Marcello Mastroianni as Guido in a frame from 8½ (1963), public domain in Italy. Federico Fellini · Public domainMarcello MastroianniGuido, 1963
Rome · 9 May – 14 October 1962 · Federico Fellini
8½
A director floats out of a traffic jam into the sky, until a rope round his ankle pulls him back to the beach. The people on the other end want a film he cannot make.
Guido is up in the sky, on a long line.
Claudia Cardinale in Rome in February 1963, the month 8½ opened in Italy (Mondadori). Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domainClaudia CardinaleClaudia · Rome, Feb 1963Federico Fellini in Moscow in July 1963, at the festival where 8½ won the Grand Prize (detail; Igor Koshelkov, Museum of Moscow). Igor Koshelkov (Игорь Кошельков), Museum of Moscow · CC BY 4.0Federico FelliniMoscow, July 1963
The mind-reader’s blackboard
Asa nisi masa.
At a party at the spa a mind-reader reads Guido’s head and writes three nonsense words on a blackboard. They are a children’s code, the serpentine alphabet: every vowel is doubled with an s between. Rub the s-syllables out and the words give up what they hide. Each one opens a place.
ANIMA
ASA NISI MASA: three s-syllables to rub out.
Where we read it
The phrase appears at the spa party, written on a blackboard by the mind-reader; it comes from the children’s serpentine alphabet and decodes to anima, soul. The other five words are encoded here in the same way.
By Fellini’s own count this was his eight-and-a-halfth film. Six features count whole; a co-directed film and two short segments for omnibus films count half each. Tap each one in.
0 of 8½
Where we read it
By his count, his eight-and-a-halfth film: six features from The White Sheik to La Dolce Vita, with Variety Lights (co-directed) and two short omnibus segments as halves.
Moscow, July 1963: the cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, Giulietta Masina, Federico Fellini and Valentina Tereshkova at the festival where 8½ won the Grand Prize. Photograph by Igor Koshelkov, Museum of Moscow. Igor Koshelkov (Игорь Кошельков), Museum of Moscow · CC BY 4.0
Moscow · 18 July 1963
Guido never builds his spaceship.
Fellini went to Moscow with it instead. 8½ was shown to 8,000 people in the Kremlin’s conference hall and won the Grand Prize of the third Moscow festival; the biographer Tullio Kezich heard the applause as a cry for freedom.
At the festival he was photographed between two real cosmonauts, Pavel Popovich and Valentina Tereshkova, with Giulietta Masina at his side.
At Cannes in April it had played outside the competition, already promised to Moscow.
Where we read it
Moscow screening, audience, Grand Prize, Kezich; Cannes out of competition.
Guido is sent for a cure, and joins the line for a glass at the spring. Fellini had come back from a rest at Chianciano Terme with the whole idea. The spa on screen is three places at once.
Claudia Cardinale in Rome in February 1963, the month 8½ opened in Italy (Mondadori). Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domainClaudia Cardinale pours the water, in her own voice.
The queue is waiting. Hold out your glass.
1
Still in the queue.
2
Still in the queue.
3
Still in the queue.
Tivoli · Filacciano · Viterbo
Out of Rome.
Fellini took the film out to three towns in the hills of Lazio. Distances are straight lines from the Cinecittà gate.
0 kmCinecittà
22 kmTivoli
45 kmFilacciano
74 kmViterbo
Piazza Garibaldi, Tivoli, 2010. LPLT · CC BY-SA 3.0
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, Tivoli
Piazza Garibaldi, Tivoli
Fellini shot some exterior scenes near Piazza Garibaldi.
The old Cinema Teatro Italia in Tivoli supplied several interiors.
A public square by the Rocca Pia, at the top of the old town.
Where we read itThe Tiber valley at Torrita Tiberina, next door to Filacciano, 2016. No free photograph of Filacciano’s square has been found. Albarubescens · CC BY-SA 4.0
Palazzo del Drago, Filacciano
Filacciano
Near the end Guido drives Claudia to Filacciano, a small village outside Rome, to tell her about her part and admit his confusion.
It was shot in front of the Palazzo del Drago, with Cardinale and Mastroianni in a Giulietta Spider. The village has put up a plaque.
The palazzo looks out over the Tiber valley.
A village of one street, Via Filocastello, above the Tiber valley. The Palazzo del Drago and its square are in the old centre, with a plaque that recalls the shoot.
Where we read itThe Palazzo dei Papi in Viterbo’s old town, 2014. Livioandronico2013 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Old town, Viterbo
Viterbo
Guido remembers an episode from his schooldays in Viterbo.
Location work was done in Viterbo, as well as in Tivoli and Filacciano.
Tuscia’s film board calls Viterbo the setting for two Fellini films, I vitelloni and 8½.
Walk the medieval quarter from the Palazzo dei Papi. Piazza delle Erbe, where I vitelloni opens, is in the same old town.
Where we read it
The night drive. Near the end Guido takes Claudia to Filacciano to explain her part, and admits he is lost. The car was a Giulietta Spider; the village has put up a plaque in front of the Palazzo del Drago.
Where we read it
Guido takes Claudia to Filacciano; shot in front of the Palazzo del Drago with a Giulietta Spider; the plaque.
