Testaccio and surroundings... Rome in “C'è ancora domani”

“Open the windows to the new sun…” The apartment building on via Bodoni in Testaccio

Delia, Ivano and their three children live in a modest basement apartment. Every day, when Delia wakes up, she opens the street level windows to let in a glimmer of light (along with the dust and everything else that comes from the courtyard). The same windows are closed to hide what is happening in the house from the outside.

Paola Cortellesi shot much of her film in the working-class neighbourhood of Testaccio on the left bank of the Tiber river. The rooms of the grimy basement apartment were built on a soundstage in Cinecittà, thanks to the work of the set designer Paola Comencini. The exteriors, however, are real, part of a condominium complex in via Bodoni 98, just steps from the banks of the river. A gate leads to the courtyard overlooked by the apartment's small windows.

An “explosion” of life in Testaccio

Beyond that little gate, via Bodoni is filled with a range of people trying to survive as best they can in the hard years immediately after the war. Delia is one of them and, moving briskly, covers a lot of ground in her long day. Some of her stops are in Testaccio.

The market was built in piazza Testaccio: here her friend Marisa, Delia's only source of solace, has a fruit and vegetable stand with her husband. Walking along the tortuous via di Monte Testaccio, a semi-deserted street with closed and partly dilapidated premises, Delia comes across Nino (Vinicio Marchioni) near number 72, a childhood love who lives and has his workshop here and who never stops remembering that "I got distracted for a moment and he took you away". An American checkpoint on via Flavio Gioia near lungotevere Testaccio, a few steps from via Bodoni allows Delia to meet “Willian” the soldier.

The bakery, grocery store and butcher's shop where women queue for pasta and other goods are located in via Antonio Cecchi. The butcher’s sign visible between numbers 24 and 26, is from the film. Just around the corner is the Moretti ice cream parlour, belonging to Giulio's family – which later explodes – actually historic bar Giolitti at via Amerigo Vespucci 35, a neighbourhood institution since 1914.

“With her mouth closed” Delia’s places outside Testaccio

The magic of cinema can make places that are quite distant from each other appear close; to meet scenic needs the production also used corners of the city outside the neighbourhood where the story is set.

The various stages of Delia's long day include the ancient Monti district with the door where the wealthy family of a notary lives; the exteriors are in via della Madonna dei Monti, while the interiors are from another building in via Cola di Rienzo, in Prati. Again in Monti, via degli Ibernesi is the street with the steps where Delia shares a carefree moment with Marisa. There was also a haberdashery in via Locchi 4, in Parioli, and an umbrella shop, created in the Torpignattara neighbourhood, where Ivano plays cards with his friends.

The flashbacks of Delia and Ivano's love story are set in the alleys of Trastevere, the district also includes the Church of Santa Maria in Cappella where they got married.

The school scene, where Delia hums "with her mouth closed", was filmed in the former Carlo Forlanini hospital, in the Monteverde district; the spectacular staircase was once the entrance to the morgue.

Even the church where Delia and her family attend a ceremony is not located in Testaccio but in the Sant'Angelo district: it is dedicated to Santa Caterina dei Funari. News arrives there which threaten to ruin Delia's plans which developed after receiving a mysterious letter which gave her the courage to imagine a better future. And not just for her.