Where it was filmed 'The Ignorant Angels'

A bird’s eye view of the Ostiense neighbourhood: The Ignorant Angels, TV series from director Ferzan Özpetek, starts from the Gazometro to reveal the city of Rome glowing in the early evening light. Apparently calm, the impassive city watches the events that are about to unfold. Massimo (Luca Argentero) is riding his motorbike through the traffic: the illuminated arch of Costantine can be seen in the distance from via di San Gregorio. The fatal crash occurs in piazza del Colosseo.

In her attempt to work through her grief, Antonia (Cristina Capotondi) accidently discovers Massimo’s parallel life and decides to find out more: the Cestia Pyramid and Porta San Paolo (settings dear to Özpetek) both make an appearance on her way to Michele’s house. The apartment where Michele (Eduardo Scarpetta) lives is the beating heart for a group of friends who are really more of an extended family. The apartment terrace is the setting for Sunday lunches and parties, where love stories and friendships develop: the shooting location was the terrace of Lanificio159, a restaurant in via di Pietralata. Antonia begins to be introduced into this family although her relationship with Michele is not simple, there are conflicts and encounters but the first attempt at reconciliation takes place in piazza Mastai, in Trastevere, where the fountain of Pius IX and the medical clinic directed by Antonia are located. Michele takes her behind the scenes at the Opera House:  a scene was shot on the stage of Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto, with Mina’s velvet voice singing Nessun dorma, the most famous romanza in Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot.

Michele works in the painting workshop of the Opera House, which is accessed through an alleyway flanking the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in piazza della Bocca della Verità.  From the workshop entrance, the Temple of Hercules and the Fountain of the Tritons can be seen. The terrace overlooks the Circus Maximus.

A key location in one of the series’ substories is piazza Navona: Annamaria (Ambra Angiolini) and a former boyfriend sit on the side of the fontana del Moro to chat after dinner. The nearby Church of Santa Maria della Pace is seen in the following frame. Annamaria and Roberta’s favourite bar is in the atrium of Palazzo Braschi, which houses the Museum of Rome. Annamaria waits there at a table, gazing at the symbol of the square, the Four Rivers fountain, waiting for her wife to make an important decision.

Antonia meets Asaf (Burak Deniz), nephew of Serra (Yilmaz), who takes her to see the cupola of St. Peters Basilica through the keyhole of the villa del Priorato di Malta, on the Aventine Hill. She repays him with a visit to Villa Adriana in Tivoli. Antonia and Asaf drive past the key symbols of Rome including piazza San Pietro, the Vittoriano,theatre of Marcellus.

The Tiber river and her bridges appear often: Riccardo and Luciano walk over ponte Sant’Angelo, with Castel Sant’Angelo behind them, commenting on a friend’s photo. The splendid terrace overlooking Rome on the Janiculum Hill is the setting for an act of revenge on some homophobic bullies.