Under the Tuscan Sun: Cortona to Positano

Frances's tour of Tuscany begins in Florence, in front of the cathedral in Piazza del Duomo. The real production was dogged by grey skies and rain, and the film turned the bad weather to good use as a visual gag for the tourists' first glimpse of Italy. The cathedral complex in the square includes the Florence Baptistery and Giotto's Campanile, so this first stop puts three of the city's great buildings in a single frame.

Visitor guidance: The cathedral square is open to walk through.

Frances's tour group stops in the small town of Cortona, and she notices a villa for sale. Most of the film is centred on the town's main square, Piazza Signorelli. The square has no fountain: the grand one in the film was a fibreglass construction, built so that the extravagantly Bohemian Katherine could wallow in it in homage to Fellini. The square itself is real, and ordinary life goes on around it.

Visitor guidance: The square is in the middle of Cortona and open to all.

Just outside Cortona the bus halts for sheep, and Frances realises it has stopped directly in front of the villa she saw advertised. She takes it as a sign and, through a series of events, becomes the owner of a lovely but dilapidated place. The real Villa Bramasole had been renovated, so the film used a more neglected double, Villa Laura, for both exteriors and interiors. It is now operated as a guest house.

Location precision: The film used Villa Laura as a stand-in for Bramasole, and no pin is given for the place outside Cortona.

With the renovation grinding on, Frances hires a crew of Polish workers to rebuild the house. One of them, Pawel, goes with her to the cinema in Cortona's Teatro Signorelli, on Piazza Luca Signorelli. They watch George of the Jungle. It is a small, warm scene of the friendship between the foreigner and her young helper.

Needing a break from the work on the house, Frances takes a trip to Rome and steps off the bus in front of the huge, elaborate Victor Emmanuel II Monument, built between 1885 and 1935. Harassed by workmen, she grabs a stranger leaving a shop on Via dei Coronari and pretends he is her husband. The stranger is Marcello, and he starts to flirt.

Visitor guidance: The monument is a large public landmark on Piazza Venezia.

Marcello soon whisks Frances off to his home on the Amalfi Coast: in the film he lives in the seaside town of Positano, at the Hotel California on Via Cristoforo Colombo. The colourful houses of Positano cling to the steep hillside above the shore. The two begin a brief romantic affair, but it does not last.

Location precision: The film places Marcello's home at the Hotel California Positano, but the pin marks the town centre.

Pawel, the young worker, is in love with local girl Chiara, whose parents intensely disapprove of him. Frances persuades the family to support the lovers by proclaiming that she is Pawel's family, and the pair marry. In the story the wedding is held at the villa; the location listings place it in Montepulciano, seemingly at the Temple of San Biagio, a church outside the town.

Location precision: The plot puts the wedding at the villa, while the film's location listings point to San Biagio near Montepulciano.