If you are in love with Tuscany and are also a movie lover, this article is for you. We talk about movies set in Tuscany. Our region has always been a source of inspiration for poets, painters, and sculptors. Also, movie directors fell in love with this region of Italy both for the beautiful natural landscape and for the art.

If Florence is one of the most seen cities in the movies, even small villages indeed appear as the scenery of many movies set in Tuscany.

Map of the locations of movies set in Tuscany

Our list of 28 Tuscany movies

In this post, you will find more than 25 movies set in Tuscany listed by year of production, with the director’s name and a short plot. In this way, you could search for your favorite of these movies set in Tuscany. You will find the most recent at the bottom of the article.

An idea for your next holiday could be the organization of a tour to visit some of the places chosen as locations for movies set in Tuscany.

At the end of the post, there is a map with an icon for each movie. Every icon indicates the location of every movie on the list.

MOVIES FROM THE SIXTIES


Love in a Pillow, 1962

Director: Roger Vadim

A young and rich bourgeoise girl saves the life of a young writer from suicide. After that they became lovers. Unfortunately, he is not a loyal man and humiliates her several times. Some scenes are filmed in Saint Galgano Abbey, near Siena.


Eight and a Half, 1963

Director: Federico Fellini

The master of the Italian Movie Federico Fellini, with Eight and a Half, tells the story of a director who is spending his holiday in Chianciano Terme. He is working on a new movie. When the production crew asked for news about the next movie, his creativity dried out. Both his professional and personal life give him problems and he starts to have a middle-aged crisis.


Romeo and Juliet, 1968

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

The famous Shakespeare tragedy has been directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The set for the scenes in the courtyard and the interior of the palace of Capulet Mansion is the Palazzo Piccolomini in Pienza.  The main square of Pienza is also the location for the ball with Mercutio, Benvolio, and Romeo.


MOVIES FROM THE SEVENTIES


Brother Sun, Sister Moon, 1972

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

The history of Saint Francis, and how he changes his personality after he came back from the war against Perugia. The locations are San Gimignano and the Fortress of Montalcino.


Obsession, 1976

Director: Brian De Palma

A rich man, obsessed with the guilt for the death of his wife and daughter, goes back to Florence, the place where his love story with the dear departed wife started. Here, he found love for the second time with a mysterious woman.


The Meadow, 1979

Director: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

The movie is set in San Gimignano. It tells about the fall of the idealism of the young generation.


MOVIES SET IN TUSCANY FROM THE EIGHTIES


Nostalghia, 1983

Director: Andrey Tarkovsky

Bagno Vignoni is the location for the movie by the Russian director, which presents the theme of the nostalgia of an expatriate Soviet poet. In the movie, it is possible to see some Piero Della Francesca frescoes and a beautiful convent in Tuscany.


A Room with a View, 1985

Director: James Ivory

We are at the beginning of the XX century, in the suburb of Santa Croce in Florence. A young woman discovers passion, coming out from a repressing education such as the English Victorian one.


MOVIES SET IN TUSCANY IN THE NINETIES


Much Ado About Nothing, 1993

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Inspired by Shakespeare’s comedy, the scene is located in Greve in Chianti, in the Tenuta Vignamaggio. The Tuscan village you see in the movie is Pienza, while the chapel, where Juliette Binoche studies the frescoes, is the Basilica of San Francesco at Arezzo.


The English Patient, 1996

Director: Anthony Minghella

One of the most famous movies set in Tuscany, the English Patient received 12  nominations at the 69th Academy Awards. It tells the story of a nurse working and living in Italy, during the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II. She is taking care of a man who lost his memory and is speaking English.


Stealing Beauty, 1996

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

An American teenager comes to visit some family friends, after her mother’s suicide. These friends live in a beautiful villa on the hillside of Siena, which is the meeting point for many artists. Here, she transforms herself from a teenager into a woman, losing her virginity and discovering her real father.


Portrait of a Lady, 1996

Director: Jane Campion

An independent American Lady, who went to Florence with her old aunt, starts an acquaintance with an egocentric dandy. They get married but he is interested only in her inheritance. But then she prefers to be free. The interior and some exterior scenes have been shouted in Lucca, at Palazzo Pfanner.


Life is Beautiful (La vita è Bella), 1997

Director: Roberto Benigni

In Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni is not only the director but also the actor of the movie and won the prize for Best Actor, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards.

The story takes place in Arezzo in 1939 and tells about a Jewish owner of a book shop imprisoned in a concentration camp with his family. He uses his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of the nazi camp.


