What would you expect from someone who worked in the film industry for 15 years? Movie Tours! And oh my gosh, there are more by the minute, including the recent lauded “Conclave” with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow
You can travel back to the classic, Oscar-winning 1953 film, Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, follows the angel’s arrows in the Angels and Demons tour, based on the Dan Brown book of 2000, and the film with Tom Hanks of 2009, or for the avant-garde crowd, there is the Grande Bellezza (Great Beauty) tour, based on the 2013 film directed by Paolo Sorrentino which won the Oscar and Golden Globe for best foreign film!
Angels and Demons Highlights:
Saint Peter’s Square, Castel Sant’Angelo, Santa Maria della Popolo, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Piazza Navona, Pantheon (see more at the dedicated “Angels and Demons” link)
Roman Holiday Highlights:
Mouth of Truth - the most iconic scene in the film! Pantheon and its myriad cafes, Via Margutta (where Peck’s character Joe Bradley was living), Spanish Steps and the hotel in which Hepburn stayed while filming, Trevi Fountain and “Princess Ann’s” hair salon, and at least a whiz by - scooter style? - the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Imperial Forums, Piazza Venezia, Castel Sant’Angelo. Note: The elegant Palazzo Colonna is open to the public only on Saturdays.
La Grande Bellezza Highlights:
As the film covered every inch of Rome (swoon!) there isn’t time to see it all, but custom tours could include the magical Janiculum Hill, Via Veneto, Aventine Orange Grove and Keyhole, the Coliseum apartment (well....from below!), a Tiber river stroll including Ponte Sisto to the Bridge of Angels, Piazza Navona, the Protestant Cemetery, Galleria Spada, the Holy Stairs, the Capitoline Museum. And with a car and driver, also the special view of Saint Peter’s Dome, the Park of the Aqueducts. Villa Medici Gardens, Baths of Caracalla and or Villa Giulia available by special request
And of course, there is the world famous CineCitta Studios! where Ben Hur, Cleopatra, The Agony and the Ecstasy, and more recently The Passion, Gangs of New York, HBO’s ROME series, and countless other films - including those of Italy’s most famous and lauded director, Federico Fellini - have been made since the 1930’s
