 Whether it’s the Bay of Naples or the canals of Venice, few countries in the world look as good on the big screen as Italy. In fact, when we started putting our list together, there were so many great films and stunning movie locations in Italy that even getting it down to a working shortlist of ten was a bit of a struggle! But we gave it our best shot, and the below selection of five is what we narrowed it down to… 1. The Talented Mr Ripley (Anthony Minghella; 1999) Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley lurches through any number of striking Italian settings, from the Piazza Navona and Piazza di Spagna in Rome, to Venice and Cafe Florian in San Marco (where Ripley and Marge meet for coffee). But it’s two islands in the Bay of Naples that are perhaps most memorable. Ripley’s first steps on the fictional ‘Mongibello’ are framed against a backdrop of the Castello Aragonese in Ischia Ponte, while the filming moves over to Coricella on Prócida for several of its key scenes. 2. La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini; 1960) La Dolce Vita was the film that inspired a thousand ill-advised plunges in the Trevi Fountain – and even more studied poses sipping coffee on the Via Veneto. The fact that Fellini’s film pours scorn on both has never put people off; nor has a police presence looking out for anyone who so much as dips a toe in the water…  3. The Italian Job (Peter Collinson; 1969)
The Italian Job has a couple of showcase Turin locations, where the Palazzo Carignano and the Palazzo Madama (around the Piazza Castello) are the location for the bullion loading and traffic jam scenes. The film’s famous ending, meanwhile – that sees the bus dangling precariously from a cliff top – was shot just outside the city in Ceresole Reale. And the famous exploding van scene (recently voted the most popular movie quote of all time)? Sadly, not in Italy at all, of course, but back in glamorous Coventry... Altogether now: “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” 4. Roman Holiday (William Wyler; 1953) What La Dolce Vita and Anita Ekberg did for the Trevi Fountain, Audrey Hepburn and Roman Holiday did for the Spanish Steps. (It's here that Gregory Peck tries to tempt Audrey Hepburn’s naïve Princess Ann out of herself with – shock, horror! – ice cream...) The Spanish Steps and the Piazza di Spagna are perhaps the most famous movie locations in Italy. In fact, so many films shot in Rome have featured them that there’s nearly always someone mugging for the camera while the Trinità dei Monti looks on disapprovingly. Slightly surprisingly, it actually doesn’t make them any less impressive. 5. Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg; 1973) It’s hard to think of a film that’s as tied to its location as Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is to Venice. Because it just couldn’t have worked anywhere else, and the narrow streets, crumbling old palaces and echoing waterways of Venice are as much a central character of the film as any of the actors. Specific locations can be a little hard to pin down (as anyone who’s ever tried to find a hotel in Venice can testify): there’s a long sequence in San Polo where Donald Sutherland’s Baxter is trailed by a detective, while the film reaches its bloody climax to the north of the San Marco sestiere in the Calle di Mezzo.
Want to know more about movie locations in Italy? Check out our guide to Italian cinema |