Under the Tuscan Sun

Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) is a San Francisco writer whose seemingly perfect life takes an unexpected turn when she learns that her husband has been cheating on her. Frances is also a professor who had encouraged many students to find the writer hidden inside them. The students loved Frances as she was really invested in their success. One day Frances is confronted by a writer whose book she had reviewed. In the book, a middle aged person lives out his teenage fantasies now that he has both time and money. Frances wrote that she found that unrealistic. The husband named Tom, who had been working on his writing and had no income, ironically, was allowed to petition for alimony. As a one-time settlement, however, the agreement was for Frances to quitclaim her 1/2 ownership of the home in exchange for money. Tom wanted to continue living in the house very badly, and Frances' lawyer told her to take the generous settlement offer to give up her half of the claim on the house, as the market would certainly not pay that much. Tom's new partner gives him the money to buy out Frances' half. Frances realizes that they were desperate for the house as it was in catchment zone for some really good schools. Frances leaves her own house with just 3 boxes of memories. The divorce, and the loss of her house to her ex-husband and his much-younger, pregnant new partner, leaves her depressed and unable to write. The short term apartment building that Frances moves into has a lot of people who had moved in due to their own divorce battles which sometimes drag on for multiple years. Neighbors include a doctor who writes prescriptions for sleeping pills, a writer (Frances) who can write suicide notes, and a person who cries a lot. Her best friend Patti (Sandra Oh), who is expecting a child with her girlfriend Grace, is beginning to think Frances might never recover. She urges Frances to take an Italian vacation to Tuscany using the ticket she purchased before she became pregnant. Patti says that the tour package mostly has couples, so there would be nobody to hit on her, and Frances can listen to her own inner voice. At first Frances refuses, but after another depressing day in her gloomy apartment, she decides that it's a good idea to get away for awhile. In Tuscany, her tour group stops in the small town of Cortona. David (Kristoffer Winters) is the tour guide who makes Frances feel welcome and as part of the group even though it is a gay tour bus. Frances helps write a letter to fellow tourist Rodney's (Dan Bucatinsky) mother from Cortana, which gets her going again as she describes the views of the town in vivid detail. After wandering through the charming streets, she notices a posting for a villa for sale in Cortona. She rejoins her tour group on the bus, and just outside of town, the bus stops to allow a herd of sheep to cross the road. While they wait, Frances realizes that they've stopped directly in front of the very villa that she had seen for sale, something she believes is a sign. The villa is named Bramasole, which is very run down but is considered redeemable. She asks the driver to stop and she gets off the bus. Through a series of serendipitous events, she becomes the owner of a lovely yet dilapidated villa in beautiful Tuscany. The owner of the house is a Contessa (Laura Pestellini) who was negotiating the price with another buyer when Frances walked in. She doubled the price, now that she had 2 bidders. The first buyer withdrew at that asking price, leaving Frances. Frances could not pay double the asking price, and gives her number which she got for her apartment in US as part of the divorce settlement. The Contessa refuses the offer, but then the pigeons of the house defecate on Frances' head, convincing the Contessa that this is a sign and she agrees to sell the villa to Frances. Martini (Vincent Riotta) is the Contessa's broker in the transaction. Frances is elated at having bought a house in a foreign land, but soon has buyer's remorse as the house is in a bad condition. She decides to work on the house by picking one room at a time and fixing it. A storm passes through Tuscany, and Frances barely survives the night as the house struggles against the gale force winds and heavy rain and thunder. An owl takes sanctuary inside the house, which tells Frances that she too is safe. Frances begins her new life with the help of a variety of interesting characters and unusual but gentle souls. She hires a crew of Polish immigrants to renovate the house. Martini likes Frances and helps her select a contractor for the house renovation work that she needs to get done. Over time, Frances also befriends her Italian neighbors and develops relationships with her Polish workers, the Realtor who sold her the villa, and Katherine (Lindsay Duncan), an eccentric, aging, British actress who evokes the mystery and beauty of an Italian film star. Later, she is visited by the now very pregnant Patti, whose partner Grace has left her. Frances meets and has a brief romantic affair with Marcello (Raoul Bova), but their relationship does not last. She is about to give up on happiness when one of her Polish workers, a teenager named Pawel (Pawel Szajda), and her contractor's young daughter Chiara (Giulia Steigerwalt) come to her for help. Her father does not approve of him, due to his being Polish and not having a family, yet they are very much in love and want to get married. Frances persuades the girl's family to support their love, by proclaiming that she is Pawel's family, and the young lovers are soon married at the villa. During the wedding celebration, Ed (David Sutcliffe), an American writer appears unexpectedly. The writer, whose novel Frances had previously edited and critiqued harshly, is traveling in Tuscany and heard about her residence there. Their attraction for each other points to a romantic future.