Tea with Mussolini, 1999

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

In 1935 a group of English ladies lives in Florence bewitched by the art and the culture of Tuscany and Italy. One of them is the wife of an ambassador and has tea with Mussolini, to receive some warranty. Together with fascism, the war comes and the nazis invade Florence and the region. The ladies are in opposition to the attack on the towers of San Gimignano.


A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1999

Director: Michael Hoffman

Tuscany is the location of many scenes of the famous romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare, which does not need any presentation.


Where Angels Fears to Tread, 1999

Director: Tom Sturridge

Monteriano, a fictional Tuscan hill town located between Siena and Empoli, is the set of the story. An English widow falls in love with a young Italian guy escaping from the clutches of her oppressive meddlesome in-laws.


MOVIES SET IN TUSCANY FROM 2000


Gladiator, 2000

Director: Ridley Scott

Russel Crowe is the general Maximus betrayed by Comodo, the son of the Emperor, and transformed into a slave. He became a gladiator to avenge the death of his family and his Emperor. The final scene of the movie, set in Val d’Orcia, represents the typical Tuscan landscape with gently rolling hills, wheat fields, and cypresses.


Up at the Villa, 2000

Director: Philip Haas

The movie is inspired by the novel In Villa by William Somerset Maugham. A young fascinating widow who lives in the Tuscan countryside is caught among three men her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. the scenes were set in Florence in 1938.


Hannibal, 2001

Director: Ridley Scott

Hannibal Lecter, after he escapes from the jail of Baltimore, lives under the fake name of Doctor Fell in Florence. In the Tuscan city, he became a curator of the Capponi Library.  In the meantime, an inspector of the Italian police investigates the mysterious disappearance of the predecessor of Mr. Fell, killed exactly by the person who was taking his chair.


Certified Copy, 2001

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

This is the story of a British writer and a French antique dealer living in Tuscany. After becoming close friends they start a real relationship. The three towns of Cortona, Arezzo, and Lucignano, are the set of the movie.


Under the Tuscan Sun, 2003

Director: Audrey Wells

The movie is based on a popular book written by Frances Mayes. The story is about a young writer woman who after a recent divorce, decides to visit Italy. Once in Cortona, she gets in love not only with an Italian man but also with a beautiful villa to rebuild. She decides to buy it changing her life.


The Best Youth, 2003

Director: Marco Tullio Giordano

The Best Youth is an Italian domestic saga, set from 1966 to 2003. Two brothers native Romans grew up, and documented the problems of Italian society, from a personal point of view and political thought. Some scenes of the movie are set in Florence.


Miracle at St. Anna, 2008

Director: Spike Lee

A Puerto Rican veteran of World War II works in a Post Office and kills one customer. This is the beginning of the story of the Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division, seeking refuge in a small Tuscan village in Italy in 1944. The novel Miracle at St. Anna inspired the movie, written by James McBride, which contains some fictional events such as the betrayal by a Partisan, and the real horrible massacre of hundreds of children and women at Sant’Anna di Stazzema, a small village in Versilia in northern Tuscany.


Quantum of Solace, 2008

Director: Marc Forster

The 22nd episode of the James Bond saga is a journey around the world, and even across many areas of Tuscany as Siena, Talamone, and the White Marble Quarries of Carrara, to deliver the usual head of a criminal organization to the MI6.


The Twilight Saga: New Moon, 2010

Director: Chris Weitz

The famous Etruscan village of Volterra is the birthplace of the vampire family of Volturi. The forever seventeen-year-old Edwards, thinking that his beloved Bella died, goes to Volterra to be killed by the Volturi. Once in Tuscany, Bella will come to save him. The scenes set in Piazza Dei Priori of Volterra were made in Piazza Grande of Montepulciano. Do you guess why? Because of logistic and organization reasons.


Medici: Masters of Florence, 2016

Created by Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer

The dynasty of the dé Medici Family is the protagonist of this Italian-British production. The TV drama series tells the stories of one of the most important families of Florence and the Italian Renaissance. Of course, Florence is the main scenery of the drama but many of the scenes were filmed in Montepulciano and other Tuscan towns. On the blog, we dedicated an exclusive article to Medici Masters of Florence which is in its third season.


Inferno, 2016

Director: Ron Howard

Based on the novel by Dan Brown, the movie is set in Florence, Venice, and Istanbul. If you want to follow the steps of Tom Hanks, aka Mr. Robert Langdon, take a look at the blog post here.


Lost in Florence, 2017

Director: Evan Oppenheimer

Again, the city of Florence, its wonderful corners, and tradition are the backdrop of a romantic drama film. An American man decides to remain in Florence after his girlfriend breaks his heart. Being a football player, he decided to be part of the team Calcio Fiorentino. It’s there that he fell in love again… Read the complete post dedicated to the movie and Calcio Storico, here.

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28 movies set in Tuscany

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