Movies about Florence & Tuscany
- Author & Photographer: Teri Didjurgis
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Movies about Florence and set in Tuscany to watch before your next trip
Tuscany Movies will have you booking your ticket to Italy – PRONTO!
In these movies about Florence & Tuscany, Americans and British ex-pats vacation here, escape broken hearts or the dull-drums of their daily life and then never want to leave the Italian golden light as they bask under the Tuscan Sun. The cities of Florence, Siena, and smaller towns provide exquisite backdrops for both modern and historical movies and TV series with cameos by Renaissance pieces of art.
Grab a cappuccino and escape through the movies to some of the most beautiful landscapes and towns in the world.
1
A Room With A View tells the tale of Lucy Honeychurch, a young upper-class woman who travels to Italy under the watchful eye of her cousin Charlotte. For Lucy, Florence is a world of possibilities and vitality, far from the restrained culture of Edwardian England, and she explores the city’s key sights from the Church of Santa Croce to the Piazza della Signoria.
This movie was my first impression of Florence and I can’t visit without finding a Room with a View!
Tuscany locations: The film in primarily filmed in Florence with scenes of the Piazzas and churches. The hotel where Lucy and Charlotte stay in the film, the Pensione Bertolini (Hotel Degli Orafi), can be found on the banks of the Arno. There are also scenes in the Tuscany countryside and San Gimignano.
In Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) is a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour. Her recent divorce has left her with terminal writer’s block and extremely depressed. Her best friend, Patti (Sandra Oh), gifts her a trip to Tuscany. Frances, on a whim, purchases a villa named Bramasole in Tuscany.
As she flings herself into her new life at the villa in the lush Italian countryside surrounded by olive groves, sunflower fields, fruit trees, and vinegars she discovers the authentic pleasures of Italian life as she makes new friends among her neighbors.
In the quiet moments, she is fearful that her ambitions for her new life–and a new family–may not be realized until a chance encounter in Rome throws Frances into the arms of an intriguing Portobello antique dealer named Marcello (Raoul Bova).
Tuscany Locations: Cortona. The author still has her home “Bramasole” there, but the movie was filmed in another villa (Villa Laura), Montepulciano.
Positano Film Locations: Hotel California (Marcello’s Apartment) and the Positano Pier.
3
In 1930s fascist Italy, adolescent Luca (Charlie Lucas) just lost his mother. His father, a callous businessman, sends him to be taken care of by British expatriate Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright).
Mary and her cultured friends — including artist Arabella (Judi Dench), young widow Elsa (Cher), and archaeologist Georgie (Lily Tomlin) — keep a watchful eye over the boy. But the women’s cultivated lives took a dramatic turn when Allied forces declared war on Mussolini.
Tea with Mussolini is a semi-autobiographical story of young Italian boys’ upbringing by a circle of British and American women before and during World War II. The locations are stunning as well as the boisterousness of ex-pats in Italy.
Tuscany Locations: Florence (Duomo, The English Cemetery, the Uffizzi gallery), Siena, and San Gimignano
4
The third movie based on the novels by Dan Brown, Inferno tells the story of famous symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as he follows a trail of clues tied to Dante, the great medieval poet from Florence.
When Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories. Together, they race across Europe and against the clock to stop a madman (Ben Foster) from unleashing a virus that could wipe out half of the world’s population.
The movie takes place largely in Florence before moving on to Venice and Istanbul. It also tells the story of Florence’s Dante and shows several key places in Florence’s town center.
Tuscany Locations: Several locations in Florence including The bell tower of Badia Fiorentina, Boboli Gardens, the Vasari Corridor, and the Baptistery of St. John.
5
A badly burned man, Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), is tended to by a nurse, Hana (Juliette Binoche), in an Italian monastery near the end of World War II.
As he lies in the Tuscan chapel that has become a make-shift hospital, his past is revealed through flashbacks involving a married Englishwoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his work mapping the African landscape.
The English Patient has gorgeous cinematography featuring the Sahara and scenes in Italy including Renaissance frescoes in Italian chapels.
Tuscany Locations: Viareggio, Pienza, Bacci Chapel in the Basilica of San Francesco at Arezzo
6
A gentle Jewish-Italian waiter, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a pretty schoolteacher, and wins her over with his charm and humor. Eventually they marry and have a son, Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini).
