Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza, the Oscar-winning film that showcases the beauties of Rome more poetically than any postcard, has had many a tourist exploring hidden corners and doorways and gates that never seem to open. The good news? Even the most seemingly out-of-reach locations can be accessed by the ordinary traveller.

It is impossible to start an itinerary that follows the trail of La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) anywhere but from Jep Gambardella’s (Toni Servillo) base. For the home of his main character, director Paolo Sorrentino chose a penthouse in a palazzo facing Piazza del Colosseo, at number 9.

Rome is marvellous above all when no one is around and Gambardella best captures Rome’s spirit during his dawn walks

The palazzo faces the southern side of the Flavian Amphitheatre, the most famous monument in the world. In the film, numerous parties are held at Gambardella’s home. The gossip Jep and his friends engage in is tinged with cruelty and boredom.

Palazzo Braschi

Orietta is a good-looker but she’s also afflicted by boredom. She and Jep share a night of love. She lives in an apartment in Piazza Navona, under one of the belltowers of the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, adjoining Palazzo Pamphilj.

A wealthy (but depressed) friend, Viola, lives with her mentally-ill son in Palazzo Sacchetti, in via Giulia, where she organises a luncheon party which no one attends. Nearby, we find the home of the Princes Colonna di Reggio. They are ‘rent-a-nobles’ who have set up their family museum in Palazzo Taverna. Sorrentino plays games with the identities of the places.

They merge into each other, depending on the needs of the storyline. The ‘palaces of the princesses’ which Stefano opens for Jep are actually museums that house some of Rome’s most fascinating treasures.

Piazza Navona

The view from Janiculum Hill.

The sights include the gate at Santa Maria del Priorato on the Aventine Hill, with the most famous keyhole in Rome; the sculptures of the Capitoline Museums; the courtyard of Palazzo Altemps; the monumental stairway in Palazzo Braschi; Raphael’s Fornarina, or Portrait of a Young Lady, in Palazzo Barberini; the false perspective by Borromini in Palazzo Spada; and the Niobids at the heart of Villa Medici, where a night-time exploration ends.

Because Rome is marvellous above all when no one is around, and Gambardella best captures Rome’s spirit during his dawn walks, when returning from some high-society party.

At the end of the day, La Grande Bellezza is a film where dreams and reality meet

The first walk takes him to the Aventine Hill, and to his encounter with the novices at the portico of Santa Sabina. Here, he sees a nun picking oranges in the Orange Garden. A few days later we find him in a pensive mood on the embankments of the Tiber, which he reached after visiting a deserted Via Veneto (from which the traces of La Dolce Vita have all but disappeared).

Tempio di Bramante.

This is the location where his birthday party is held, on the balcony of a 1930s building in Via Bissolati, at number 5.

On the opposite side of the city, Sorrentino provides us with an offbeat portrait of the Janiculum. At the very start of the film, when a cannon goes off on the terrace, we see the equestrian statue of Garibaldi, surrounded by the busts of the heroes of the Roman Republic.

Nearby is the large fountain surmounting the complex of San Pietro in Montorio, with the Tempietto di Bramante. Rome remains impressively monumental even when the scenes are located away from the old city centre: the contemporary art performance in the Parco degli Aquedotti and, at Campo Verano cemetery during the funeral of the only love of Gambardello’s life.

Sorrentino often surprises us, such as when he chose to include a fashion shop in the Salone delle Fontane. At the end of the day, La Grande Bellezza is a film where dreams and reality meet, as reflected in the photographic exhibition under the loggia of Villa Giulia, or in the trick of the disappearing giraffe, at the Baths of Caracalla at the very heart of archaeological Rome.

The information is offered courtesy of www.turismoroma.it.