Marco Gualtieri's friendship with the Kennedy family arose following his involvement with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The entertainment entrepreneur was also on the board of the Florence-based Robert F. Kennedy Foundation of Europe. In January 2009, while attending a reception as Ethel Kennedy's guest at the Kennedy house in Washington, D.C. celebrating President Obama's second inauguration, he was approached by Bobby Kennedy who spoke to him in Italian, saying he wanted to make a film about his experience and love for Italy: "Bobby … started talking to me about this film, and after 10 minutes I started laughing because he was pitching it to me, when the room was filled with Hollywood heavyweights". Attendees at the reception included director Ron Howard and actors Alec Baldwin and Glenn Close; Gualteri, the founder of the TicketOne concert ticket buying service, had no real connection to the world of filmmaking. After meeting Kennedy's best friend from Italy, Lele Gabellone, Gualtieri was compeletely won over. Kennedy's love of Italy convinced Gualteri to become the producer for the project.