Travel tips for Southern Italy and Sicily...Possibly getting married there also?

Question

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Southern Italy (Rome, Naples, Capri, Palermo etc) including Sicily in March or April of 2008. We have never been to Italy and we plan to go for 10 day (not including the travel days to and from). We know that we need to do a tour or we would never see the things we want to see but we don't want to be restricted to eating with the people on the tour and staying in the hotels they stay in. Basically, I would like to know if anyone has taken a trip to Italy where you basically set up the sightseeing tours only, you can eat where you want and stay where you want but they set up transportation to and tours of sight of interest. We want to stay at the nicest places and have freedom to eat where you want, are there any companies that allow you to do this. We are also thinking of getting married in Sicily, he has some family there (whom he has never met, but are very receptive to our coming). We would basically be eloping(just the 2 of us, no one knows) we want a Catholic ceremony then when we come home we would have a nice Civil Ceremony for just close family and friends (he works for a judge so he would perform the wedding). Is this possible and if anyone has done this please let me know. We would also like to start off in Sicily b/c that is where my bf wants to get married and then the rest of the trip will be our honeymoon, is this possible. Any info will be appreciated, especially from those who have traveled southern Italy and/or American citizens who have had a Catholic wedding there.

Answer 1

In order to have a catholic wedding there, you have to be catholic and have to have had your communion and your "cresima" (confirmation, it's a catholic thing and one of the 7 sacraments) Other than that, sicily is very nice, the people are so friendly. And there are a lot of things to see. It's definitely worth seeing.

Answer 2

We are taking our first trip to Sicily this fall. If you want to be married there you will need copies of both your baptismal and confirmation certificates (with the seal) to prove that you are indeed eligible to be married in the Catholic church.

I would suggest staying in Ravello.  It is on top of a mountain on the Almafi coast and every morning a local bus takes you down to Capri where you can get scheduled tours to everywhere you want to see. The town is charming and has many restaurants.  Driving on the Almafi coast is a nightmare at best. Plan to get to Ravello, stay there and do the day trips. We loved the  place and there are many very nice hotels!

Answer 3

just got back from a month long trip to italy, part of the reason was for a wedding/baptism of our italian friends that are very popular in sicilia- first- learn the language, learn how to act around a catholic, italian, priest-very important, on the honeymoon go to siracusa and stay in a little rented out apartment! thats what we did- amazing! walk all over siracusa, go on romantic boat rides around the castle and into the nature made caves, you can see clear through the water in the caves and in the sea-its unbelievable! ps: rome and up north are all very sticky and stinky this time of year due to the heat and everyone just stinks- sorry, stay down south, regaurdless, its amazing! hope you have a great time