Tuscany and Umbria in the movies
Umbria and the nearby lands of Arezzo, in Tuscany, are locations loved by movie directors from all over the world, and on many occasions have been selected as the sets of hit movies. Tours featuring a trip of movie sets of Tuscany and Umbria are increasing and Country House Marilena la Casella becomes the perfect place for the tourist who would love to see once again the views/glimpses, piazzas, balconies and porticoes immortalized by cinema.
La vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful)
In 1997 Roberto Benigni decided to film La vita è bella in Arezzo, 40Km from Country House Marilena la Casella: many will remember the medieval piazza sans the country roads where Guido (Roberto Benigni) meets Dora (Nicoletta Braschi). Some plaques affixed in the corners of Arezzo allow visitors to remember the places where the shooting of one of Italian cinema’s most famous film took place.
Lezioni di cioccolato (Chocolate Lessons)
In 2007 Umbria was chosen as the location for the comedy film Lezioni di cioccolato starring Luca Argentero. The main location was the Perugia’s Scuola di Cioccolato (Chocolate School) which also hosted the sequel Lezioni di cioccolato 2, shot in 2011 and from which was born the course for learning to produce the chocolate candies seen in the film through the phases of manual tempering, pouring into the moulds, making ganache and de-moulding.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Many scenes from the film Under the Tuscan Sun were filmed in the medieval little town of Cortona, just 20Km from Country House Marilena la Casella. Taken from the Frances Mayes’s auto-biographical novel Under the Tuscan Sun, the film’s star is Frances Mayes (Diane Lane), a depressed writer who decides to make a fresh start, by moving to the splendid Tuscan countryside. Fields of Sunflowers, green hills, Cypress tree-lined drives and villages rich in art and history, just like Cortona and Valdichiana, are the background to this charming comedy.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The historic city centre of Montepulciano, just 50Km from Country House Marilena la Casella, hosted the set of the movie New Moon: the places which characterised the filming were the roads surrounding Montepulciano and the temple of St. Biagio, the route and streets inside the medieval city wall. The scenes with the Volturi, rather, held inside the Palazzo Comunale and in a few buildings of the historic city centre. In the end, the saga’s big scene, where Bella (Kristen Stewart) saves Edward (Robert Pattinson), was filmed in Piazza Grande and at the entrance of the Palazzo del Comune. The fountain described in the book, 7 metres long, was reconstructed here out of wood and papier-mâché.
