Discover Emilia through the eyes of the cinema. In this fascinating three-day itinerary, we invite you to travel through authentic villages, cities of art and evocative landscapes that have served as the backdrop for famous Italian films. From the historical sets of Don Camillo in Brescello, to the poetic atmospheres of Parma signed by Bertolucci, to the cinematic hills of Castell'Arquato and Bobbio, loved by Marco Bellocchio, each stop is an invitation to experience Emilia as a great open-air film.
Visit Emilia's journey into cinematopraphy can begin in Brescello (RE), whose streets and squares were the setting for the famous "Don Camillo and Peppone".
It is easy to find here the small world described by Giovannino Guareschi, to imagine the parish priest and the mayor, the companions and the worshippers.
The 1952 film "Don Camillo", directed by Julien Duvivier, with the two historical protagonists, was largely filmed in Brescello, as well as the four subsequent episodes such as "Il compagno Don Camillo" in 1965, directed by Luigi Comencini.
Today, the town hall and the Church of Santa Maria Nascente, which houses the talking crucifix in a chapel, are still in the town's central square. Instead, many props, such as Peppone's motorbike, Don Camillo's suit and their bicycles, but also photographs taken during filming, posters and reconstructions of some locations, are in the "Peppone and Don Camillo Museum".
The locomotive that has taken us in and out of the village so many times is in the park named after Guareschi, while a "substitute" for the tank that appears in "Don Camillo and the Hon. Peppone" rests peacefully in Piazza Mingori, where the statue of the Russian soldier, linked to the film "Comrade Don Camillo", was placed in September.
Nearby is the “Museo Brescello e Guareschi – Il Territorio e il cinema”. There are many cinematic curiosities, such as the chapel of the Madonnina del Borghetto and the bell built by Peppone in the episode "Don Camillo Monsignore... ma non troppo", today hanging under the portico of Via Giglioli. You cannot miss a stop at the mayor's house in Via Carducci; instead, the railway station is at the end of Viale Venturini.
The film “Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi” (Don Camillo and the youth of today), the last in the series, was instead shot in San Secondo Parmense, directed by Mario Camerini in 1972, with Gastone Moschin and Lionel Stander in the roles of the Guareschian preacher and big mayor.
Discover also the itinerary compleately dedicated to the Food Valley of Giovannino Guareschi!
It is worth stopping in Campegine, where the film "Il Cammino della speranza" by Pietro Germi is set, and in Reggiolo, where Federico Fellini partly filmed "La voce della luna", starring Roberto Benigni and Paolo Villaggio. The film shows the traditional Gnoccata festival, a popular event in Guastalla.
Do not miss Correggio, the birthplace of Luciano Ligabue, who set his "Radiofreccia" here, with some scenes also shot in Guastalla and Gualtieri. The latter is the village of another Ligabue, the painter Antonio Ligabue, played by Elio Germano in the film "Volevo Nascondermi", shot in the Reggio area, amidst endless poplar woods and the banks of the river Po.
Directed by Giorgio Diritti, the movie won the Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival in 2020 and was proclaimed best film at the 2021 David di Donatello Awards, with 7 awards.
In Gualtieri you can visit the Casa Museo Antonio Ligabue, located on the first floor of Palazzo Bentivoglio.
Parma, Italian Capital of Culture 2020+2021, has been the set of many film works and Bernardo Bertolucci has dedicated several films to his hometown.
Like "Before the Revolution", set at Parma Cathedral and in the Villetta area - where Cesare's house in Via Vittime Civili di Guerra is located – and then in the interiors of Palazzo della Rosa Prati, Fabrizio's home.
The film also immortalizes the Ducal Park and the Pilotta complex, a location that - together with the Duomo - the director reused for the filming of "La Luna".
And how can we not think of Ugo Tognazzi who, in the guise of Primo Spaggiari in the film "The tragedy of a ridiculous man", cycles through the streets of the city, crossing Via Farini, the Caprazucca bridge and Piazza Garibaldi in the rain and leaving San Giovanni behind, where Fabrizio and Clelia's wedding had taken place in "Before the Revolution”.
Bertolucci again chose Roncole Verdi, a short distance from Maestro Giuseppe Verdi's Busseto, for a moment of "Novecento" set in the Piacentine farm court.
Instead, in Salsomaggiore Terme one can relive some scenes from "The Last Emperor" set in the elegant Moorish hall of the Palazzo dei Congressi.
The spa town is often the setting for cinema, as was the case with the films "Il Carabiniere a Cavallo" directed by Carlo Lizzani and “Arabella” directed by Mauro Bolognini, and as Gianni Amelio recently wished, for his new film “Il Signore delle Formiche”, starring Elio Germano, Luigi Lo Cascio and Sara Serraiocco, also set in Busseto, Roccabianca, Fidenza and Piacenza.
