Chianti and cinema: exploring the most famous locations

We start in the Chianti area of Siena, where Castelnuovo Berardenga proves to be a real open-air set, beloved by Italian and international filmmakers.

Among the most famous films is Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” (1996), which made a name for a very young Liv Tyler and was set in the surrounding countryside. The hamlet of Vagliagli, rather, lent its beauty to the film “Letters to Juliet” (2010), a romantic comedy that exalted the Tuscan landscape and made thousands of young people dream. Vagliagli—and its cemetery in particular—was also the location for Renzo Martinelli’s film “Five Moons Square,” shot in 2003 and dedicated to the Moro kidnapping.


Italian director Carlo Verdone then chose Castelnuovo Berardenga for his 1992 “Al lupo al lupo” (also known as “Wolf! Wolf!”), with scenes shot in the picturesque Villa di Geggiano and Villa Arceno.

Finally, Francesca Archibugi’s “With Closed Eyes” (1994), loosely based on the novel by Federico Tozzi, featured an exceptional cast including Stefania Sandrelli and Sergio Castellitto.

We now move on to Greve in Chianti, the beating heart of Chianti Classico wine and muse of one of England’s most famous directors and actors.

We are referring to Kenneth Branagh, who chose the splendid 15ᵗʰ-century Villa Vignamaggio for the filming of his “Much Ado About Nothing” (1993). The famous adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, originally set in Sicily, found the ideal location in Vignamaggio. In the summer of 1992, actors of the caliber of Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington trod the gardens and halls of this historic mansion just outside Greve. 

The beauty of the villa overlooking the Chianti hills contributed to the film’s success.

San Casciano in Val di Pesa was one of the settings for the saga of “Amici Miei” (or “My Friends”), the famous films shot by director Mario Monicelli. Among the locations are the Ponte degli Scopeti near Sant’Andrea in Percussina and especially the Tondo delle Corti along Via Grevigiana, alongside Villa Corsini, where a commemorative plaque was also placed a few years back.

In addition, San Casciano in Val di Pesa and Barberino Tavarnelle were the locations of the film “Che bella storia è la vita” (2023) by Italian director Alessandro Sarti with actress Sandra Milo. It was precisely the village of San Casciano in Val di Pesa that hosted most of the filming, given that Roberto Caneschi’s book on which the film was based was also set here.

Barberino Tavarnelle, rather, is the birthplace of Italian director Ugo Chiti. Chiti himself contributed to the screenplay of the film “The Party’s Over,” by director Alessandro Benvenuti, produced in 1991 and starring Massimo Ghini, Alida Valli, Athina Cenci and a young Leonardo Pieraccioni. The abandoned house where the prank of a miraculous apparition is played on Giovannino takes place is actually the Villa “I Tre Cipressi” along Via di Tignano.

With its charming historic center, Radda in Chianti hosted the comedy “Weddings and Other Disasters” (2010) by Nina Di Majo.

Starring Margherita Buy, Fabio Volo and Luciana Littizzetto, the film tells the story of a family grappling with the organization of a wedding. Several scenes of the film were shot between Radda in Chianti and Gaiole in Chianti, capturing the authentic beauty of these places.

Maybe Castellina in Chianti doesn’t have such famous films or TV series to its credit, but there is an important museum celebrating the history of one of the most famous couples in Italian cinema, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.

It is the Trinity Museum dedicated to Italo Zingarelli, housed within the Rocca delle Macie winery, owned by the Zingarelli family.

It was Italo Zingarelli himself who in 1970, as an innovative film producer, cast the famous pair in the film “They Call Me Trinity.”

The quaint museum, with free admission, traces the history of the Trinity trilogy and the films that followed, enshrining the success of the Spencer-Hill duo. 

These are just some of the film-related places in Chianti. Here, every hamlet, every vineyard, may very well hide a story or a memory of a film that left its mark.