Under the Tuscan Sun: The Real Cortona

If you found Cortona through a book or a film, this is the page for you. Yes — Cortona is the town of Under the Tuscan Sun. Frances Mayes bought and restored a villa called Bramasole here, wrote a bestselling memoir about it in 1996, and in 2003 it became a film with Diane Lane. This guide separates what’s real from what Hollywood invented, and shows you how to experience the Under the Tuscan Sun Cortona without disappointment — or trespassing.

It’s part of our complete Cortona travel guide, so once you’ve soaked up the romance, you’ll know exactly what to see and where to stay.

The book, the film, and the difference

It helps to know there are two Under the Tuscan Suns.

The book (1996) is Frances Mayes’s reflective memoir — Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy — about buying a neglected villa outside Cortona and slowly restoring it and her life around it. It’s about plaster and olive trees and markets and meals, not plot. She followed it with Bella Tuscany and Every Day in Tuscany, deepening the same world.

The film (2003), directed by Audrey Wells, keeps the premise — a woman buys a Tuscan villa on impulse — but invents an entirely new story around it, complete with a divorce and a romance that never happened in real life. It’s a different beast: lighter, sunnier, and shot to make you book a flight.

The short version: read the book for the real Cortona; watch the film for the scenery.

What was actually filmed in Cortona

A lot of the film’s “town” really is Cortona — its lanes, its squares, the long valley views — which is exactly why so many visitors arrive with the film in mind. But the production roamed across Italy: notable scenes were shot in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, and in Rome and Florence, among others. So if a particular vista feels like it can’t possibly be in one small hill town, it probably isn’t.

The truth about Bramasole

Here’s the thing visitors most need to hear: Bramasole is a private home, and you cannot visit it.

It sits on the hillside just outside the historic centre, along the road toward the church of Santa Margherita and the countryside beyond. The name comes from bramare il sole — “to yearn for the sun” — which is how Mayes describes the villa’s south-facing longing for light. The house is still associated with her, it is still lived in, and it is not a museum, a tasting room, or an attraction. Please admire the idea of it from the public road and leave the residents in peace; respecting that is part of being a good guest in Cortona.

How to experience the real Under the Tuscan Sun

The good news is that the Cortona Mayes fell for isn’t behind a gate — it’s the whole town and the landscape around it. To feel the book without chasing a single house:

• Walk the centre slowly. Linger in Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Signorelli, the squares that anchor the film’s sense of place. Early morning and evening are pure Mayes.
• Climb toward Santa Margherita. The stepped walk up the hillside gives you the olive terraces and the sweeping valley light that fill the book — and it’s the direction Bramasole lies, so you’ll pass through exactly that landscape (without disturbing it).
• Shop the market and eat local. Mayes’s Tuscany is, above all, about food and the seasons. A morning at the market and a long lunch is the most faithful tribute you can pay.
• Taste the local wine. The estates below town pour the Cortona DOC Syrah that didn’t exist when the book came out but is now part of the town’s identity.

Stay where the story is set

The most immersive way to do Under the Tuscan Sun is to stay the night — ideally inside the walls, so you have the town in the gold of early morning and evening, or in a countryside villa with the olive terraces and valley views that the book is really about. Either way, give yourself two nights: this is a town to live in for a moment, not to tick off.

When you’re ready to plan the practical side — getting here, what to see, and the day trips — head back to our complete Cortona travel guide.