A recent study by somebody at the University of Padova suggests something that we already knew: Movies make people want to go to Italy. After all, how many of us wanted to see Trevi Fountain because we are fans of the baroque style of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and how many of us just want to see where Anita Ekberg danced around in “La Dolce Vita”?
For the researchers, it was disheartening to note that the first results in a google search for the city of Brenscello revealed films made there in 1950s and 60s by the comedy team of Don Camillo and Peppone. This was not news to the city; the turist office already offers a tour with a Don Camillo and Peppone theme.
The touring club of Italy says, ” In the everyday landscape movie fiction becomes reality and it’s worth a fortune.” A relatively recent phenomenon, one that I had not heard named but my intuition saw it coming, is “Cineturismo”. But Fellini isn’t the only one that is encouraging tourists to flock to Italy.
I’ve long wondered why Venice doesn’t offer a Pane e Tulipani tour; I’d be the first in line to take it. Last August when we were there for the film festival I happened upon Campo do Pozzi, the square in which Rosalba agrees to meet “the detective from the DDT” and I was so excited! Wouldn’t I love to see the “flower shop” and Fernando’s apartment building? I sure would! And don’t I think of Rosalba every time I’m writing a postcard in Piazza San Marco or riding a vaporetto? I sure do!
WATCH PANE E TULIPANI INSTANTLY WITH NETFLIX
I’ve never been to Basilicata but after watching Basilicata Coast to Coast I’ve been really wanting to go. At the beginning of the movie a song proclaims that Basilicata has “nothing to envy. We don’t even have the Mafia”, but the scenery suggests otherwise.
The Chinese proverb says that “the journey is the reward” and that’s been the subject of more than a few movies, but in Basilicata Coast to Coast when four guys who play in a band together decide to go on foot to a music festival, traveling from one coast to the other, the proverb becomes their reality on their enviable trip though terrain that looks like one big, beautiful national park.
STREAM BASILICATA COAST TO COAST WITH MYMOVIES
Who doesn’t want to go to see if they can recapture the feeling of old Sicily after they see Baarìa? Baarìa is the autobiographic story of three generations in the Sicilian village, Bagheria where Giuseppe Tornatore, the director and writer, was born and Baarìa, Sicilian slang for it. Like his earlier CInema Paradiso it’s very sentimental and gorgeous.
WATCH BAARÌA INSTANTLY WITH NETFLIX
And though Paolo Sorrentino’s newest, La Grande Bellezza, is supposed to show us a city that may be going to seed, it still makes me want to go to Rome more than La Dolce Vita does. La Grande Bellezza, directed by Sorrentino and starring Toni Servillo and Carlo Verdone, should go on the top of your “to-do list” when it comes to your city. So far, we have these US dates and I’m sure there will be more to come:
opens November 15
New York, NY – Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
opens November 22
Los Angeles, CA – Landmark Nuart
opens November 29
Berkeley, CA – Landmark Theatres
Boca Raton, FL – Living Room Theaters
Boston, MA – Landmark Kendall Square
Denver, CO – Landmark Theatres
Miami Beach, FL – Miami Beach Cinematheque
Minneapolis, MN – Landmark Theatres
Philadelphia, PA – Landmark Ritz
Portland, OR – Living Room Theatres
San Francisco, CA – Landmark Theatres
San Rafael, CA – Smith Rafael Film Center
Seattle, WA – Landmark Theatres
Washington DC – Landmark E Street
opens December 6
Santa Fe, NM – CCA Cinematheque
opens December 20
San Diego, CA – Landmark Theatres
January 3 – 5
Oklahoma City, OK – Oklahoma City Museum of Art
January 10 & 11
Houston, TX – Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
I Love Italian Everything 