"Allievo di Giotto: Perché realizzare un'opera quando è così bello sognarla soltanto? (Why create a work of art when dreaming about it is so much sweeter?)"

"Every day, I watch for the old man with the flowers, and I wonder, was he born here? Did he love someone here? Did he lose someone here? He doesn't seem as curious about me, but that's all right. These days, I'm something of a loner myself."

"I'd like to make an offer on the house. This is what I can pay, minus the work on the place, buckets, nails ... chocolate, and a rental car to drive off a cliff when this all turns out to have been a terrible mistake."

"I still got it! I still got it! I still got it! — Thank God!"

"So I was now the owner of a villa whose lands it would take two oxen two days to plow. Owning neither an ox nor a plow, I'd have to take their word for that."

"What are four walls, anyway? They are what they contain. The house protects the dreamer. Unthinkably good things can happen, even late in the game. It's such a surprise."

"Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come."

"It's market day in Cortona — the piazza is an on-going party — and everyone is invited."

"In Italian, the literal translation of "to give birth" — "dare alla luce" — is: "to give to the light"."

"The fact that I'm trying to speak Polish in Italy is one of the many surprises around here."

"Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present."

"No matter what happens, always keep your childish innocence. It's the most important thing."

"Signora, please stop being so sad. If you continue like this, I will be forced to make love to you. And I've never been unfaithful to my wife."

"Life is strange."

"You know when you come across one of those empty shell people, and you think "What the hell happened to you?" Well there came a time in each one of those lives where they are standing at a crossroads... someplace where they had to decide whether to turn left or right. This is no time to be a chicken-shit, Frances."

"Jesus, Frances, how do you do it — how do you ever breathe again?"

"She's "Sylvia" in La Dolce Vita. She's very good actually."

"What is it about love that makes us so stupid?"

"Sorry everybody, unscheduled stop."

"Un signo di Dio. A sign from God."

"What brings you to Positano?"

"There is nothing to regret."

"Life offers you a thousand chances ... all you have to do is take one."

"The Only Thing More Surprising Than The Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her"

"Diane Lane - Frances Mayes"

"Sandra Oh - Patti"

"Lindsay Duncan - Katherine"

"Raoul Bova - Marcello"

"Vincent Riotta - Martini"

"Mario Monicelli - Old man with flowers"

"Roberto Nobile - Placido"

"Kate Walsh - Grace"

"Pawel Szajda - Pawel"

"David Sutcliffe - Ed"

"Fefe said "You have to live spherically, in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm and things will come your way.""