The word from Rome (that’s where I am right now) is that the Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will be held on Lake Bracciano, about 30 minutes outside the city. The Associated Press reports that journalists are indeed descending on the small town of Bracciano and the town’s mayor gave a hint that the wedding of the year will be held there. The beautiful Odescalchi Castle appears to be the venue and it can certainly hold a crowd — up to 1,400 people. I’ll be headed out to the lake and castle on Sunday to check it out.
Bracciano is little-known by foreign visitors but this wedding will certainly put it on the map. Dream of Italy readers learned about the charms of this special lake a few years ago, when Daniela Deane wrote about building a house on Lake Bracciano. Here is the Web site for her house, which she rents to visitors.
The wedding may indeed be outside Rome, but gossip maven Cindy Adams of the New York Post reports that guests will be staying at Rome’s historic Hotel Hassler. Katie and Tom themselves stayed there when they were first dating and Cruise was in Rome to film Mission Impossible 3.