The traditional sight of an Italian couple stepping out of a church under a shower of confetti while being blessed by a priest is becoming ever rarer, with the number of civil ceremonies overtaking church weddings for the first time in the country’s history.

Last year, 50.1% of weddings were conducted in town halls, registry offices or other civil locations, while 49.9% took place in churches, according to ISTAT, Italy’s national statistics agency.

Back in 1970, civil ceremonies made up just 2.3% of all marriages in Italy. They have leapt in popularity, with couples getting married in castles, on the beach and in unique locations such as a centuries-old house in Verona that purportedly has links to Romeo and Juliet.

The historic shift represents the increasing secularisation of Italy, a once staunchly Catholic country where these days less than a quarter of the adult population regularly attends Mass.

Despite the drop in church attendance, nearly 75% of Italians still identify themselves as being Catholic, according to a 2017 study by the polling agency Ipsos MORI.

The change is also a reflection of the increasing number of divorces and second marriages in Italy – divorcees who want to remarry cannot do so in church and have no choice but to choose a civil ceremony.