Wedding venues on Lake Orta
Wedding at Palazzo Gemelli, Orta San Giulio
Orta San Giulio, beside the parish church
Two frescoed rooms and a garden over the lake
The couple in these photographs own the Ristorante San Giulio in Orta: a wedding at home, in the village they know by heart, with the jetty and the motorboat at the bottom of the rise.
The palazzo tells its own story, arched courtyard, staircase and garden over the water: I work on the transitions, as the couple move through those spaces without stopping, and let the lake wind lift the veil.
A wedding in Orta San Giulio, in Doctor Gemelli's palazzo
Palazzo Gemelli was built in the early decades of the eighteenth century — and completed, like the neighbouring Palazzo Ubertini, in 1747 — commissioned by Doctor Paolo Gemelli, born in Orta and later court physician to Henry of Lorraine in Paris, then made a count by Carlo Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. It stands beside the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, along the same rise as the Motta.
The building, late-Renaissance in layout, still bears frescoed mythological decorations along its facade cornice, likely the work of a Flemish school. Since 2012 its halls — two connecting frescoed rooms, seating up to seventy guests — and the garden overlooking the lake have hosted the wedding reception.
In a palazzo so rich in detail, I always look for a balance between the story of the rooms and that of the people: without one taking space away from the other.
Other nearby venues
