Where it was filmed 'Bicycle Thieves'

The Bicycle Thief, considered Italian neorealism at its finest, was shot almost entirely on location in the streets of Rome in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

Antonio Ricci and his family live in Val Melaina, a Roman suburb established during the Fascist era. Today, a plaque on the wall of the former labour office, on the corner between Via Scarpanto and Via del Gran Paradiso, commemorates the place as the location for Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece. The journey to work shows a Rome that no longer exists, viale Tirreno is wild countryside and via Nomentana is crowded with bicycles.

The office where Antonio starts work is in the central via dei Montecatini in rione Colonna, near Via del Corso, while the posters are fixed to a wall in via di Porta Pinciana. Not far off, near via Francesco Crispi, a thief steals his bicycle. This is several metres from the present Galleria d’Arte Moderna, at the time called Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, whose staircase is clearly visible. The chase for the thief leads Antonio to the nearby crossroads with via del Tritone and the Umberto I tunnel that leads to Via Nazionale. Returning from his first day at work, Antonio is forced to take the crowded tram at piazzale di Porta Pia which leaves him at piazza Sempione where his little son Bruno is an errand boy at a petrol pump. They walk home over ponte Tazio which crosses the river Aniene.

The next day, Antonio searches for his bicycle, first at the market of piazza Vittorio and then porta Portese. As he follows the thief and the beggar he was seen with, the film shows another unmistakeable element of the city, the gazometro. A short while later, the action shifts to piazza dei Mercanti with a glimpse of the Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The beggar is stopped a little further on, on Ponte Palatino. There is also time for a trip around the heart of Trastevere, near piazza San Cosimato where the fortune teller, consulted several times by the main characters, lives.

The chase also leads to the Church dei Santi Nereo e Achilleo in viale delle Terme di Caracalla returning to lungotevere and ponte Duca d’Aosta and then towards passeggiata di Ripetta, where father and son go into a trattoria. Continuing to follow the river Tiber, they come to vicolo della Campanella in the middle of the city.

The epilogue takes place on lungotevere Flaminio, near the stadio Nazionale which is crowded because of the Sunday football match which is coming to a close. The stadium, named Torino after the tragedy of Superga, was demolished in 1957 to make space for the stadio Flaminio in preparation for the 1960 Olympic Games held in Rome.