Halle Bailey felt her 'fantasy come to life' filming You, Me & Tuscany

Halle Bailey felt like her fantasy came to life while shooting her new romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany.

In her new movie, The Little Mermaid actress plays a culinary-school dropout from New York who impulsively travels to Italy and becomes a squatter in an abandoned Tuscan villa, where she meets and falls in love with the homeowner's cousin.

Filming took place between Rome and Val d'Orcia in Tuscany across 34 days, and many of the exterior scenes were filmed at a sprawling family-owned vineyard, complete with multiple villas, a piazza and a castle tower.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bailey reflected on filming in such a beautiful location.

"The first day I got to Tuscany, I opened the shutters, and the view just hit me. I had this moment of, 'I can't believe this is my life,'" she recalled. "You hear that phrase 'fantasy come to life.' But this was really it."

The 26-year-old explained that Italy had lived in her imagination for many years as a single image of a woman running through a vineyard. So when producer Will Packer called her about starring in a movie set in Tuscany, she didn't hesitate.

"The minute he said it was set in Italy, I was like, 'Where do I sign?' " she recalled.

The Chloe X Halle star, who brought her two-year-old son Halo to set, also revealed that she took multiple cooking classes to prepare for the role and learned how "to do the pan flip and all those fancy knife techniques".

When she wasn't on set, Bailey spent her downtime shopping for kitchenware and produce to bring home and went to a natural thermal pool twice.

You, Me & Tuscany, co-starring Regé-Jean Page, will be released in cinemas on 10 April.