With a total area of about 23,000 square kilometers and a population of about 3.8 million, Tuscany is a region in central Italy. Florence is the center of the region. Tuscany is renowned for its natural beauty, rich history, artistic legacy, and impact on world culture. It is thought to have laid the groundwork for the Italian Renaissance and the Italian language. There’s a lot to know about the History of Tuscany.
Following Veneto, Tuscany is the second most visited region of Italy by tourists. Florence, Pisa, San Gimignano, Lucca, Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, and Siena are the top tourist destinations. With seaside tourism accounting for about 40% of visitor arrivals, Castiglione Della Pescaia is the most popular seaside destination in the area. Versilia, Val d’Orcia, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, the Maremma region, and the region of Lucca are also well-known destinations around the world.
Movies Filmed in Tuscany
Tuscany has always been one of the favorite locations as regards films of all times. There are a lot of famous movies that are set in Tuscany. Great directors from all over the world have been inspired by this region, and they continue to be inspired today.
1. Tea With Mussolini
Maggie Smith and Cher star in the 1999 British-Italian movie “Tea with Mussolini,” which was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It tells the tale of a young Italian boy who was raised in Italy before and during the Second World War in a community of British and American women. Other than the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, the primary locations are Florence and San Gimignano (Latium).
2. Life Is Beautiful
The 1997 Italian film “Life Is Beautiful” (original title: La Vita è Bella) was filmed in Arezzo and the surrounding areas. It tells the tale of a Jewish man named Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also served as the film’s director and co-writer), who tries to help his family by using his imagination while they are interned in a Nazi concentration camp. Benigni won the Best Actor Oscar at the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, and the movie also took home Oscars for Best Original Drama Score and Best Foreign Language Film.
3. Under The Tuscan Sun
The 2003 “rom-com” “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Audrey Wells tells the tale of Frances Mayes (Diane Lane), who moves to Tuscany after her unexpected divorce and decides to purchase an old house in Cortona. You decide what transpires after she meets Marcello (Raoul Bova) while visiting Rome.
4. The Best of Youth
The 2003 Italian movie “The Best of Youth” (original title: La meglio gioventù) was helmed by Marco Tullio Giordana. It was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival where it won the prestigious “Un Certain Regard” award. It was originally intended as a four-part series. A family saga called The Best of Youth takes place in Italy from 1966 to 2003. It primarily follows two brothers as they grow from adolescents in the middle of the 1960s to parents and retirees in the early 2000s. The purpose of the movie is to demonstrate the close relationship between the national narrative and the individual personal events of the tail. The bad times of the big flood in 1966 are depicted in some scenes shot in Florence.
5. Stealing Beauty
The 1996 drama film “Stealing Beauty” (originally titled “Io ballo da sola”), written and directed by Academy Award winner Bernardo Bertolucci, stars Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons, and Rachel Weisz. After the passing of her mother, Lucy, a teenage American girl, is sent to Italy by her widowed father. She currently resides in a farmhouse outside of Siena with a few family friends. She quickly realizes that this trip will change her life and force her to mature because her presence will upset the host’s delicate balance.
6. Hannibal
“Hannibal” is a well-known psychological thriller that Ridley Scott directed in 2001 and was based on Thomas Harris’s book of the same name. It is a follow-up to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs and stars Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins in his legendary role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter. The premise of this film, which is set ten years after the previous one, is that Gary Oldman’s character, who plays Dr. Lecter’s sole survivor, is out to find him, torture him, and then kill him. Hannibal’s filming locations alternate between the United States and Italy (primarily Florence).
7. The English Patient
The 1996 romantic-drama movie “The English Patient” is based on the Michael Ondaatje novel, which was written by a Canadian-Sri Lankan author. Anthony Minghella, who also wrote the screenplay, won nine Academy Awards for the movie, including Best Picture. Arezzo and Pienza are the places in Tuscany. A French-Canadian nurse (interpreted by Juliette Binoche) works and lives in a secure Italian monastery in the closing days of the Italian campaign of World War II. She refers to the critically burned man (Ralph Finnes) she cares for as the English Patient because he speaks English but is unable to recall his name.
8. A Room With A View
James Ivory directed the 1985 British drama movie “A Room with a View.” The movie is a close adaptation of E, with the ending changed. The same-titled book by M. Forster. The story of young Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) in the constrictive Edwardian era of England and her growing love for the rebellious young George Emerson is told in this film, which is set in both England and Italy (Florence).
9. Gladiator
In 2000, Ridley Scott helmed the historical epic “Gladiator,” which starred Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. A corrupt emperor’s son betrays the Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius and kills his family; to exact revenge, he travels to Rome as a gladiator. It was a financial success at the box office and got mostly favorable reviews. The movie won numerous honors (five Academy Awards, including Best Picture). Although both a prequel and a sequel have been discussed, no actual filming has taken place. Near Pienza, some Gladiator scenes were shot.
10. The Twilight Saga
Based on Stephenie Meyer’s 2006 vampire novel “New Moon,” “The Twilight Saga” is a run of five American romance fantasy movies that began in 2008. starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, and directed by Chris Weitz. In the streets and alleys of Volterra’s historical center from the fourteenth century, some significant scenes from the second episode—which was given the same name as the book—were filmed. The Legend of the Volturi, which has been passed down through the ages and was most recently depicted in this renowned Saga, has always had an impact on Volterra.