Under the Tuscan Sun · Guide
Under the Tuscan Sun Filming Locations
Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed in Cortona, at Villa Laura, and in other Italian locations including Montepulciano, Florence, Rome and Positano. Villa Laura plays the movie’s Bramasole; Frances Mayes’s real house is a different property.
The film sends you to Cortona, and Cortona is genuinely where most of it was shot. But the production ranged across Italy — from the Amalfi Coast to Rome to a square in Montepulciano standing in for Cortona’s own — and the one house everybody wants to find isn’t the house in the film at all.
Here are the principal locations, an orientation map and a walk through Cortona’s public squares. This is part of our guide to Under the Tuscan Sun in Cortona.
Filming locations map
The map shows the towns discussed below, not every camera position. For the Tuscan locations, see the Toscana Film Commission’s location list. Disney’s D23 film entry also confirms filming in Cortona, Florence, Rome and Positano.
A self-guided Cortona filming locations walk
Allow a relaxed hour for these two neighbouring squares and a coffee stop; the walking itself is short. This is a public-space walk, with no admission to private buildings included.
- Start in Piazza della Repubblica. Look toward the town hall and its steps: this is the square used for the market scene.
- Continue into Piazza Signorelli. This is the fountain location, but the fountain was a temporary film prop. The square is the attraction today.
- Finish with time in the historic centre. Stay for lunch or continue exploring with our Cortona guide. Choose a separate day for Montepulciano.
Open the two-square walking route in Google Maps.
Visit Tuscany confirms both square locations and the film prop. The route does not enter Bramasole or Villa Laura: neither is a public walk-in attraction.
The big one: the villa is not Bramasole
The single most common mistake visitors make. The house you see on screen — the one Frances buys, camps in, and slowly brings back to life — is Villa Laura, a property a few kilometres outside Cortona. It was used for both exteriors and interiors.
The real Bramasole, the villa Frances Mayes actually bought in 1989, sits on the Torreone road above the town. It does not appear in the film. The reason is simple and slightly funny: by the time the cameras rolled in 2002, Mayes had spent thirteen years restoring the place. It looked wonderful. The script needed a ruin, so the production found one.
And here’s the part most guides miss: Villa Laura takes bookings. The house that played Bramasole is a rental villa, so if you want to genuinely wake up in the film, that’s the way to do it. The real Bramasole is a private home and is not open to visitors — we go into that properly in our guide to Bramasole.
Cortona
The town plays itself, and a good deal of the film was shot in its streets.
| Location | What was filmed there | Can you visit? |
|---|---|---|
| Piazza della Repubblica | The market scene — the town’s main square, dressed with period stalls | Yes, freely |
| Piazza Signorelli | The fountain scene | Yes — but see the note below |
| Teatro Signorelli, Piazza Signorelli | Frances and Pawel at the cinema | Yes, it’s a working theatre |
| Palazzo Diligenti, Via Guelfa | Katherine’s apartment, where she sits for a portrait | Exterior only, private |
| Villa Laura, outside town | The film’s Bramasole, inside and out | Yes — as a paying guest |
About that fountain
There is no fountain in Piazza Signorelli. There never has been. The production built one — a lightweight prop, a nod to Fellini’s Trevi scene in La Dolce Vita — filmed around it, and took it away. Visitors have been walking into that square looking for it for twenty years. Now you know.
And about the market
The Saturday market in Piazza della Repubblica is real and still the centre of the week. But the film dressed its extras in 1950s clothing, so the on-screen market looks like a different era entirely. Turn up on a Saturday morning and you’ll get the genuine article — just in modern clothes.
Montepulciano
Two of the film’s most memorable sequences aren’t Cortona at all.
- Piazza Grande — the flag-throwing festival. This is Montepulciano’s square, not Cortona’s. (Cortona does have its own historic festival, the Giostra dell’Archidado in June, but it isn’t the one you saw.)
- Temple of San Biagio, viale della Rimembranza — the exterior for Pawel and Chiara’s wedding. It’s a High Renaissance church standing alone below the town walls, and it’s one of the loveliest buildings in Tuscany in its own right.
Montepulciano is about an hour from Cortona and makes an excellent day out — it’s on our list of the best day trips from Cortona, with the Vino Nobile as an added argument.
Positano
Hotel California, Via Cristoforo Colombo 141 — Marcello’s hometown hotel, and the reason so many people assume the film is set on the Amalfi Coast for a stretch. Positano is about five hours south of Cortona and a completely different trip; don’t plan to do both in a weekend.
Rome
The city gets a proper run of scenes:
- Victor Emmanuel II Monument — Frances arrives by bus
- Via dei Coronari — she meets Marcello outside a shop on this antiques street
- Piazza di San Simeone — the flirtation by the fountain (a real one, this time)
- Via dei Cappellari — the workmen scene
Cinecittà Studios in Rome also stood in for San Francisco: several of the American interiors were built on soundstages there rather than shot in California.
Florence
Piazza del Duomo — Frances’s arrival at the cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. A single, spectacular establishing location. Florence is around 90 minutes from Cortona by train.
San Francisco
The film opens in California. The restaurant where Frances has dinner with Patti was Mecca on Market Street, which has since closed and become something else entirely. Most of the other American material was shot at Cinecittà.
Doing the locations as a trip
If you want to see the film’s Italy properly, base yourself in Cortona rather than trying to chase everything.
- Day one — Cortona on foot. Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza Signorelli, the Teatro, Via Guelfa. It’s all within a fifteen-minute walk, and you can add the climb to Santa Margherita and the Girifalco fortress for the valley views that fill the film.
- Day two — Montepulciano. The flag festival square and San Biagio, plus the wine. Best by car or on a tour; the train connection is awkward.
- Optional — Florence or Rome. Both are easy day trips by rail from Camucia-Cortona or Terontola-Cortona.
- Skip Positano unless the Amalfi Coast was already on your itinerary. It’s a long way for one hotel.
For where to base yourself — inside the walls, down in Camucia, or out in the countryside — see where to stay in Cortona. And if you’re still wondering how much of the story was true in the first place, we’ve answered that in is Under the Tuscan Sun a true story?
Frequently asked questions
Where was Under the Tuscan Sun filmed?
Mostly in and around Cortona, in eastern Tuscany. The villa scenes were filmed at Villa Laura, a few kilometres outside town, and the town scenes in Cortona itself. The production also shot in Montepulciano, Positano on the Amalfi Coast, Rome and Florence, with some interiors built at Cinecittà Studios in Rome.
Which villa was used as Bramasole in the film?
Villa Laura, a private villa a few kilometres from Cortona, played Bramasole for both exteriors and interiors. The real Bramasole was not used, because Frances Mayes had already finished restoring it and the script needed a house that still looked abandoned.
Can you visit the villa from Under the Tuscan Sun?
You can stay in it. Villa Laura, the house that played Bramasole on screen, operates as a rental villa and takes bookings. The real Bramasole, which belongs to Frances Mayes, is a private home and is not open to visitors.
Is the fountain in Piazza Signorelli real?
No. The fountain in the film's Piazza Signorelli scene was a prop built by the production and removed after filming. There has never been a fountain in that square, which catches out a lot of visitors who arrive looking for it.
Was the flag-throwing festival filmed in Cortona?
No — that scene was shot in Piazza Grande in Montepulciano, about an hour away. Cortona has its own historic festival, the Giostra dell'Archidado, held in June, but it is not the one in the film.