Avanti! | 1972
- Locations |
- Italy
- DIRECTOR |
- Billy Wilder
Discover the beautiful locations of Billy Wilder's 1972 romantic comedy Avanti! around the Bay of Naples.
Billy Wilder's dark-tinged romance is set on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples but, although the island is breathtakingly beautiful and film-friendly, little of the film was shot there.
The main setting is a grand hotel, where brusque businessman Wendell Armbruster Jr (Jack Lemmon) and romantic Englishwoman Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills) meet while they both visit Ischia to collect the bodies of their deceased parents.
This is actually on the Italian mainland, on the Sorrentine Peninsula. It's the five-star Hotel Excelsior Vittoria, Piazza Torquato Tasso, 34 in Sorrento, perched on a sheer cliff, giving spectacular views over the Gulf of Naples toward Mount Vesuvius.
Tenor Enrico Caruso immortalised the town in the song Return to Sorrento and among others who've stayed here are Richard Wagner, Marilyn Monroe, Luciano Pavarotti and Sophia Loren.
The 'helipad' from which the body of Armbruster Sr is supposedly repatriated to the USA is no more than a car park with a large letter 'H' added. It's alongside the 19th century Faro di Punta Carena (Punta Carina Lighthouse), about 3km southwest of Anacapri on the Isle of Capri.
One scene that is really Ischia is the 'morgue' where the two bodies are being stored while the paperwork is sorted out. This is not a mortuary but a church, the Santa Maria del Soccorso, Via Soccorso 1 in Forio, a town on the western coast of the island.
The tiny white church, perched above the water, was originally part of a 14th-century Augustinian monastery, though there have been additions and repairs in both the 18th and 19th centuries, including those beautiful majolica tiles which were added in the 18th century.
Ischia is the largest of the three volcanic islands in the Bay of Naples, and can easily be reached by regular ferry from Naples.
For the real Ischia on screen, see Anthony Minghella's 1999 The Talented Mr Ripley, with Matt Damon, where it stands in for the resort of 'Mongibello'.
