Marvelous Milan

Milan is not the name of the character Claudine Barretto is playing in Milan, Star Cinema’s Valentine offering, but the beautiful city in Italy where the romance-drama also starring Piolo Pascual was filmed.

But the city is as lovely as Jenny, the OFW played by Claudine in the story, a strong-willed leader in that city’s Filipino community who falls for Piolo who has gone to Italy to look for his long-missing wife and finds new love in Claudine.

In one scene, Piolo and Claudine are shown playing with the doves at the churchyard of a cathedral. Doves fill up the churchyard as much as people, mostly tourists, do. If you have your photo taken with the doves by the "resident" photographers there, you pay a certain amount. You can feed the doves and listen to them coo and coo as you relax in one of the benches under the cool Italian sun (it was winter when Milan was shot there in December last year).

Such setting fits the beautiful love story penned by Raymond Lee and directed by Olivia Lamasan who captured other postcard-pretty Italian cities on the big screen.

"You’ll fall in love with the sceneries as much as you will fall in love with the characters of Claudine and Piolo," assured direk Olivia. "It’s the perfect setting for a romantic movie."

Another scene was shot in Venice with Claudine and Piolo whispering sweet nothings aboard a gondola. The scene should be familiar to moviegoers since it has been shown in several Hollywood movies. It will be seen by fans of local movies for the first time in Milan, which is virtually a travelogue, using these scenic spots as backdrop for the love story.

"It didn’t feel like shooting at all," claimed Claudine. "We were so overwhelmed by the fantastic views that we felt like tourists and not actors rushing the shooting of a movie."

One of the most awesome scenes that will surely win the hearts of moviegoers was shot in Lake Coumo, several kilometers from Milan, a paradise-like lake surrounded by mountains and ringed by villas, one of which is owned by Georgio Armani, the same villa where Ricky Martin, Armani’s friends, launched his first English-language album in 1999.

"When you watch Milan," says Piolo, "you get a bonus. You’ll enjoy the love story and for two hours you’ll feel like you’ve gone on a quick tour of Italy."