The stories of the three men (all played by Carlo Verdone) intertwine repeatedly as they cross Italy (without however actually going too far from Rome) en-route for their voting centres, with multiple unexpected happenings, meetings and deviations.
Quiet Pasquale Amitrano, who left Italy for a life in Munich, heads off towards Matera in a red Alfasud. After crossing the Austrian-Italian border through the Brennero Pass, his stupidity makes him the target of theft, swindles and even a beating when he clumsily tries to steal the hub cabs of a car parked outside the “La Tana trattoria” in Caianello. The scene was actually shot in piazza Umberto I in Bassano Romano, while a tramp slept, unawares, on the edge of the 19th century Greek cross fountain at its centre. Earlier, the hub cabs of his own Alfa were stolen in the Tolfa service area on the A12 Rome-Civitavecchia highway. The voting centre in Matera is Palazzo del Seminario in the square of the same name in Tivoli.
Furio Zoccano, logorrhoeic and pedantic civil servant and proud subscriber to the AutoClub of Italy, is supposed to live in Turin as the frame of the cityscape suggests, however the building in the scene where the entire family gets ready to leave is actually in Rome, in via Mecenate, between Colle Oppio and the Monti neighbourhood. Like Pasquale, the Zoccano family also stops at the Tolfa service area on the Rome-Civitavecchia highway, before Furio’s reckless manoeuvre causes a chain of accidents in the Torrione 2 tunnel near l’Aquila on the A24 Rome-L'Aquila highway (also known as the Road of the Parks). The accident forces the family to make an unplanned stop in a motel in Orvieto. However, the hotel in the distance is actually Hotel Torre Sant’Angelo situated in a 18th century castle in Castagnola, Tivoli. The voting centre in Rome where they finally get to cast their vote is Palazzo Pantanella in via dei Cerchi, on the corner with via della Bocca della Verità.
Mimmo, a naïve and clumsy young man, arrives in Verona late (after getting confused with Vicenza!) to collect his grandmother (Elena Fabrizi), who has been holidaying at her daughter’s, and take her to Rome so that she can vote. Their journey is beset by a series of unexpected events. His grandmother waits impatiently and angrily beneath a tent at the Maccarese-Fregene exit of the A12 highway. They stop several times: to buy forgotten medicine, set in the province of Verona in the film, the pharmacy is actually in the Castle of St. George in Maccarese (Fiumicino); for an injection, near the rest area of Pineto Est on the Rome-Civitavecchia highway; at Tivoli cemetery where they search for the tombstone of the son of a friend of grandmother Teresa who has the name “of a smile”; at hotel Torre Sant’Angelo in Tivoli (where Furio’s family is also staying); and at the Roma Ovest exit of the A12 highway, in Fiumicino where “er Principe” (Mario Brega) is arrested. Arguing furiously, grandmother and grandson finally reach the voting centre in Palazzo dei Centro Preti, lungotevere dei Vallati, near Ponte Sisto. Fun fact: Verdone’s family lived in this building from the 1940s until the death of his father Mario.
The stories of the three men (all played by Carlo Verdone) intertwine repeatedly as they cross Italy (without however actually going too far from Rome) en-route for their voting centres, with multiple unexpected happenings, meetings and deviations.
Quiet Pasquale Amitrano, who left Italy for a life in Munich, heads off towards Matera in a red Alfasud. After crossing the Austrian-Italian border through the Brennero Pass, his stupidity makes him the target of theft, swindles and even a beating when he clumsily tries to steal the hub cabs of a car parked outside the “La Tana trattoria” in Caianello. The scene was actually shot in piazza Umberto I in Bassano Romano, while a tramp slept, unawares, on the edge of the 19th century Greek cross fountain at its centre. Earlier, the hub cabs of his own Alfa were stolen in the Tolfa service area on the A12 Rome-Civitavecchia highway. The voting centre in Matera is Palazzo del Seminario in the square of the same name in Tivoli.
Furio Zoccano, logorrhoeic and pedantic civil servant and proud subscriber to the AutoClub of Italy, is supposed to live in Turin as the frame of the cityscape suggests, however the building in the scene where the entire family gets ready to leave is actually in Rome, in via Mecenate, between Colle Oppio and the Monti neighbourhood. Like Pasquale, the Zoccano family also stops at the Tolfa service area on the Rome-Civitavecchia highway, before Furio’s reckless manoeuvre causes a chain of accidents in the Torrione 2 tunnel near l’Aquila on the A24 Rome-L'Aquila highway (also known as the Road of the Parks). The accident forces the family to make an unplanned stop in a motel in Orvieto. However, the hotel in the distance is actually Hotel Torre Sant’Angelo situated in a 18th century castle in Castagnola, Tivoli. The voting centre in Rome where they finally get to cast their vote is Palazzo Pantanella in via dei Cerchi, on the corner with via della Bocca della Verità.
Mimmo, a naïve and clumsy young man, arrives in Verona late (after getting confused with Vicenza!) to collect his grandmother (Elena Fabrizi), who has been holidaying at her daughter’s, and take her to Rome so that she can vote. Their journey is beset by a series of unexpected events. His grandmother waits impatiently and angrily beneath a tent at the Maccarese-Fregene exit of the A12 highway. They stop several times: to buy forgotten medicine, set in the province of Verona in the film, the pharmacy is actually in the Castle of St. George in Maccarese (Fiumicino); for an injection, near the rest area of Pineto Est on the Rome-Civitavecchia highway; at Tivoli cemetery where they search for the tombstone of the son of a friend of grandmother Teresa who has the name “of a smile”; at hotel Torre Sant’Angelo in Tivoli (where Furio’s family is also staying); and at the Roma Ovest exit of the A12 highway, in Fiumicino where “er Principe” (Mario Brega) is arrested. Arguing furiously, grandmother and grandson finally reach the voting centre in Palazzo dei Centro Preti, lungotevere dei Vallati, near Ponte Sisto. Fun fact: Verdone’s family lived in this building from the 1940s until the death of his father Mario.
During an election weekend, three men travel to their voting centres: Furio, a logorrhoeic and pedantic civil servant; Mimmo, a naïve young man escorting his grandmother; and Pasquale, a Southern Italian emigrant living in Munich.
