Alberto and Silvia live in Usmate Velate, a quiet and well-ordered town in Brianza. He is the director of the local post office, but his ambition is to run a post office in Milan, which is lively, modern and full of opportunities, including for his young son Chicco. The imposing Cathedral of Milan towers over the busy opening scene. But things don’t go to plan and Alberto’s career takes a turn for the worse when he resorts to trickery to try and have himself transferred to the city. He succeeds in getting himself transferred, but not to his beloved Milan, and he is forced to move to Castellabate (SA) in the dreaded South, where the Camorra rules all, the cities are overflowing with rubbish, and the heat is unbearable.
He soon finds himself overcoming his prejudices however, when he finds Castellabate to be a picturesque place with the ideal climate, where the locals are hospitable and affectionate and the food is good. The new director is welcomed by his colleagues with a lavish dinner held in the area of Porto delle Gatte, an old dock dating back to the 12th century with an arched structure.
Before long, Alberto, who spends his weekends with his family in the North, finds himself wanting to get back to the town in time to see the sun setting over the sea.
Castellabate, and more specifically its Medieval quarter and the coastal districts of San Marco and Santa Maria, which all lie in the Cilento National Park, was chosen for its hilly landscapes overlooking the sea.
The small piazza in which the post office is located is the main location in the film, where the workers play football and table football during their breaks: this is Piazza 10 ottobre 1123 (the date on which the castle was founded), in the Medieval centre, and the building that houses the post office is actually a bar in real life.
Being a postman in the South is no mean feat, as Alberto realises when he decides to accompany Mattia on his rounds, forcing him not to drink coffee because it makes him short-tempered. But you can’t say no to the hospitality of the locals of Castellabate, and after a few glasses of wine and sips of limoncello, the pair find themselves at the Marina, in the district of San Marco.
The scene of the concert by the town’s band was filmed at the San Costabile Viewpoint, a small panoramic piazza plummeting down to the sea, which is located on the hill in Castellabate in front of Abate Castle, which lends its name to the town. Some scenes in the film, for example the scene in which a frightened Alberto runs away from his colleagues as they chase him, were filmed in the narrow streets, under the arches and on the steps dotted around the ancient town.
Time passes and the friendship between Alberto and his colleagues deepens, in particular with Mattia, who takes him fishing along the stretch of coast between San Marco and Santa Maria di Castellabate, known as the Pozzillo Sea.
Alberto realises that distance is ironically doing his marriage some good, as Silvia continues to uphold her prejudices against the South and its inhabitants. Then, in an extreme act of solidarity, she decides to go and see the awful living conditions of her husband for herself. As soon as she arrives at Castellabate station (which doesn’t actually exist, Capranica-Sutri station in the province of Viterbo was used instead), she comes face to face with a world that’s even worse than the one he described to her. The elaborate act put on by Alberto’s post office colleagues, which even includes a fake kidnapping, is staged at the Torretta, a fortified farming estate dating back to the 17th century just outside San Marco di Castellabate, and at the military base of Persano (a district of Serre in the province of Salerno).
In the closing scene of the film, under a sky lit up by fireworks during the town festival, which takes place at the Marina Piccola (in the heart of Santa Maria di Castellabate), Alberto comes clean to his wife Silvia, and Mattia declares his love for Maria.
Alberto and Silvia live in Usmate Velate, a quiet and well-ordered town in Brianza. He is the director of the local post office, but his ambition is to run a post office in Milan, which is lively, modern and full of opportunities, including for his young son Chicco. The imposing Cathedral of Milan towers over the busy opening scene. But things don’t go to plan and Alberto’s career takes a turn for the worse when he resorts to trickery to try and have himself transferred to the city. He succeeds in getting himself transferred, but not to his beloved Milan, and he is forced to move to Castellabate (SA) in the dreaded South, where the Camorra rules all, the cities are overflowing with rubbish, and the heat is unbearable.
