The screenplay is the main guideline for the film but many dialogues were improvised by Troisi and Benigni.
The title is taken from a letter of Italian poet Francesco Petrarca to court officer Barbato da Sulmona.
Remembering his late co-star Massimo Troisi, Roberto Benigni commented: "Troisi's body was something amazing, he was born to be a comedian. He was a good-looking boy, but his body was built for comedy: the way he moved was essential for his characters... [...] His walk in Non Ci Resta Che Piangere... just beautiful."
Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi stated in an interview that the scene of the customs had to be shoot several times, because they couldn't stop laughing. This led to a so large amount of film material that they had to delete some other planned scenes from the script, as like one in which actor Marco Messeri would have had to play preacher Girolamo Savonarola.
Some months after the movie was released, Massimo Troisi and Roberto Benigni wrote a book about the same story, but with a different ending, which was initially considered for the movie.