La Dolce Vita

A real filming location, and the most famous scene in Italian cinema. Late at night Sylvia, the American film star, wanders the empty streets with Marcello, finds the fountain, walks into the water in her black evening dress and calls him: 'Marcello, come here!'. He follows her in, and at dawn the water stops. The scene was shot in winter; Mastroianni is said to have drunk vodka to bear the cold water.

Access · The square is free. The area in front of the basin needs a €2 ticket for non-residents (since 2 February 2026): 09:00 to 22:00, from 11:30 on Mondays and Fridays, free after 22:00. Rome residents, children under 6 and disabled visitors with a companion go in free. Tickets online at fontanaditrevi.roma.it or at the entrance. Bathing in the fountain is forbidden and fined. Check the times before you go.

The street at the heart of the film. At night Marcello and the photographers wait at the café tables for film stars and nobles; later his father, visiting from the provinces, drinks with him here. Much of the street was rebuilt on a set at Cinecittà, but some scenes were filmed on the real Via Veneto, and a plaque on the street remembers the film.

Access · Public street, free at any time. Cafés and hotels are private businesses.

A real filming location for the opening: a helicopter carries a statue of Christ over Rome to St Peter's, with Marcello following in a second helicopter. Later Sylvia, just arrived in Rome, runs up the stairs of Michelangelo's dome followed by panting reporters; the top of the dome in that scene was rebuilt on a set at Cinecittà, but you can climb the real one.

Access · The square is free. The basilica and the climb to the dome have security checks, a dress code and, for the dome, a ticket. Check before you go.

A real filming location. The very first image: the helicopter carrying the statue of Christ flies along the arches of the ancient Claudian aqueduct, as workers run below waving. The arches still stand in the open fields of this park on the edge of the city.

Access · Public park, free. Bring water in summer: there is little shade.

A real filming location. Marcello and Maddalena, a bored rich heiress, drive into the square at night in her Cadillac convertible, pick up a street walker and give her a lift home, just for something new to do.

Access · Public square, free at any time.

A real filming location. Marcello runs into his old friend Steiner, a cultured, gentle intellectual whose calm family life he envies, outside this big modern church in a new suburb of the 1950s. The square in front was also used for exteriors of Steiner's home. Later Steiner will shock everyone by killing his two children and himself.

Access · Active parish church: visit outside services and dress respectfully. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Inside the church Steiner climbs to the organ and plays a piece by Bach for Marcello, a quiet moment of beauty in the middle of the film. The organ scene was filmed in this church's interior, while the outside shown belongs to San Giovanni Bosco.

Access · Active parish church: visit outside services and dress respectfully. Check opening times before you go.

The setting of Sylvia's night out: after her arrival she dances wildly with Marcello in an open-air nightclub among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, until her jealous fiancé Robert takes her away. The Rome tourism board describes the nightclub as a set reproducing the baths, so this is the place the scene is set rather than a sure filming location; the real ruins are worth the visit anyway.

Access · Archaeological site with a ticket; open-air opera is staged here in summer. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Emma, Marcello's jealous and devoted girlfriend, takes an overdose of pills, and he rushes her to hospital. The outside of the hospital was filmed at this white modernist congress hall in EUR, the district Mussolini planned in the 1930s.

Access · Congress and events centre: the outside can be seen from the street; the inside only during events. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Marcello and Maddalena join a party of old aristocratic families in their country palace. Maddalena hides in a room with a strange echo and declares her love to Marcello through the walls, then kisses another man. The night ends with a séance in a ruined villa nearby.

Access · Owned by the Italian state and open on certain days, often with guided visits. Check before you go.

A real filming location for the ending. After a night-long party, Marcello and the guests walk onto the beach at dawn, where fishermen have pulled a huge dead sea creature from the water. Across a stream Paola, a young waitress he met earlier at a seaside restaurant, calls to him, but he cannot hear her over the wind and walks away. The story is set near Fregene, just up the coast.

Access · Public beach; in summer parts of it are run by private beach clubs. Check before you go.

A real filming location. Sylvia, the American film star, lands in Rome and comes down the plane steps into a crowd of reporters and photographers, Marcello and Paparazzo among them. In 1959 Ciampino was still Rome's main airport.

Access · Working airport, open only to travellers. Nothing from the film can be visited.