New Moon to be Filmed in Montepulciano, Italy?

There is a breaking rumor that the Italian scenes of New Moon may not be shot in Volterra–but instead in Montepulciano, Italy, which is 100km to the Southeast. According to a blog post by Piera Detassis, who is a veteran Italian film journalist and Artistic Director of the Rome Film Festival–

At lunch in Los Angeles with one of the producers of Summit Entertainment, responsible for, and now Twilight, New Moon, the continuation of the saga is from the books of Stephenie Meyer, the bomb explodes: Despite ads, previews and generous offers of all sorts by Mayor and City, the sequel vampiresco not running in Volterra in the places of the novel, but in Montepulciano, where the troupe has found location “to be the most beautiful film.” [autotranslated English]
A pranzo a Los Angeles con uno dei produttori della Summit Entertainment, responsabile di Twilight e ora di New Moon , il seguito della saga tratta dai libri di Stephenie Meyer, esplode la bomba: nonostante annunci, anticipazioni e munifiche offerte d’ogni sorta da parte di Sindaco e Comune, il sequel vampiresco non si girerà a Volterra nei luoghi del romanzo, ma a Montepulciano dove la troupe ha trovato location “più belle da filmare”. [original Italian]

This has also been reported at the Official Italian Twilight Fanclub, and a reader at TwiCrack who speaks Italian summarizes the post– they say that New Moon won’t be shot in Volterra but in Montepulciano because the locations are “more beautiful for the movie” the source is the official italian fanclub of the twilight saga. They took the news from Piera Detassis, the director of the main movie magazine in Italy. she was at dinner with the producers of the movie when the bomb was dropped!

**So, this is just a rumor currently–but considering the ongoing push by Volterra to have the film shoot there, the Italian location was always up in the air. This is despite the report by Variety that stated New Moon would definitely be filming in Volterra. Piera Detassis seems to be very well-connected in the Italian film world. We’ll have to wait and see, but things aren’t looking good for Volterra right now.