Manual OfLove: The Stories, a sequel to the hit Aurelio De Laurentiis-producedcomedy, has started shooting in Barcelona with Monica Bellucci and Carlo Verdone.

Directedby Giovanni Veronesi, the film also stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Barbora Bobulova, Sergio Rubini, and comedians Antonio Albanese, Fabio Volo and Claudio Bisio.

Likethe original film, also directed by Veronesi, thesequel will be divided into four episodes covering four phases of love.

Thefirst part, Eros, focuses on a youngman, played by Scamarcio, who is obsessed with Bellucci's character.

Thesecond episode, Maternity,focuses on a couple (Bobulova, Volo)who travel to Spain to have IVF treatment.Part 3, The Wedding, is about a gaycouple (Albanese, Rubini) who want to get married.And the fourth part, Extreme Love isabout a 50-year-old married man (Verdone) who fallsin love with a younger woman.

Thefilm will shoot for 10 weeks in Barcelona, Rome and Lecce in the south of Italy.

Manual OfLoveearned almost $17m at the local box office in 2005 and sold to 15 countriesworldwide.

Manual OfLove: The Stories will be released by Filmauro in Italy in January.

Rome powerhouse Filmauro is also currently lining up a new comedy entitled Christmas In Rio, the latest in its20-year franchise of blockbuster Natale pictures - but the first without Massimo Boldi who starred in all the others alongside Christian De Sica.

Thelast three Natalefilms have all earned between $21.6m-$26.6m (Euros 17m-21m) at the local boxoffice.