07 April – 08
April 2017
In
planning our wedding the initial concern was identifying a suitable location. Riga could very well have
been an option but tempting fate with the weather there, even in Summer, might
have only lead to heartbreak and disappointment. Belgrade on the other hand just
wasn’t a wedding destination draw card. A nice enough city of course but for our
wedding? I wanted something dramatic and memorable. That therefore set the scene for a virtual hunt, so we went scouting for
what would thus become our very own wedding destination for a destination wedding.
Initially
Spain and France made our list of probable locations but due to various
administrative difficulties it made the process of getting married almost impossible and
unnecessarily complicated. Late one December evening in 2016 I had a moment of
inspiration and clarity. Amalfi and its coastline came to me in a rush,
Italy might just be the tonic that we needed. It fit the criteria of
course, almost certain to have sunshine in Summer, with a dramatic coastline that dropped
startlingly into the beautifully blue
Tyrrhenian Sea, reasonable proximity to both Belgrade and Riga whilst also not
being in either of those locations so that neither could have claim favouritism.
Australian Consulate - Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II - Rome - Italy
With
some research we discovered that Italy did allow foreigners to marry in their
country with reasonable ease and so, with the assistance of a wedding planner
on site in Amalfi, we got to planning our big day.
Administrative
requirements
Weddings
don’t happen without necessary administrative duties being undertaken before
the actual date. This in fact was our primary for going to Rome, and of
course then, the natural follow on would be that we’d head down to Amalfi and
check out our venue, which until this point we’d only seen via online photos.
Now first,
let me outline the administrative requirements as a foreigner wanting to marry
in Italy that need to be met in advance of the knot being tied.
The Atto Notorio – basically
this is a sworn affidavit that you get need to have completed at least three months prior to the
wedding. A confirmation of civil status, residential details etc. This we
needed to have completed at the Australian Embassy and then have filed across town
in a registry.
Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II - Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Now,
here’s where we had a bit of fun. The wedding planner, who wasn’t that great a
planner at all, actually in this situation, assisted us a great deal. She managed to organise witnesses we needed at the Australian Consulate to have the documentation done and also accompany us in terms of the filing of the Atto Notorio. I had also, somewhat
courageously, decided that whilst in Rome I would rent a car and drive us
around town.
Let
me say here, motorists in Rome are NUTS. They are simply unpredictable and move at such velocity that your decision making can’t be delayed. You need to act and be
confident in your moves, make them without hesitation. This is where a couple of years of experience driving
in Belgrade came as a trump card that I pulled out of my back pocket for just this occasion. Had I
have not had that grounding in the art of irrational driving then attempting to get across the city of Rome \ would have
been a nightmare. In fact, I did so well that I received a magnificent compliment from our Italian assistant when she said, ‘You
don’t drive like an Australian, you drive like an Italian’. Which to me was
music to my ears but I think it came more out of fear for her own safety than a
comment meant to inspire and commend me on what I was actually doing.
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Colosseum - Rome - Italy
Colosseum - Rome - Italy
Second administrative requirement, the Nulla Ostra – the
second document I needed to provide – was also completed at the Australia
embassy. Basically this is a form that needs to be filled by foreigners that
want to be married in the country, it shows their intent to do so and in what time frame.
Thankfully
getting the administrative components out of the way in Rome was relatively
easy and only took the morning to complete. The final step, the Civil Ceremony, is one that still now I’m still
suspicious of. Apparently this is the lodgement of the Atto Notorio and Nulla
Osta in the marriage office, or Town Hall, of the Italian City where you plan
to marry. I’ll discuss this a little more when I get to talking about our stay
in Amalfi, but let me say, something inside me seems to still believe that
somehow we were married on 09 APRIL 2017 in a Civil Ceremony rather than 30
JUNE 2017…our marriage certificate does say 30 JUNE 2017 but I think its suspect.
Colosseum - Rome - Italy
Colosseum - Rome - Italy
Colosseum - Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Administration
aside, our free afternoon and evening in Rome allowed us the briefest of
moments of sightseeing, which in turn allowed us to take in the Colosseum, the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele
II and the magnificent Fontana di
Trevi. The final stop was a pretty cool experience for me. I remember back in 2008 when I came to Rome the first time I did the three coins tosses into the Trevi, which legend has it that if you complete all three, that the 1st means that you will return to Rome, the 2nd ensures a new romance and the 3rd ensures marriage. Well Fontana di Trevi, here I was again, with my fiancee in Rome completing what we needed to do in order to get married. I say legend has it pretty much spot on.
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
Fontona di Trevi - Rome - Italy
A
beautiful city in its eternal beauty and chaos, sadly we only had a few hours
to experience what it had to offer but we would be back in a few days. The next
day we were off to Amalfi and finally we would get to see if our ‘hunch’ and
having a destination wedding in this neck of the woods would pay dividends.
