Watch These Movies then Head to Rome!

GUEST POST OVERVIEW: Wherever you decide to head off on your holidays, it’s always nice to see a few sites which are familiar to you from a favourite movie…like scouting out Roosevelt Island locations from the film Conspiracy Theory. Before we visit a new destination, often our ideas of a place are determined by the films we’ve seen set there, and it’s fun to see how reality matches up to the silver screen portrayal!

Rome has seen its fair share of movie crews come and go over the years, with the ancient monuments and beautiful hotels providing the perfect setting for some atmospheric scenes. Visitors to the city might want to treat themselves to a night or two in one of the city’s glamorous hotels, but self catering in Rome is a great accommodation option.

There are loads of rental apartments in the city, and having your own kitchen is a great opportunity to make the most of some of the delicious local produce on offer in the stores and markets of this culinary capital. Then after some great food and a nice bottle of Chianti you can wander the streets spotting film locations to your heart’s content.

Angels and Demons

Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code is one of the bestselling books of all time, and after the film adaptation appeared in 2006, executives decided to film an earlier novel – Angels & Demons – written in 2000. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (also in The Da Vinci Code), this film follows Langdon as he investigates a murder and tries to prevent a terrorist attack on the Vatican.

La Dolce Vita

One of those classic films you’re sure to have heard of but may not have actually seen, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. It follows the fortunes of Italian playboy journalist Marcello, who likes the idea of being a serious writer but is all too distracted by the allure of Rome’s decadent social scene. The Trevi Fountain (pictured) should be fairly easy to spot.

Jumper

Set in 20 different cities around the world, including scenes around the Colosseum in Rome, Jumper is about a young man (Hayden Christensen) who is able to teleport himself anywhere in the world: like New York City, Washington, DC and Rome. He soon discovers others like him, as well as a group of international enforcers who have made it their lives’ work to wipe out the ‘Jumpers’.

Ocean’s Twelve

Ocean’s Twelve was by all accounts a bit of a blast for cast and crew, with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts et al enjoying extended periods of filming in Italy around Lake Como, Sicily and in Rome. The city’s Grand Hotel Plaza, Prada store on the via Condotti, numerous cafes, and the main train station (pictured) are among the many places used during over a month spent filming in Rome.

Mission Impossible III

This third installment of the Mission Impossible franchise is also the highest-rated among both viewers and critics. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hawke, this time fighting a renegade arms dealer while trying to protect his love interest. The Tiber river, which winds its way through Rome, features in the film.

The Tiger and the Snow

The Tiger and the Snow features the two co-stars of the universally-loved film Life is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi, who are actually married in real life. The film is about a literature professor’s romantic pursuit of writer Vittoria (Braschi), which takes him from Rome to Iraq, where he must intervene to save his love after she is injured in the Iraq War.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary, or Caro Diario as the original Italian title goes, is a semi autobiographical work by Nanni Moretto, who directs and plays the main character. The first part of the film follows him and his thoughts as he rides around Rome on his Vespa, and towards the end of the film he finds himself in Ostia, a district of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Many Romans spend their summer holidays in Ostia, and it’s well worth a trip for visitors to the city.