Number Of Foreigners Choosing To Wed In Italy Grows

words by Carol King The number of foreigners choosing to tie the marital knot in Italy is growing. Some 6,000 foreigners married in Italy in 2012 and wedding tourism brought in €315 million to the country. The growth in wedding tourism has caused Palermo to launch an ‘I Do’ initiative to attract couples to have their wedding in the Sicilian city. Palermo council hopes that ‘I Do’ will attract Japanese, Chinese, American and European couples to marry in one of the many prestigious locations in the Sicilian capital. Among the places couple can have a civil wedding is the Parco della Favorita, a large park created in 1799 by King Ferdinand III of Sicily, the no longer consecrated Chiesa di San Mattia (Church of St. Matthias) built between 1637 and 1647, and the gardens of the Real Fonderia. Among the possibilities offered in the ‘I Do’ project is the chance to plant a tree in the Parco della Favorita, "as a symbol of good luck for the birth of a new life together," as the brochure advertising the initiative reports. The city will then “adopt” the tree-planting newlyweds and send the couple photographs of the tree with information on its status each year on their wedding anniversary. Palermo councillor for Green and Public Spaces, Giuseppe Barbera, says the idea marries the city’s revitalisation plans with the love of a city “where it’s nice to put down roots.”