built the neoclassical palace that opened as a hotel in 1957, incorporating the older structure into the new one.
What makes it different from a ceremony in Sirmione's historic centre is the setting itself: this is private, gated parkland on a hillside, not the pedestrian path past the castle that most visitors walk. The Comune di Sirmione holds its own civil ceremonies at Palazzo Callas, inside the old town across the castle bridge, and Villa Cortine Palace is a separate, privately run venue that hosts its own ceremonies and receptions in its cypress gardens and terraces, with no public foot traffic crossing the frame the way it does on the peninsula's busiest streets.
The park itself is the main reason couples choose it: avenues of cypress give the kind of enclosed, symmetrical backdrop Sirmione's medieval streets don't offer, and the terraces above the lake catch the evening light directly, which matters if your ceremony or photographs are planned for the hour before sunset rather than midday.
Wedding makeup artist in Villa Cortine Palace: at a glance
- Artist
- Elena Potapenko, bridal hair and makeup, 18+ years of experience
- Based in
- Veneto, Italy; travels to Villa Cortine Palace for weddings
- Specialty
- Bridal hair and makeup by one artist, with a trial before the day, plus hair and makeup for the mother of the bride and the bridal party
- Languages
- English, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian
- Booking
- Check whether your date is free
What a private hillside park changes about the morning
This page is about the specific venue above the town — the hub page for weddings in Sirmione covers Palazzo Callas and the rest of the car-free peninsula for couples marrying in the historic centre itself.
Above the town, not inside it
The villa sits on a hill overlooking Sirmione rather than inside the car-free historic centre, so the walk-and-shuttle logistics that apply to Palazzo Callas and the castle don't apply here in the same way. Confirm with the hotel whether your room is on-site or whether you're arriving from elsewhere on the peninsula.
A gated, symmetrical garden
The cypress avenues and balustraded terraces give a private, enclosed backdrop very different from Sirmione's narrow public streets — useful if you want photographs without other visitors in frame, which the castle and the lakeside paths rarely allow.
Evening light off the lake
The terraces face the water directly, so a ceremony or photographs timed for the hour before sunset catch warm, low light across the lake rather than the flatter midday light most daytime ceremonies in the old town get.
A separate booking from the Comune
This is a privately run hotel venue, not the municipal hall — if you want a civil ceremony recognised by the Comune di Sirmione, confirm directly with the hotel and the Ufficio di Stato Civile how the two are coordinated for your date.
Confirm your exact ceremony location within the grounds, your room, and timing directly with the hotel, and share it with Elena as soon as it's set.