From Fellini to Bertolucci: Tuscan spas are a font of inspiration What better place than a spa to unwind and think about your next film? That’s just what a troubled Guido Anselmi-Marcello Mastroianni thought when, unable to find inspiration, he fled to Chianciano. While there he went over his life and especially the women he had loved and in the end was able to face the world again. In 1963 Federico Fellini chose to shoot “Otto e Mezzo” right in Chianciano. He already regularly visited Tuscan spas for various treatments, as is documented in his correspondence with Simenon. The set for “Otto e Mezzo” was mostly re-constructed in the film studios in order to save money but nonetheless Chianciano features heavily in the movie: the main square, the characteristic narrow lanes and of course, the spa.
It seems that film directors love Tuscan spas. They find them suggestive, almost miraculous places. How can we forget the Montecatini of “Oci Ciornie” or the huge pool at Bagno Vignoni shot by Tarkovsky in “Nostalghia”? In more recent times, Bernardo Bertolucci and Carlo Verdone took inspiration from the spa resort and its waters in “Io ballo da solo”. The Roman director, Gregorio, directed “Al lupo, al lupo” at the Saturnia spa. The film featured himself as a wanna-be musician turned DJ, Sergio Rubini as a successful pianist and Francesca Neri as a woman with a double life searching for her sculptor father.
The main character from “Io ballo da sola”, Lucy, is also involved in an exploratory journey. She arrives in Tuscany following her mother’s suicide, looking for the young Italian who had given her her first kiss 4 years previously.

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