Frances Mayes is a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour. Her recent divorce has left her with terminal writer's block and extremely depressed, and her best friend, Patti, is beginning to think she might never recover. Frances decides to take a break and she buys a villa in the beautiful Tuscan countryside and decides to begin anew. Restoring her new home, she eventually finds the fulfillment she was searching for, including love.

Writer/director Audrey Wells said that when she was writing the script, the only actress she thought of to play Patti was Sandra Oh. They had worked together on Guinevere (1999). One of Oh's guests on the Italian location was her fianc?a href="/name/nm0668247/">Alexander Payne.

Marcello:
Francesca.


Frances:
Yes?


Marcello:
I am going to make love all over you!


Frances:
Okay.

Errors in geography: Near the end of the movie, as a voiceover speaks of the Semmering Pass railway from Austria to Italy, we are shown a train of the Rh?sche Bahn (or Rhaetian Railway). Except for a very short section in Italy, the RhB operates only in Switzerland; it's nowhere near the Semmering Pass.

Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Performed by The Oscar Peterson Trio
Courtesy of The Verve Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises