Weddings at the Campidoglio

This week you will be going to the Campidoglio, the piazza on top of the Capitaline Hill. The Campidoglio is where civil wedding ceremonies are held in the city of Rome on the weekends. Civil ceremonies are fairly common -- if one is being married in any religious ceremony other than a Roman Catholic one, one must also have a civil ceremony as well as a religious one so that the marriage will be recognized by the state. And then of course, there are the purely civil marriages.

I think this is interesting, as in the US if one has any sort of religious ceremony, all the paperwork is taken care of, and the one ceremony creates a union recognized by both the State and the religion. However, Italy is not the only country to have this clear separation between the civil marriage, and the religious one. It seems to be considered normal in many European countries. A friend told me that on her son's wedding day they first went to the Town Hall for the civil marriage, and then across the square to the Church for the religious ceremony.

They take civil ceremonies seriously here (part of the Italian love of riuals and formality?). The "office" that they are performed in is quite magnificent.

Of course I only know this because my daughter was married on the Campidoglio in 2003.






The pictures accompanying this posting were taken at the Campidoglio over a period of several years.