Their happiness is abruptly halted, however, when Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora and taken to a concentration camp. Determined to shelter his son from the horrors of his surroundings, Guido convinces Giosue that their time in the camp is merely a game.
Life is Beautiful won for best foreign film and best actor (Roberto Benigni). The beginning scenes in Arezzo show Italian charm and the beauty of the city. It does turn dark as it takes the characters into the Holocaust. The film though is really about the love for family and humanity even in the midst of inhumanity.
Tuscany Locations: Arezzo – 19 Via Borgo Unito, the site of the shop Guido owns at the start of the film, and Piazza della Badia, where the three ride the bicycle. The theatre scene was filmed in Cortona.
7
In Stealing Beauty, Lucy (Liv Tyler) has come to Italy to have her portrait done by Ian Grayson, an old family friend. Lucy’s true purpose in coming to Tuscany is to learn more about her mother who has committed suicide and to solve a riddle left by her in a diary about the identity of her father.
Her summer vacation also sees her renew her acquaintance with Nicolo Donati, a young boy with whom she fell in love on her last visit four years ago.
Tuscany Locations: Locations around Siena and Arezzo
8
A London-based editor, Jeremy, (Joshua Jackson) is sent by his employer to elicit a new book from their literary titan Weldon (Harvey Keitel) who has exiled himself to Tuscany and has not written for over 20 years. Jeremy soon finds himself smitten with the author’s daughter Isabella (Claire Forlani) as he continues to try to persuade Weldon to write. They two form an unlikely friendship as they both discover their gift for writing.
Shadows of the Sun is a charming movie with the stunning landscapes of Siena and Joshua Jackson in fine Pacey-esque form.
Tuscany Locations: Locations around Siena – Val d’Orcia, Abbadia San Salvatore, Rocca d’Orcia in Abbadia San Salvatore, Chiusi
9
My House in Umbria is a made for HBO movie. After surviving a terrorist attack on an Italian train line, romance novelist Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) opens up her Italian villa and solitary life to a trio of stranded survivors.
She soon forms friendships with each, but develops a special attachment to the young orphan Aimee. So when Aimee’s distant uncle arrives to retrieve the girl, Emily strives to convince the cold, mourning man that Umbria is Aimee’s rightful home.
Tuscany Locations: Siena
10
In Lost in Florence, an American man decides to stay in Florence after a breakup with his girlfriend. The football player wants to try his athletic skills in the historic Florence game Calcio Fiorentino.
It’s a typical romantic comedy but includes stunning scenes of Florence and the cultural tradition of the game, Calcio Fiorentino, which dates back to the Renaissance.
Tuscany location: Florence takes center stage throughout the film including showing the tradition of the Calcio Fiorentino played in Florence’s Piazza Santa Croce.
11
The second movie in the 5-movie vampire series, Twilight tells the story of Bella Swan and the vampire she falls in love with, Edward Cullen. The movie takes the characters to an ancient Italian city where the Volturi reside.
Tuscany Locations: Volterra is the setting in the books but Montepulciano was used in the movie.
Historical TV Series featuring Florence
12
The Medici – the powerful family of the Renaissance period in Florence. Their banking practices led to the creation of a middle class while making themselves extremely wealthy.
They used this wealth to challenge traditional thinking, ushering in a new era of revolutionary art and science such as the world had never seen including public libraries and sponsorship of some of the greatest artists & scientists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci, Brunelleschi, and Galileo.
Season One shows the rise of the Medici family through Cosimo de’ Medici.
Season Two starts twenty years later and follows the rise of Lorenzo “The Magnificent” de’ Medici (Cosimo’s grandson).
Italy Film Locations: The series features locations throughout Italy including Florence, Rome, Milan, and several small towns – Pienza, Montepulciano, Volterra
13
The series, The Borgias, follows the rise of the Borgia family as Rodrigo Borgia is elected as head of the Roman Catholic Church becoming Pope Alexander VI. This pope maintained power through corruption, bribery, and murder with the help of his sons, Juan and Cesare, and his daughter Lucretia.
This TV series provides a glimpse into the political wrangling of the Renaissance with storylines interweaving historical events in Rome, Florence, Milan, and Naples.
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