La Vita è bella 

I'm sure you've certainly heard if not even seen “La vita è bella”, ‘Life is beautiful’ in English by Roberto Benigni'. Two years ago this film received many oscars and was an international success.

Piazza Grande was used for some scenes in this film, where Benigni is both actor and the director. The story takes place in the period of Fascism, during the second world war in the forties. Benigni is Guido, a young man who decides to leave the countryside to go to Arezzo with his friend, hoping in a wonderful future, full of happiness. Guido becomes a waiter in the "Grand Hotel" and he fells in love with a young noble woman who is very  different from her family: she wants to live all possible experiences. They always meet suddenly and Guido doesn't imagine that she is going to marry a noble man, even if she doesn't love him. An evening Dora, the young woman and her future husband announce their wedding in the "Grand Hotel" where Guido is working. He enters into the room with an horse and he brings her far away from this people interested only in the honor of the family, not to Dora's feelings. She is like Guido, she isn't as formal as the people of her class normally are and decides to live with him. She likes him even if he’s of a different social class. They have a baby, who is the main character of this film; he is a Jewish child who, with his family is in a concentration camp. In fact, when the child is a little bit older, the first laws against the Jewish come into effect. His father, during the period that they pass in it, tries to comfort his son, telling him that it’s only a game and if they respect all the roules at the end, they will win and they will receive a special present: a real tank! Benigni is able to make us a smile in a cruel situation like there is in the film.

The first part of the film was filmed in Arezzo. It was a great event! Benigni went round the schools of the town to choose children to play in it. In fact apart from the main actors, the minor ones were all common people from our town. 

The scenes when Guido shows himself off to attract her are really full of homour and are filmed in Piazza Grande. Other scenes are filmed in Piazza San Francesco and inside the "Caffè dei Costanti". We can see some scenes also in the school is the 'Scuola Elementare Gamurrini' a primary school situated in an old monastery not far from Piazza San Francesco.