Cinecittà - Don't Miss Rome's Hollywood

We have longed for years to get onto the world-famous Italian movie studio, Cinecittà.  But it’s always been completely closed to visitors (unless you are rich AND famous), as we note in Rome the Second Time. All of a 

Finally going through the gates

sudden, it’s open, thanks to a long-running exhibition of artifacts from the fabled studio’s history.  What’s more, unadvertised tours of several of the back lots leave every hour (a.m.) and every hour and a half (p.m.).   Supposedly all this ends November 30 when the exhibition closes, but, as in many things Italian, it may just keep going.  So if you’re in Rome, and love films as much as we do, check out the Cinecittà website to make sure the studios are open, and hie yourself there!  If you take Metro A to the Cinecittà exit, you’ll pop up right in front of the studio gates.  The show is 10 Euros with lots of discounted tickets (youth, students, olders, etc.).  Open 10:30-7:30; closed Tuesdays; special children's area open Saturday and Sunday only.

Dirk Bogarde's costume
 from The Night Porter

Back lot for Scorcese's
 Gangs of New York and other films

Back lot for US TV series, Rome,
with our guide, Francesca

As the tour will tell you (there is some info in English), the studio was founded under Mussolini, at the direction of a politico who studied studios in Europe and went on to propose the largest on what was then the outskirts of Rome.  It was quickly built and opened in 1937, then briefly used by the Germans during the 1943/44 occupation.  It still hosts the largest studio in Europe and was the favorite place for Fellini, Sergio Leone, and many others.  No, it’s not like those Universal Studio tours in LA or Disneyland, but it’s authentic.

Cinecitta' Due

If you want to do a two-fer, the fairly glitzy shopping mall, Cinecittà Due is just down the street.  It has a very nice gallery on the top floor with a current exhibition – closing 6 November-- on the theme of aqueducts (they know the way to our hearts).  Dianne

Photo in the Aqueduct exhibit

Watercolor in Aqueduct exhibit - by Calatrava