Forte Dei Marmi and more!

For our last HURRAH weekend, Ange and I went to Forte dei Marmi on the west coast of Italy (her second time there, my first) and were treated like princesses! It helped that her new friend Fillipo owns a beach club and gave us a cabana at the front of the beach for FREE. It also helps that he put us on the guest list for a club having a big party that night. Life ain't so bad here... :)

Then we drove around Lucca on our way back and stopped for an hour in Florence to shop, see some sights and have dinner. I bought some great leather sandals and a FIRENZE t-shirt!!

Can't believe I will be back in New York next Friday...

Enjoy THE PHOTOS (click here)

Only two weeks left! We're in SIENA!

Since I last wrote we've shot about 20 more days and now we're in Tuscany! Not gonna lie... I'm really loving it here. It's unbelievable gorgeous and the weather's great.

I posted new photos of me and Angela's last weekend in Verona, shooting in Grezzana and Lake Garda and our stay in Bagno Vignoni (in the middle of nowhere!) at an amazing hotel (The

Adler: http://www.adler-thermae.com/en/).

We're shooting at the Borgo Scopeto Hotel tonight until 5 or 6a... then Angela are off for our

last hurrah in Italy - FORTE DEI MARMI!

Enjoy the rest of THE PHOTOS! (click here)

On the set

7 days down... about 33 [maybe more] to go.

I can't post my own pictures from set, but I can pass along one blog whose writer is apparently based in Verona - as he seems to be following us from location to location!

http://blog.screenweek.it/2009/06/on-the-set-of-letters-to-juliet-week-one-47137.php

The second and third updates from this blog are especially hilarious because I've had to translate them through Google. Have fun trying to decipher everything!

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://blog.screenweek.it/2009/07/esclusivo-sul-set-di-letters-to-juliet-seconda-settimana-47425.php&ei=LVhPSqztGJOSnAPptM2dBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEsclusivo:%2Bsul%2Bset%2Bdi%2BLetters%2Bto%2BJuliet,%2Bseconda%2Bsettimana%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DUc5

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://blog.screenweek.it/2009/07/esclusivo-sul-set-di-letters-to-juliet-parte-3-47672.php&ei=wFhPSoKLB6bmnAOewLm4BQ&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DEsclusivo:%2Bsul%2Bset%2Bdi%2BLetters%2Bto%2BJuliet,%2Bparte%2B3%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DFKQ

Note that in the last post he mentions there was a violent storm last night - true - but that it happened after filming was done - false. We are definitely in need of a pick-up day to finish what we couldn't last night. We would have probably gone until 4a had the weather not gotten awful around 1:30a!

Lago di Como

There are basically no words to describe Lake Como. I'll let the photos do the talking...

Lake Como photos

BUSY!!

Ohhh boy, it's been a busy two weeks. Haven't had the opportunity to take many photos (or write about many stories) as we're a mere 3 days away from shooting!

I spent the last two weekends in Verona, but sadly not really exploring the areas I've yet to... more like sleeping 12 hours a day, plus multiple naps and catching up on emails to friends. And maybe catching up on some online shopping...

In any case, I have a few new photos courtesy of Erin from Cinque Terre. And yes, I still think about that trip daily. I wanna go back!! It truly is one of those places you see and hear about, but can only experience fully in person. It's grueling (all the hiking, the stairs, the narrow paths, etc) but it's so amazing you almost can't believe it. Definitely feel lucky to have been able to go.

Here's the link to the new CT photos: There are about 80 of them towards the bottom - check out this panoramic of Riomaggiore:


On June 10th and 11th I got to go on the location scout to Tuscany with the crew. It was my first time on a train in Italy (we stopped in Florence then took a one hour car ride to Siena) and my first time in the region of Tuscany itself. We stayed at the Hotel Garden (where we may shoot at as well) and Borgo Scopeto, one of the most serene and simply beautiful hotels I've ever been to.

Hotel Garden: http://it.venere.com/hotel_siena/outside_the_walls/hotel_garden.html?ref=755392#pictures - I KNEW there was a pool there, dangit!
Borgo Scopeto: http://www.borgoscopetorelais.it/en/photogallery.html

At Borgo Scopeto we had a great 4-course dinner with 3 different types of wine. I was incredbly full, tired and happy at the end of the day. I can't wait to go back and shoot there.

