TOM Cruise has jetted into Rome ahead of his high-profile wedding to Katie Holmes, this weekend.

 The Mission Impossible star arrived at Rome's small Ciampino airport from Los Angeles with his mother, three children and an entourage of ten, airport officials said. 

Cruise, 44,  and Holmes, 27, are set to marry in an undisclosed Italian location on Saturday. Speculation on the location has focused on Odescalchi Castle on Lake Bracciano, near the capital. The romantic, 15th-century castle, with its halls and gardens, can host up to 1,400 guests.

It is such a plush surrounding that it seems like the couple could upstage recent showbiz weddings - including that of Cruise's ex-wife to Keith Urban.

Local officials and residents remain tightlipped, and Bracciano's mayor has only acknowledged that authorities received a request to clear the square in front of the castle.

Some 100 fans mingled with photographers and camera crews in front of the Hassler, the luxury Rome hotel on top of the Spanish Steps where Cruise was said by airport officials to be staying. An employee at the hotel's front desk, who refused to give her name, denied that Cruise was staying there.

Traffic police managed the crowd at the Hassler and bodyguards stood at the ready next to limousines parked in front of the hotel.

Holmes and Cruise became engaged in June 2005. Their daughter, Suri, was born in April this year.

Cruise, has two children, 13-year-old Isabella, and 11-year-old Connor, from his marriage to Nicole Kidman. Kidman and Tom Cruise divorced in 2001 after 10 years of marriage.

Holmes, who starred in TV's Dawson's Creek, had been engaged to Chris Klein. Cruise was also previously married to Mimi Rogers, and had a high-profile romance with Penelope Cruz.