Rome, la città eterna, never disappoints. Besides the delicious wine, gelato and spaghetti cacio e pepe, the fountains and monuments around every corner make for an unforgettable setting. That, and the fact that Rome is the center of Italian cinema, guarantees that Rome is the backdrop for countless films. Here's a top five film list to prepare you for a trip to Rome or inspire your fantasies of la dolce vita.
5. Three Coins in the Fountain
Three Coins in the Fountain is a breezy 1950s romance which tells the tale of 3 American girls looking for love in Rome. The plot of the film is based on the local lore surrounding the Trevi Fountain: it is said that one coin tossed in will ensure a return trip to Rome, two will bring a new romance and three a marriage. With roughly 3000 Euro thrown into the fountain everyday, this myth clearly persists today, in part because off the popularity of the film and the Frank Sinatra standard of the same name featured in the movie. The cinematography of the film - wide sweeping shots of Rome and watercolor hues - is also outstanding. In my opinion, tossing a coin in the Fountain is a not-be-missed Rome experience.
4. The Bicycle Thief
Italy is quite often romanticized in film, but this film brilliantly gives you an authentic look at post-War Rome. Filmed entirely on the streets of the city and with non-professional Italian actors, Ladri di biciclette a.k.a. The Bicycle Thief is a neo-realist masterpiece. The plot follows a poster-sticker whose bicycle is stolen on the his first day of work. As his bike is essential to his job, he desperately chases the thief all over the city, through the Porta Portese flea market and across the Tiber river. While getting a glimpse of attractions you can still see today, the movie faithfully portrays the struggles of Rome in the aftermath of World War II, peeling back another layer of the hardships this beautiful city has survived.
3. Ben Hur
Perhaps the most popular tourist attraction in Rome is the Colosseum and any tour guide at the amphitheater will tell you how pop culture has taken poetic license with history. But the glut of gladiator movies keep the tourists coming and perhaps no gladiator film is as classic as Ben Hur. Winning a record eleven Academy Awards, the film tells the story of a prominent Jewish merchant in the time of Christ who is sold into slavery but eventually earns his freedom. He returns to his home to exact revenge on the man who condemned him through a chariot race in one of the most spectacular action sequences in film. Set in Jerusalem in the movie, the chariot race was actually shot at Cinecittà Studios outside Rome. Chariot races in Roman times took place in the Circus Maximus, just down the road from the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. Though not much of the original structure is standing today, the area around it has enough magnificent remnants of Ancient Rome to make a visit worthwhile.
2. Fellini Films
It's a cheat to put all of Fellini's films in one bullet point, but if you don't, they'll take up the whole list. With a combination of real and surreal so distinct it can only be called Felliniesque, the auteur used his chosen home of Rome as the setting for most of his films. As a writer on Rossellini's classic Roma, Città Aperta, he told the tale of brave Romans fighting against the Nazi occupation. As a director, Fellini's Roma is an impressionistic take on the city blending scenes of modern (for 1972) Roman life and a recreation of Fellini's own arrival in Rome in the 40s. In what is perhaps his most popular and best film, La Dolce Vita captures a week in the life of a journalist led astray by the decadent, elite Roman social scene and widely considered one of the best films of all time. The iconic scene of actress Sylvia climbing into the Trevi Fountain is a seduction, enticing you not only to Sylvia but to the allure and glamour of Rome.
1. Roman Holiday
If riding around Rome on a Vespa driven by a Gregory-Peck lookalike isn't one of your travel fantasies, you clearly haven't seen Roman Holiday. Or that you've very cleverly resisted the charms of the film AFI named the fourth best love story of all time. As a runaway princess experiencing an unsheltered life for the first time, Audrey Hepburn is enchanting as ever and Peck, as the journalist falling for her, is handsome and charismatic. Roman Holiday was the first American movie filmed entirely in Italy and the film makes the most of that fact, filming at landmarks including the Spanish Steps, Palazzo Colonna, and Piazza Bocca della Verita.
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