Florence as a movie set
Curious about discovering Florence as a movie set? With the help of its immortal beauty, Florence has always been an extraordinary open-air filming set. From comedies to dramas, from thrillers to war movies, Florence is often the choice of many movie directors. A few years ago, the city hosted by the set of a TV series about the Medici family, called “Medici. Masters of Florence“. Why Florence as a movie set? Because it offers medieval corners, Renaissance palazzi, breath-taking views and pictouresque streets. Beautiful Firenze is the theatre of the “banquets” of Hannibal the Cannibal, the adventures of Robert Langdon and is the city of the famous A room with a view.
Inferno (2016)
The saga of the famous symbolist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) continues with the colossal “Inferno”, from Dan Brown’s book. Langdon is working with a series of clues linked to Dante Alighieri. He wakes up in a Florentine hospital with amnesia and thus begins his adventure with Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), the doctor who helps him recover his memory. Together they travel all over Europe in a race against time. They have to stop the madness of a man who intends on unleashing a global virus (the lethal Zobrist virus), that could kill half the world’s population. Many places in Florence were shot in the movie including: Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, the Vasari Corridor, the Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza Duomo, and the Baptistery.
The Best of Youth (2003)
On the giant canvas that recounts 40 years of Italian history, Marco Tullio Giordana also arrives in the Tuscan capital. Many scenes take place in Florence, where the director shot Piazza della Signoria, the Uffizi Gallery, the National Library, and Santo Spirito Church.
Hannibal (2001)
Florence is where Doctor Lecter decides to hide under a false name. In the second chapter directed by Ridley Scott we find him on the brink of becoming the curator of the Palazzo Capponi library in via de’ Bardi. Scott also immortalizes Palazzo Vecchio, Santa Croce, the Mercato Nuovo Loggia, and the shops on Ponte Vecchio.
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
Starting from Piazza Santo Spirito, Franco Zeffirelli’s film shows us the more cultural side of Florence. Memorable scenes were filmed in The Uffizi Gallery, Piazza Signoria, and also the “Gipsoteca”, or plaster cast gallery, at the Art Institute at Porta Romana.
Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Here we see a young Nicole Kidman in the lead role of one of Jane Campion’s best films. Straight from the Henry James novel, the film tells the story of Isabel. She is an American who arrives in Florence in the late 1800s after receiving a sizeable inheritance. The Tuscan setting wouldn’t be complete without the “Duomo”— or Cathedral of Florence.
Room with a View (1986)
Based on E.M. Forster’s novel of the same name, the city here plays a fundamental role. Together with the breathtaking panoramas and “Lungarni”, the streets along the Arno river, you can even see the meadows in Fiesole. That’s because Florence is a city where “it’s such a shame that you have to have a room without a view”. Choosing Florence as a movie set was the best!
Paisa’ (1946)
Florence appears in the fourth episode of this Rossellini masterpiece. The director shows us a sadly empty Piazza San Giovanni patrolled by Germans, as his two protagonists make a frenetic run through the Vasari Corridor.