Make your way to the beautiful town of Orvieto, where the very first film shot in Umbria was made – a short documentary from 1898 titled Corpus Christi. The film depicts a procession, during which the streets of the historic centre – the very streets you’ll walk yourself – are clearly visible.
It was 1973 when Gianni Amelio took his first steps as a director and chose the enchanting churches of Orvieto as the setting for one of his early experimental films produced for RAI: La città del Sole.
La casa bruciata (The Burned House, 1998) by Massimo Sanno, starring Giulio Scarpati and Ornella Muti, as well as the popular TV series Il bello delle Donne, were also filmed in Orvieto.

After leaving Orvieto, take a short break near Lake Corbara: some scenes from Barabbas by Richard Fleischer, starring Anthony Quinn and Vittorio Gassman, were filmed along its green shores.

Melezzole, a charming and well-restored village, lies at the foot of Mount Croce di Serra. Within its walls, in 1993, Giuseppe Tornatore filmed A Pure Formality, starring Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, and Sergio Rubini.

Leaving Melezzole behind, we head toward the Amerino area. The route winds through villages, hills, and small valleys, where you’ll encounter historic settlements such as Guardea, Lugnano in Teverina, Amelia, and Giove.

Make a stop in Guardea, where the old cemetery – now an English-style garden – along with Piazza Panfili, served as a filming location for Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore, 1994) by Michele Soavi, starring Rupert Everett and Anna Falchi.

Continue your journey to Lugnano in Teverina, where the beautiful façades of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta and Palazzo Pennone served as the backdrop for the film Traveling Companion, directed by Peter Del Monte and starring Michel Piccoli and Asia Argento.

Nel 1997, per volontà di Roberto Benigni e Nicoletta Braschi (che qui hanno girato La vita è bella, la fortunata pellicola vincitrice di ben tre premi Oscar e del Gran Prix della giuria a Cannes), sono nati gli Umbria Studios, di proprietà di Cinecittà Luce. Per girare il loro film,  Benigni e Braschi hanno fatto trasformare un complesso di fabbriche abbandonate in due Teatri di posa ed uno per la creazione degli effetti speciali. Oltre a telefilm, spettacoli dal vivo e reality show, gli studi di Papigno hanno visto la realizzazione dei film Pinocchio e La tigre e la neve, sempre per la regia di Roberto Benigni, La terza madre, di Dario Argento, e altri. Purtroppo da qualche anno gli Studios, un tempo fruibili anche dai visitatori, sono attualmente in abbandono. Tuttavia c’è un progetto patrocinato dal Comune di Terni per la loro riapertura che speriamo trovi presto realizzazione. 

Wrap up this day entirely devoted to the world of cinema by heading to Spoleto.
“What’s Spoleto like?” asks Fabio, the main character played by Marcello Mastroianni in A Very Private Affair (Vie Privée) by Louis Malle – “It’s beautiful, on a hill, every year they hold many shows there, and Spoleto fills up with Americans, young people, and noblewomen.”
It was in the very town of the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) that the entire second half of Louis Malle’s 1961 film was shot, with Brigitte Bardot starring alongside Mastroianni.
More recently, Spoleto served as the main filming location for Copperman, a film by Eros Puglielli starring Luca Argentero.
Filming took place not only in the historic centre of Spoleto – with its alleys near Corso Garibaldi, the Ponzianina Bridge, Piazza Mentana, and Via San Carlo – but also in other parts of Umbria, such as Castelluccio, Piediluco, and Sant’Anatolia di Narco.

Umbria… lights, camera, action!