Behold The “Under The Tuscan Sun” House!

Yes, this is the actual house where Diane Lane filmed the classic 2003 romantic comedy – look at this shot from the film!

It Is The Actual Filming Location For The Movie!

You see, the filmmakers found an abandoned house just outside of Cortona, Italy – the actual town where the book’s Author Frances Mayes lived…and they refurbished the house as part of the plot of the film…

OK, two important notes: first, Mayes still lives in the original house known as “Bramasole” – where they did NOT film. This house, used in the film is called “Villa Laura”, a beautifully restored 17th century estate just outside the walls of Cortona.

We stayed here for a week as you can rent out the entire estate – so with a group of friends, we all descended on Cortona, Italy – about 90 minutes south of Florence…

An important second point as you see the gated entrance to the estate: Mayes sold the rights to film her real-life story – she had gotten divorced and that is referenced in the book – but the Producers turned some of the story into more of a romantic comedy than her real life was – although many of the funny moments from the book are in the film, especially when trying to buy the house!

First, let’s take a quick look at the estate itself, which actually has two houses! Here’s the movie house, and across the courtyard is a beautifully renovated farmhouse – with Cortona looming above in the distance!

Let’s head into the main house…as you enter, the faucet made famous because of the film is actually in the house!!!!!

As you enter, there is a living room to the right – and beyond it is a huge dining room and then the kitchen:

And that’s just the main floor, which also has a bathroom and bedroom as well..there are stairs that lead up from the hallway, and here is a walking tour of the bedrooms in the main house upstairs:

Did you notice the small cross just outside the window that is visible in the video? Here it is again:

Why is it there? I will explain!

You see, there are also stairs going into a basement area, where there is a TV room with a copy of the film to watch, and a small sitting area to relax – oh and there is this room as well:

Yes, there’s a pool table – and yes, we used it several nights! See those stairs to the right? Well, remember the cross on the roof?

Yes, there is a chapel in the basement of the house!

This series of surprises continued one more time, because we went through the chapel on many, many occasions, because here is what was on the other side:

Yes, they have their own wine cellar, and you can sign out anything you want – and we wanted!

Now, let’s head back outside – here is video of the estate grounds and second house!

While there are so many places nearby to explore like Assisi, Siena and Montepulciano to name a few, who wants to leave this?

We didn’t and here’s why:

Here’s the pool, and the farmhouse in the background – I will show you inside in a moment, but first – just to the left of the pool is another body of water:

Remember it was a working farm – so they built their own pond to raise fish!

Inside the farmhouse, there are 4 more bedrooms as well, and here is Alex in the living room area:

This is the kitchen where the house Chef worked – and yes, we had many incredible meals there, including a pizza night – because they had a wood-burning pizza oven!

Now, back to the film – here is a short video of the exterior of the house – not the main entrance but the back one – where all the tourists knocked because of THAT ROAD:

Yes, every single day we had people knock and ask for a tour of the house – I did it for a few because they were all lovers of the movie like us!

In the film, Diane Lane looks out her window and sees an old man, who every day leaves flowers at a small shrine along the side of the road outside her house.

Here is the view of the road from that window – and notice how Italy shows itself off in the background:

Here is what that window looks like from the road – Alex taking on the Diane Lane role:

Now, a movie “cheat” – there wasn’t a shrine visible from the window, you actaully had to walk up the road a quarter mile so some of us did just that to get the shot:

Meanwhile, my great friend Chris had to get “the shot” from inside – if you’ve seen the film, you may know the faucet comes alive at one point, but sadly with water not wine!

We did, however, end our week long time there sitting out to see this spectacular night time view of Tuscany from the house…

We are now lifelong fans of Sophie Thompson, who manages the estate – she was incredibly gracious – arranging wine tastings, day trips, local reservations, Chef dinners on site, cooking classes and so much more – if you ever are going to Tuscany she is the one to reach out to!

Now, here is the trailer for the film because c’mon:

I will share our pizza night and our cooking class as well as more adventures from this spectacular part of Itally!

Speaking of movie locations, I shared our adventure last year in Sicily, when we stayed in the hotel used to film season two of “The White Lotus!

Click here to see inside the San Domenico Palace in Taormina!

Sicily is filled with amazing sights to tour, like the original locations used for “The Godfather!”

One of the locations was up a steep road, so we took a small motorized cart and what a ride!

Check it out:

There were so many other cool locations, including us sitting in the exact same spot as Al Pacino!

See our tour by clicking here:

Also, check out this shot we took from the greek theater – see what’s right behind Alex?

Yes, that’s Mt. Etna!

It’s the most active volcano in Europe!

As some of you may remember, Alex and I got to hike to the top!

Check out this clip:

If you want to see what it takes to climb an active volcano, just click on my story here for more!

While we were near the top of Sicily, we also walked along the shoreline, where we discovered a “part time” island!

You see, it’s an island when the tide is high, but not when it’s low!

Clcik here to find out more about the magical “Isola Bella!”

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Categories: Cult Movies, Exotic Travel, Italy, Memoirs, Movies, nature, Pop Culture, Real Estate, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir

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