Roccabianca, with its porticoed main square, Piazza Minozzi, also lent itself perfectly to the reconstruction of “Ottocento” Bologna and the story of the Mortara family in the film “Rapito” by Marco Bellocchio.
Unmissable stops, places of history, culture and splendid castles, all worth a visit, such as the romantic and super-photgraphed Torrechiara Castle, which has been the settingfor several films, including "Addio crudele fratello" by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, "The Condottieri - Giovanni delle Bande Nere" by Luis Trenker, "Donne e Soldati" by Antonio Marchi and Luigi Malerba and, more recently, "Ladyhawke" by Richard Donner.
The king of cheeses has become the inspiration for a movie, recently aired on TV channel Rai 1 and online on the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium website. It is called "Gli Amigos" and was directed by Paolo Genovese.
The protagonists include actor Stefano Fresi and Chef Massimo Bottura, grappling with a cooking school and a challenge based on Parmigiano Reggiano, which becomes a journey to discover the origins and secrets of the renowned cheese.
To relive the atmosphere, it is a good idea to experience it for yourself, visiting some of the dairies where this cheese delicacy is made, not forgetting tasty samples.
It is time to immerse oneself in the cinematography of Piacenza's historic city centre, the set of films such as "Belle al Bar" by and starring Alessandro Benvenuti and Eva Robins, produced by Piacenza-born Giorgio Leopardi in 1994. A tour in which to recognise emblematic places in the city, such as the Duomo and the Piacenza railway station, the clubs and landscapes along the Po.
Marco Bellocchio, a director originally from Bobbio and winner of the Palme d'Or d'Honneur at the Cannes Film Festival 2021, among the various locations in the city (such as the Monument to the Pontiere d'Italia immortalised in his 1965 debut film "I Pugni in tasca" with which he won the Nastro d'Argento), filmed some scenes of his film "Addio del passato", a film presented at the 2002 edition of the Venice Film Festival, at the Municipal Theatre.
After Piacenza, a stop in Bobbio (PC), a cult cinema location and one of the Borghi più Belli d'Italia (Most Beautiful Villages in Italy), is a must. It welcomes visitors with its cinematic Ponte del Diavolo (Devil's Bridge), better known as Ponte Gobbo (Hunchback Bridge).
The village is also home every year to the Bobbio Film Festival, directed by Marco Bellocchio himself.
It was here, where the director's family spent their summer holidays, that "I Pugni in Tasca" was almost entirely set. The film takes place mainly in his mother's country house, immersed in the Trebbia Valley, while for some exteriors the curves of the State Road 45 were chosen, which follows the course of the Trebbia river and reveals unforgettable natural landscapes.
Also filmed are the Hunchback Bridge, the Monumental Cemetery and the Castelletto cliff, the site of the dramatic climax of the film, which also moves inside the bell tower of the Bobbio Cathedral.
Between 1979 and 1980, Marco Bellocchio again paid homage to his land and his childhood memories in "Vacanze in Val Trebbia", a autobiographical documentary film shot in and around Bobbio.
In "Sorelle mai" (2010) one can recognize the banks of the Trebbia river, which host the stories of lead actors Giorgio Bellocchio, Alba Rohrwacher e Donatella Finocchiaro.
Just as in "Sangue del mio sangue" (Blood of my blood) of 2015, one can find all the medieval atmosphere of the village and the majestic Abbey of San Colombano.
If some scenes of "Ladyhawke" were filmed in the Castle of Torrechiara, there are others that feature the splendid village of Castell'Arquato with its Rocca Viscontea, the Collegiata, and the surroundings of the Bacedasco's countryside.
The three main characters played by Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer bring to life the love story of the beautiful Isabeau and the nobleman Navarre, condemned to be always together, but eternally divided by the curse that the evil bishop has cast upon them.
The pop musical "Juliet and Romeo" (2025) by Timothy Scott Bogart was also filmed in this picturesque medieval village with an exceptional cast, including Rupert Everett, Rebel Wilson, Jason Isaacs, Rupert Graves, Dan Fogler and Derek Jacobi.
At this point, the tour can continue to Cortemaggiore, where Francesco Rosi filmed - with relevance to the reality of the facts - some scenes from "Il Caso Mattei".
While the Diga di Mignano in Val d'Arda provided the theatre for the epic finale of "I lupi attaccano in branco", with Sylva Koscina and a moustachioed Rock Hudson.
Finally, in 2012, "La finestra di Alice", was filmed in the Piacenza area, directed by Carlo Sarti and starring Sergio Muniz, Debora Caprioglio and Fabrizio Bucci.
