Toscana cinema and tourism: when the landscape is attraction

What they have in common the three award-winning film "The English Patient" by Anthony Minghella (1996), winner of 9 Oscars, "La vita è bella" by Roberto Benigni (1997), winner of 3 Oscars and "Gladiator" (2000) by Ridley Scott, winner of 5 Oscars? All these movies were shot in Tuscany!

The films that brought Tuscany on the screen are numerous and range from big Hollywood blockbuster up to short films by directors emerging Tuscan. But what are the most famous movies filmed in Tuscany and what is the relationship between cinema and tourism?

Tuscany, with its rolling hills and bucolic landscape, is the perfect setting for cinematic masterpieces of small and big screen. The charm of this region seems meant to accommodate romance films or to make the backdrop for historical films, especially those that reconstruct the glorious past of Tuscany, as in the case of Rai International tv series "Medici. The Masters of Florence " (2016). The sensitivity of the filmmakers was also able to reinterpret the Tuscan landscape, connotandolo of decidedly noir: the Italian master of horror Dario Argento chose her to be the background to the film "La Sindrome di Stendhal" (1996).

Some movies have managed to capture the hidden soul of this land better than others, Chief among them "Un tè con Mussolini" (1996), where the great Franco Zeffirelli makes a flattering tribute to the charming village of San Gimignano the province of Siena. The Argentario and Orbetello are the setting chosen by Paolo Sorrentino to reconstruct the atmosphere of Villa Certosa in Sardinia, within its new and chatted movie "Loro" (2018), inspired by the life of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Even overseas productions have chosen Tuscany as a location for the filming of award-winning films and blockbusters at the box office. Only in recent years have many international successes that have brought to the big screen the Tuscan countryside. In 2009 the second film in the Twilight saga , "New Moon" (2009), stops off for filming in Montepulciano, bringing with it a crowd of tourists and onlookers. In other cases the definitive take-off of an area already enshrines cinema famous worldwide: the case of Siena, setting of a portion of the film "Quantum of Solace" (2008), spy-movie in the saga of 007, in which Director Marc Forster decides to show also the Palio.

The stereotype that sees the Tuscany as a verdant and unspoiled countryside, perfect for an escape from the busy city, is mainly due to foreign films. Great showcases of Tuscany for a wide audience of potential tourists are the films "Under the Tuscan Sun" (2003), set between Cortona and Montepulciano and "Letters To Juliet" ( 2010) filmed in the hillsides around Castelnuovo Berardenga. The Tuscan cities of art have had their international prominence, especially with the movie "Inferno" (2016) by Ron Howard, the third installment of the movie series from the best seller by Dan Brown and set in Florence.

The films are a tow formidable to discover the places of Tuscany, insomuch that they were born cineturistici routes ad hoc. The film's visibility becomes opportunity economy: leveraging the success from the movie are created for the fans tour showing the places where key scenes were filmed.

It's not just the big Italian productions, but also foreign productions to make the Court Tuscan locations. In addition to famous directors toscani, as Pieraccioni and Virzi, Tuscany was also chosen by Asian cinema as the setting of sentimental film. The Bollywood actors were hosted last summer in the squares of Montepulciano, Siena, Pienza, Volterra, filming the romantic comedy "Inspector Notty K", a production involving India and Bangladesh.

Italian and international directors are continually looking for new location arranged to host the filming of movies, tv and web series that show the beauty of Tuscany to the public. This is an important opportunity from a territorial point of view, able to raise the attractiveness of many Tuscan places that are waiting to be rediscovered.

It's Tuscany welcomes the invitation of the actor and Director Giovanni Guidelli, looking for a location for the tv series "Tuscan Dirty Fable," whose trailer has already been awarded with international awards and collects applications from Tuscan towns who want to offer itself as a film setting. We believe that our website is the right vehicle to merge requests of many directors who like John are looking for the perfect location in Tuscany and the desire to promote municipalities, affected the reputation of the territory among the general public.