At the edge of imagination

Never trust a vampire

In the second chapter of the Twilight saga, New Moon, Tuscany provides part of the background of the love story between Edward and Bella, mostly set in Vancouver. Believing that Bella is dead, Edward is determined to kill himself, although this is not an easy feat for an immortal vampire. The only way open to him is to provoke the anger of the Volturi, an ancient, powerful family of vampires who guard the anonymity of their kind from the city of Volterra. However, the production chose, for design reasons, to shoot the film’s ending in Montepulciano, the ancient village in the province of Siena. Near the end of the film, Bella and Edward’s sister Alice race in a sportscar through the countryside near Montepulciano and the Temple of San Biagio. On reaching the city gates, Bella gets out of the car and runs under arches and down the streets and alleyways of the historical centre, to Piazza Grande and the Duomo, where the celebrations for the patronal Feast of St. Mark are underway. During the celebration Edward intends to show himself to the sun so that everyone can see that he is not human: a demonstration that will provoke his death from the Volturis. Bella pushes her way through the crowded square aiming for the Renaissance Palazzo del Comune, passing a 7m fountain in the centre that was created especially for the film. She manages to stop Edward in time, but they are caught inside the Palazzo by the Volturi guards. The group travels through underground passages and tunnels, part of Cantina del Redi of Palazzo Ricci, to reach the Volturi lair, created on a soundstage in North America, for the final showdown.

Loki’s sceptre? It’s in Valle d’Aosta!

In Age of Ultron, sequel to Avengers, the Avengers must gather again. Having fought the Chitauri aliens and recovered the Tesseract after the battle in Manhattan, their setting is now the fictional Sokovia in Eastern Europe where the terrorist organisation Hydra is experimenting on human beings using the sceptre of Loki, brother of Thor. The group must tackle the twins, Pietro and Wanda, whose power has been increased through the experiments: they fight the Avengers by burning and sacking the town. A blend of small towns – Aosta, Verrèsand Pont-Saint-Martin – combine with the incredible power of special effects to create the single city of Sokovia. The Hydra base, for example, is Forte di Bard, a fortified complex on a rocky promontory in Aosta, rebuilt by the Savoia family in the 19^th century and today a setting for museums, exhibitions of ancient modern contemporary art and photography. Pont-Saint-Martin provides the Roman bridge and main thoroughfare (corso) whose shop signs are in Cyrillic: this was all covered with snow and debris for the shoot, the result of the fight between the twins and the Avengers. The loggia for Hawkeye’s privileged observation point is part of the Collegiata di Saint-Gilles in Verrès.

Spider-Man Far From Home, second instalment of the franchise reboot starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man, is also connected to the Avengers series: in the film, Peter Parker and many other humans come back to life after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Peter’s school has organized a summer field trip to Europe and he sets off determined to leave his superhero costume behind: his only objective to confess his feelings to his class mate, MJ, hoping to win her heart. Several hours after their arrival at the Marco Polo airport of Venice, we see Peter and his class on the city’s canals and in Piazza San Marco where MJ plays with the pigeons. An unexpected battle between Mysterio and the Water Elemental disturbs their sightseeing. To protect his classmates and a tourist or two, Peter is forced to act and, wearing a classic Venetian mask, he saves the day and them all from the Ponte di Rialto. Then he follows Mysterio to Campo Santa Maria Formosa where the resulting battle destroys the church’s bell tower.