Under the Tuscan Sun

Live spherically, in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm. 
And things will come your way.

I have been living my life linearly and I haven't had much childish enthusiasm in I don't know how long. I need to get back to that.  I need more in my life, and I need to revive my childish enthusiasm.

They built the tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make that trip. 
They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.

I guess I should take a cue from this.  I need to build my life, leaving space for what I really want most.  With hope and movement, maybe my train will come.

Seniora, please, don't be 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.

I love the way he says this line.  He's such a sweet man, so sincere and compassionate...and faithful to his wife.  He wouldn't have, really, he was just trying to help her smile.

I said you're boring! Look at you! You're sad, again. You're like a big black hole...regrets are a waste of time; they're the past crippling you in the present...how are you ever going to be happy if you keep wallowing?  Listen, when I was a little girl I used to spend hours looking for ladybugs.  Finally I'd just give up and fall asleep in the grass.  When I woke up they were crawling all over me. 
[So?] So -- go work on your house and forget about it.

I need to find something to work on, something I'm really passionate about, so I can forget my heartaches, stop wallowing, and let the ladybugs come.  Maybe I should become passionate about exercise...then I can make myself pretty and my chances for "ladybugs" will greatly improve.

Ladybugs, Katherine, lots and lots of ladybugs!

I had ladybugs for a while...sort of.  None as attractive as Marcello, but there were a some around.  None of them wanted me, but I at least had a daydream.  Now they're gone...the daydreams anyway.  Some of the guys are still around, but not in the same way.  One's engaged, another is more like a brother than anything else, others are gone or just distant.  I need to stop looking, stop wanting, but leave the door open and maybe a new one will come in.

Patti: There's something strange about these trees. It's like they know.

Frances: And they know that we know that they know.

Patti: They're creepy. Creepy Italian trees. The baby's gonna like them because it's going to be a creepy Italian baby that goes around saying "ciao mama" 
and doing that backward hand-wave thing...life is strange.

I wish I had a friend who really knew me.  Even Bestest Friend doesn't know this part of me.  She doesn't know the part of me who watches Under the Tuscan Sun ten times in a row when I'm feeling the way I am right now, because it's clever and witty and deeply emotional.
I relate to Diane Lane's character, Frances.  She is a writer who doesn't write.  She had her heart and life ripped apart when the man she gave her life to cheated and left her (I wasn't married, but close enough).  She gets really sad and lonely and discouraged, but she doesn't give up.  She takes care of everyone and she soldiers on when she'd rather give up.  She's poetic and graceful.
But she has some things I don't: she has a villa in Tuscany.  And she's beautiful. And she has a best friend who gives it to her straight, and who gets her and says what she needs to hear (even though it isn't always nice).  And this friend sends her to Italy...where's my friend like that? ;-)

What is it about love that makes us so stupid?

I don't think I need to comment on this; I've been more than my fair share of stupid because of "love"

 There is someone for you, Francesca.

I wish someone would tell me that.  I wish he'd say, "There is someone for you, Lady Laura."
It's getting more and more difficult to hold on to hope.  Maybe I should stop hanging out with the guys all the time. They're really starting to treat me like I am one of the guys.  I'm a GIRL!  Diane Lane would never be mistaken for one of the guys.  I need a makeover.  How can I get on What Not to Wear so they can teach me to dress and fix my hair and makeup?

Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere, I would be different. 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.

I wish I could understand here and now why I am where and who I am.  I've been thinking about who I wanted to be, what I wanted to be doing, and I am absolutely nowhere near there...and I have absolutely no idea how to get there.  I think that path, that destination was wrong for me.  I hope that the future has something even better in store than what I dreamed.  When I was plotting out what I wanted to happen, I forgot to factor in the steep climbs and detours and potholes and setbacks.  I forgot that you have to make it through the tragedy and trials, you have to reconstruct the house, before you get to the "happily ever after" in the beautiful castle.

I love this movie!  I should have watched in months ago.  I forget it's part of the routine that pulls me out of my deep blue funk.  If I don't see significant improvement in the next few days, I'm calling in the big reinforcements: Alias marathon!  Who wants to join me?