On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favorite films, television shows, and more. This time, we take a look at You, Me & Tuscany.
You, Me & Tuscany is the type of movie that’s best enjoyed with a glass of red wine. The new romantic comedy, which stars Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page and The Little Mermaid‘s Halle Bailey, seizes upon what’s become a universal lust for the countryside of its titular Italian region and serves us up a dolce vita dream of vineyard vistas, fresh focaccia, and the endless possibility that comes with the first signs of true love.
Bailey stars as Anna, a Manhattanite culinary school defector. She meets a cute Italian named Matteo at a bar, learns his family villa in Tuscany is empty, and decides to go there on an impromptu adventure. Does that sound a little crazy? Her best friend thinks so too: “Let me get this straight—you meet some random rich spicy white boy and you think that’s a sign to fly to Italy tonight?” She does indeed think it as a sign to fly to Italy tonight, and off she goes.
At first, it looks like Anna might be in an Italian Get Out after she’s caught by two of Matteo’s relatives in the villa without a plausible explanation. Anna does the inadvisable: She claims to be Matteo’s fiancé. Hijinks ensue. In the end it’s Michael (Page), Matteo’s cousin, who lands Anna’s heart. The inherent romance of the Tuscan countryside was crucial to the making of this movie. Fresh produce, crusty bread, and wheels of cheese abound as do open skies and endless stretches of vineyards.
Production designer Elena Albanese was born and raised in Milan and wanted to be sure that the movie stayed true to authentic Italian sensibilities despite being geared toward American viewers. “I tried to stay as close as possible to Italian aesthetics but at the same time, enhance it for an international audience.” Below, she walks us through the locations around Italy—and briefly New York—where the crew filmed.
New York City
We first encounter Anna, a bit of a hot mess who hops from one house-sitting gig to the next in New York City. Anna strolls down Fifth Avenue, passing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and makes her way to a hotel, where her friend Claire works. It’s in the hotel bar where she first meets Matteo. “In New York City,” Albanese explains, “we only shot the plates of Anna walking.” This involves capturing clean background footage and then the actual shots of Bailey walking were done at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome. As for the hotel, the exterior was shot in Pienza, while the hotel lobby and suite were shot in the Six Senses Rome and the hotel bar in the InterContinental Rome.
