Despite the setting, the series was not shot in a real American military base, but in an old building in Bagnoli di Sopra, between Padua and Chioggia, which provided a “non-place” to contribute to the strong sense of alienation that the director and screenwriters wanted. Previously a missile base belonging to the Italian Airforce and NATO, it was used as a defence control centre until the end of the Cold War. More recently, as property of the municipality, it was used as a welcome centre for asylum seekers.
Chioggia is presumably the setting for the base and most of the events involving both the young and the adults that take place on Italian soil, outside the American microcosm of their base, happen in the town, its hamlet of Sottomarina and lagoon. One of the rare exceptions is Jonathan and Fraser’s trip to the Altopiano of Asiago: the young soldier takes the boy to the Asiago War Memorial in Leiten, one of the largest Italian WWI memorials, housing the remains of 54,286 Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers.
The final episode of the first season also takes place almost entirely off base: Fraser and Caitlin head to Bologna for the concert of Blood Orange (the artist curated the series soundtrack). During their train journey, they pass the stations of Codigoro (FE) and Ferrara via Boschetto and are forced to disembark at San Pietro in Casale (BO). After the concert, as Caitlin walks down via Stalingrado, along the long sequence of murals that decorate the road up to the central station, Fraser wanders Bologna with a new friend: they look out from the window over the Canal delle Moline in via Piella, a corner of the city known as “little Venice”, and walk to the arco del Meloncello, which marks the start of the arcade (666 arches) leading to the Sanctuary of St. Luke in the former neighbourhood of Saragozza.
Despite the setting, the series was not shot in a real American military base, but in an old building in Bagnoli di Sopra, between Padua and Chioggia, which provided a “non-place” to contribute to the strong sense of alienation that the director and screenwriters wanted. Previously a missile base belonging to the Italian Airforce and NATO, it was used as a defence control centre until the end of the Cold War. More recently, as property of the municipality, it was used as a welcome centre for asylum seekers.
Chioggia is presumably the setting for the base and most of the events involving both the young and the adults that take place on Italian soil, outside the American microcosm of their base, happen in the town, its hamlet of Sottomarina and lagoon. One of the rare exceptions is Jonathan and Fraser’s trip to the Altopiano of Asiago: the young soldier takes the boy to the Asiago War Memorial in Leiten, one of the largest Italian WWI memorials, housing the remains of 54,286 Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers.
The final episode of the first season also takes place almost entirely off base: Fraser and Caitlin head to Bologna for the concert of Blood Orange (the artist curated the series soundtrack). During their train journey, they pass the stations of Codigoro (FE) and Ferrara via Boschetto and are forced to disembark at San Pietro in Casale (BO). After the concert, as Caitlin walks down via Stalingrado, along the long sequence of murals that decorate the road up to the central station, Fraser wanders Bologna with a new friend: they look out from the window over the Canal delle Moline in via Piella, a corner of the city known as “little Venice”, and walk to the arco del Meloncello, which marks the start of the arcade (666 arches) leading to the Sanctuary of St. Luke in the former neighbourhood of Saragozza.
The Apartment, Wildside, Small Forward, Sky Studios
Adolescents stationed on an American military base in Northern Italy with their military and civil families experience friendship, first love, anxiety, worry and the ups and downs typical of their age.
