Full speed ahead

The Italian Job had its theatrical release in 1969. Although the screenplay was originally set in Milan, the location was changed when the British production discovered that Turin had one of the very first computerised traffic control centres in Europe. So, a group of English thieves go to Turin to organize a hit on a convoy heading from Torino-Caselle Airport to the city centre. They arrange the hit by sabotaging the computerised system controlling the traffic lights and vehicle flow. A good 34 years later, the remake, also entitled The Italian Job, features a group of American thieves who, having met in Piazza San Marco, plot to steal a safe filled with golden ingots from a palazzo in Venice and empty it under water. Once in the Alps, the thieves are ambushed: they are dropped into an icy lake and the ingots are stolen. The lake is Fedaia, in the Trentino Dolomites in Canazei, at the foothills of the Marmolada range, Passo Sella and Val Gardena are also visible.

And now for Imola, the beating heart of Italy when it comes to engines. This is the setting for Matteo Rovere’s Italian Race(2016) which tells a delicate story of family and car racing. The historical centre shows off its best features during the thrilling chase that crosses the heart of the city including Piazza Matteotti, among other places. The racing scenes were shot in the Autodromo di Imola (Imola racetrack) and other legendary circuits such as Vallelunga, in Campagnano di Roma; Mugellonear Florence, and Monza, one of the oldest circuits in the world and glorious setting for the Italian Gran Prix, where the race and paddock scenes were concentrated. The illegal competition in which Loris competes with his father’s Peugeot 205 Turbo in the attempt to restore the fortunes of his family takes place in the splendid setting of Matera: setting off from the Mattei runway in Basilicata Airport in Pisticci, it races down the road that rises on the badlands and ends amidst the famous Sassi, symbol of the city, UNESCO World Heritage Site and European 2019 Capital of Culture. 

In Daniele Vicari’s Maximum Velocity (V-Max) (2002), seventeen-year-old Claudio is an aspiring mechanic who has just started working in Stefano’s auto workshop where he immediately shows his talent. One night, Stefano takes him to the illegal races where souped-up cars challenge each other for bets worth thousands of euros. The setting for the races is Piazza Guglielmo Marconi in in the EUR neighbourhood of Rome which is dominated by a 45m high monument - the Obelisk -with bas-relief panels featuring Marconi’s achievements. This is the meeting point for the street race, for competitors and the spectators, and a colonnade on one side of the square provides a lane for the duel between Stefano and his arch-rival Fischio in a scene that changes Claudio’s life and evokes the races in Rebel Without a Cause.