He soon finds himself overcoming his prejudices however, when he finds Castellabate to be a picturesque place with the ideal climate, where the locals are hospitable and affectionate and the food is good. The new director is welcomed by his colleagues with a lavish dinner held in the area of Porto delle Gatte, an old dock dating back to the 12th century with an arched structure.
Before long, Alberto, who spends his weekends with his family in the North, finds himself wanting to get back to the town in time to see the sun setting over the sea.
Castellabate, and more specifically its Medieval quarter and the coastal districts of San Marco and Santa Maria, which all lie in the Cilento National Park, was chosen for its hilly landscapes overlooking the sea.
The small piazza in which the post office is located is the main location in the film, where the workers play football and table football during their breaks: this is Piazza 10 ottobre 1123 (the date on which the castle was founded), in the Medieval centre, and the building that houses the post office is actually a bar in real life.
Being a postman in the South is no mean feat, as Alberto realises when he decides to accompany Mattia on his rounds, forcing him not to drink coffee because it makes him short-tempered. But you can’t say no to the hospitality of the locals of Castellabate, and after a few glasses of wine and sips of limoncello, the pair find themselves at the Marina, in the district of San Marco.
The scene of the concert by the town’s band was filmed at the San Costabile Viewpoint, a small panoramic piazza plummeting down to the sea, which is located on the hill in Castellabate in front of Abate Castle, which lends its name to the town. Some scenes in the film, for example the scene in which a frightened Alberto runs away from his colleagues as they chase him, were filmed in the narrow streets, under the arches and on the steps dotted around the ancient town.
Time passes and the friendship between Alberto and his colleagues deepens, in particular with Mattia, who takes him fishing along the stretch of coast between San Marco and Santa Maria di Castellabate, known as the Pozzillo Sea.
Alberto realises that distance is ironically doing his marriage some good, as Silvia continues to uphold her prejudices against the South and its inhabitants. Then, in an extreme act of solidarity, she decides to go and see the awful living conditions of her husband for herself. As soon as she arrives at Castellabate station (which doesn’t actually exist, Capranica-Sutri station in the province of Viterbo was used instead), she comes face to face with a world that’s even worse than the one he described to her. The elaborate act put on by Alberto’s post office colleagues, which even includes a fake kidnapping, is staged at the Torretta, a fortified farming estate dating back to the 17th century just outside San Marco di Castellabate, and at the military base of Persano (a district of Serre in the province of Salerno).
In the closing scene of the film, under a sky lit up by fireworks during the town festival, which takes place at the Marina Piccola (in the heart of Santa Maria di Castellabate), Alberto comes clean to his wife Silvia, and Mattia declares his love for Maria.
Alberto is an illustrious member of the Accademia del Gorgonzola, a cheese with protected denomination of origin status from the province of Milan, which he takes to Mattia’s mother to taste. After spending time in Castellabate, he brings his colleagues at the Accademia a zizzona di Battipaglia, a buffalo mozzarella from Campania shaped like a large bosom.
During his first breakfast in Castellabate he is offered, among other things, sanguinaccio, chocolate mixed with pig’s blood.
The dinner he shares with his new Campanian colleagues consists in a table full of all of God’s bounties, including: frittelle di neonata, or rather fried patties of small fish, ciambotta, a vegetable-based stew (the variation from Salerno is made up of aubergines, potatoes, peppers, and occasionally fried tomatoes), pasta with ragù, white figs from Cilento and, of course, pastiera, a Neapolitan tart traditionally eaten over the Easter period and made from shortcrust pastry filled with a mix of ricotta, candied fruit, sugar, eggs and grain boiled in milk.
A remake of 2008 French film Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Alberto Colombo runs a post office in Brianza and is willing to do just about anything to be transferred to Milan to make his wife happy, even going so far as pretending to be disabled. When he is discovered, as punishment he is transferred to Cilento to run the post office of the small town of Castellabate. Soon his prejudices against the South are washed away by the quality of life he enjoys there and the hospitality of the local people.
