Where it was filmed 'Ferrari'

The film Ferrari, written by Troy Kennedy Martin and the director Michael Mann, is based on the novel by Brock Yates Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine.

Michael Mann wanted to shoot Ferrari in the places where the great Emilian racing driver and car builder was born and lived, Modena. This provides one setting for the Mille Miglia course, piazza Grande, which features an exceptional driver, Patrick Dempsey. For the occasion, the central square was taken back to how it looked in 1957, when the podium of the historic race was shared by three “Rosse di Maranello”. Everything in the square, from the cars to the extras in vintage costumes, contributed to recreating the legend of Enzo Ferrari. The shoot in Modena also involved piazza Roma, corso Canalgrande- between via Università and via Gherarda, largo Garibaldi and most of the city centre – including the area outside teatro Storchi, with Giuseppe Graziosi’s fountain of two rivers – and the cemetery of San Cataldo.

A 400-strong crew worked on the shoot in Reggio Emilia: a historic building situated along the porticoes of via Emilia San Pietro - number 22 - was transformed into the Ferrari family residence. The atmospheric strada della Vittoria, near Novellara, was tarmacked by the production; here in a historic hunting lodge that belonged to the Freddi brothers, Shailene Woodley appears as Ferrari’s mistress Lina Lardi.

Fiorano Modenese, the legendary circuit near Maranello belonging to Scuderia Ferrari and symbolic of the age of “Drake”, was obviously an essential location as were the hill roads in the area of Puianello, between Castelvetro and Maranello.

In addition to Emilia-Romagna, the production chose to shoot in Abruzzo, in Campo Imperatore, simulating the 1957 Mille Miglia on the roads that lead from Fonte Cerreto to Fonte Vetica, towards Vado di Sole, Castel del Monte, the small square of Assergi and the road to Santo Stefano di Sessanio with the production based out of Montecristo. The scenes of the terrible accident that took place in Guidizzolo (province of Mantua) involving Alfonso De Portago (played by Gabriel Leone) and his Ferrari 335S were recreated in Abruzzo and Novellara. A front tyre suddenly burst causing the car to swerve and hit the roadside, killing the two men in the vehicle and nine people (including 5 children) in the crowd, wounding many others.

Other locations included piazza Vittoria in Brescia, starting point for the Mille Miglia, and the area around Alessandria in Piedmont.