Make a Holiday out of it

Tacking on a few days either side of the wedding (which is 29 August - 1 September 2026) might be somewhat civilised.

We have conducted a range of intense reconnaissance missions (read: holidays) in the Tuscany area and can very strongly recommend spending time in the area. In particular, the following have our seal of approval:

Florence

- A beautiful city to get lost in, with the most amazing history. It also is home to the opening chase sequence of Tom Hanks’ ‘Inferno’ (6.2/10 IMDB), as well as Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II. So, there’s that as well

- Galleries galore - you can see the Birth of Venus and lots and lots and lots of LOTS of portraits in the Uffizi. Possibly too many portrait’s, if we're being completely honest. Michaelangelo’s David is also hanging out in the Galleria dell’Accademia

- Will had the second best steak of his life at Ristorante dei Rossi (the ‘chef’s cut Fiorentina’)

- La Terrazza is a superb rooftop bar for a drink (but make sure you book in advance)

Cortona

- Cortona is much smaller with a proper ‘old town’ with ancient buildings and no cars

- There are some gorgeous viewpoints nearby and a restaurant overlooking the square called La Loggetta was probably our favourite meal. We accidentally booked it while opera was going on in the square - pretty bloody Italian if you ask us

- A sexy Italian photographer opened a bar called Il Solco. He makes his own limoncello. Beyond that, our memories of that night are quite hazy

- Parking is less fun, though, so bake time finding a space into your trip (and they LOVE doling out parking tickets)

Siena

- A magical Tuscan town, with an old town not dissimilar to Cortona’s but much bigger

- There is a Piazza in the middle where they do horse racing (we haven’t seen the horse racing and so we can’t comment on how it stacks up against Cheltenham)

- Our favourite meal was Osteria le Logge - they gave us free panettone as the food was apparently late. We hadn’t noticed - the wine may have had something to do with it

- We stumbled across a fantastic hidden square for a drink during sunset - the bar is called ChigianArtCafè. Wouldn’t go for food, but an appetitivo there hit the spot