Tuscany was better than I thought it would be. You expect the amazing rolling hillsides, but you're just not prepared for how beautiful it is. And the weather! Despite the hotness, the weather is pretty perfect ("LA perfect") - or, at least, it has been for us. Fingers crossed it is during filming.

Here are a few photos I took in Tuscany and of Borgo Scopeto. It's hard to stop and take photos on the scout, but hopefully during shooting I'll get a chance to snap a few more. TUSCANY PHOTOS at the bottom


Next weekend I hope to head to Lake Como, finally, so I can check it out before we leave Verona. I've found what looks to be a great hotel at a pretty great price, considering that it has a fantastic view, lawn and pool! http://www.belvederebellagio.com/

AND, last but not least, speaking of Lake Como... I got to see Susan Littenberg and Michael on Saturday! We had a very nice lunch together and then ran into two people they know through mutual friends who HAPPENED to be in Verona on vacation and who also live in Silverlake in LA. Amazingly bizarre. They also went to the opera on Saturday night (the 2nd show of the season)- I hope it was incredible! Back to Lake Como... they brought to my attention what is perhaps the BEST hotel ever, which they are staying at on their way to Zurich: http://www.villadeste.it/cgi/index.asp. You guys are going to have so much fun! I want pictures...

6 weeks down, 8 to go!

Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal and Franco Nero added to cast of LETTERS TO JULIET

Huge recap! Verona, Venice, Cinque Terre, OH MY!

Only three more weeks until the first day of shooting. Trying to get in all my sightseeing while Erin, Billy and Alicia are here and before the 12 hours+ days kick in!

This past weekend was a 4-day one (thanks, I guess, Italians? we fell behind on work...) and I tagged along with EB&A to Venice Sat and Sun and Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore to be specific) on Mon and Tues. SO many pictures, so little time.

I posted two albums worth of EB&A's photos since they tend to take the better ones (ie the goofier ones of us) and I tend to take the scenic photos - a LOT of them.

We drove to both Venice (about an hour, 20 minutes) and Cinque Terre (about 3 hours). Now, Venice is a pretty straight shot, but thanks to my GPS (nicknamed Beatrix) we went about 40 km out of the way down an autostrade that had virtually no exits. It's an incredibly long story not worth telling, but let's just say I've become hip to Beatrix's faulty ways and have learned that reading the signs usually yields better results.

Additionally, I've started a competition with Beatrix to see how much time I can take off the "estimated time of arrival" feature. As in, she estimated it would take us until 1:20p to get to Cinque Terre when leaving a little after 10a. What time did we really get there? 12:59! And even on the way back there was traffic AND I stopped for gas, and I still beat her time by about 10 minutes. Victory is mine.

We had perfect weather on Sat and Tues - Sun and Mon were pretty moody all around, but not awful. Sunday was cold in Venice, and Monday was rainy in Riomaggiore, but it gave us a chance to hang out and take things easy, esp in Cinque Terre where it's ALL about hiking the trails! http://wikitravel.org/en/Cinque_Terre

A few things we learned:
Venice:
You can walk the streets with open alcoholic drinks (ie, fresh mojitos!)
What they have done to the Bridge of Sighs is unforgiveable
Cappucnios that cost 5 Euros are pretty much worth it
Anything with the name Florida in it is good
Venetian masks look best on Billy
Cinque Terre:
Limoncino is the devil
Hiking is dangerous unless Billy is there is help you get over your fear of falling off a cliff
Gelato is even better sitting down
Don't sit too close to the tracks in a train station or you'll seriosuly regret it
French fries are better in Monterosso

Here are the links: Some photos from my camera in Venice before it died-scroll down to the 5th row from the bottom
My photos of Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre
Erin's Italy photos part one
Erin's Italy photos part two

And tomorrow I think I leave for Rome for the weekend. They are in Florence/Tuscany today and tomorrow and will meet me there. So much to see in Roma!! And Romain is joining us, too. One extra person, 4x more the fun.