Guido gives up the film, and everyone in his life walks into the abandoned set, takes hands and circles it. He and Luisa are the last to join. Bring them in.
No in the ring. Guido and Luisa join last.
Where we read it
The cast and crew walk into the set, hold hands and circle it; Guido and Luisa join last. The order before them is yours.
The mouth of the Tiber seen from the Ostia shore at the Idroscalo, with Fiumicino across the water, 2009. Valerio85 · CC BY 3.0
Via dell’Idroscalo, Lido di Ostia, Rome
Via dell’Idroscalo
The spaceship set for the film Guido is meant to be making was built on Via dell’Idroscalo at Lido di Ostia.
Brian Eggert describes it as a 230-foot-high set in an empty field.
In the finale the cast and crew walk into the set, take hands and circle it; Guido and Luisa join last. Eight cameras filmed the dance.
The Idroscalo was Rome’s seaplane airport at the mouth of the Tiber, reopened in 1926 and abandoned after the war. The Porto turistico di Roma and a LIPU nature area are there now.
A public road to the mouth of the Tiber. The set has gone; walk on to the river mouth, where LIPU runs the Centro Habitat Mediterraneo.
Where we read itThe beach at Fiumicino in July 2026. CAPTAIN RAJU · CC0
Isola Sacra, Fiumicino
Isola Sacra
The boy Guido runs off to Isola Sacra at Fiumicino to find La Saraghina on the beach.
Location work was done on the beaches between Ostia and Fiumicino.
Isola Sacra is a river island of about 12 km², made as the Roman Fossa Traiana canal was lengthened and the Tiber laid down silt.
Public beaches along the Fiumicino shore. The Necropoli di Porto, with about a hundred Roman tombs, is on Via Pal Piccolo.
Where we read it
The people
Who made it.
Marcello Mastroianni with a new Lancia Flaminia Zagato in June 1964, a year after 8½. Unknown photographer · Public domainMarcello MastroianniGuido Anselmi · June 1964
Claudia Cardinale in Rome in February 1963, the month 8½ opened in Italy (Mondadori). Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domainClaudia CardinaleClaudia · Rome, February 1963
Anouk Aimée in a 1963 publicity portrait issued for 8½ (Embassy Pictures). Embassy Pictures (U.S.) · Public domainAnouk AiméeLuisa Anselmi · 1963 publicity
Federico Fellini in Moscow in July 1963, at the festival where 8½ won the Grand Prize (detail; Igor Koshelkov, Museum of Moscow). Igor Koshelkov (Игорь Кошельков), Museum of Moscow · CC BY 4.0Federico FelliniDirector · Moscow, July 1963
Fellini wrote it with Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli and Brunello Rondi. Gianni Di Venanzo shot it in black and white, Nino Rota wrote the music and Piero Gherardi designed the sets and costumes. Around Mastroianni, Cardinale and Aimée are Sandra Milo as Carla, Rossella Falk, Barbara Steele, Eddra Gale as La Saraghina and Guido Alberti as Pace. It was Fellini’s last black-and-white film.
9 MayShooting begins, 1962
14 OctShooting ends, 1962
13 Feb 1963Released in Italy
2 OscarsForeign Language Film and black-and-white costume design
Where we read it
Cast, crew, shooting dates, Italian release, the two Oscars and Fellini’s last black-and-white film.
10 places you can visit: two in Rome, three on the coast, three in the hills and two further afield. The Cecchignola castle and the Anzio casino are closed; see them from outside.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Cinecittà si Mostra opens the studio to visitors every day except Tuesday, 10am to 6pm; the ticket office shuts at 4.30pm.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The castle and the military area round it are closed. Look at the tower from Vicolo della Cecchignoletta.
1The gate of Cinecittà on Via Tuscolana, 2011. JRibaX · CC BY-SA 3.0
Via Tuscolana 1055, Rome
Cinecittà
In April 1962, in his office at Cinecittà, Fellini felt he had lost his film and began a letter to his producer giving it up. A chief machinist came in to ask him to a celebration, and Fellini decided to make a film about a director who no longer knows what film he wants to make.
Cinecittà si Mostra opens the studio to visitors every day except Tuesday, 10am to 6pm; the ticket office shuts at 4.30pm.
Where we read it
2Castello della Cecchignola from its east gate, 2015. Gbroggio · CC BY-SA 4.0
Vicolo della Cecchignoletta, EUR–Laurentina, Rome
Castello della Cecchignola
Guido’s family tomb was built in the military area of Cecchignola, in the EUR–Laurentina district, and the same area was used for the spa.
The castle and the military area round it are closed. Look at the tower from Vicolo della Cecchignoletta.
Where we read it
Stay
By the sea.
A night in Fellini’s Rimini, at the hotel he made famous.
The seafront hotel in Fellini’s home town that calls itself the symbol of his imagination, in Parco Federico Fellini, a short walk from the beach. Its Flex Rate bed and breakfast is 10% off.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Production notes
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 12 of 12 Moments
Cinecittà
Via Tuscolana 1055, Rome
The lost film
April 1962: in his Cinecittà office Fellini decides the film will be about a director who has lost his film.
Castello della Cecchignola
Vicolo della Cecchignoletta, EUR–Laurentina, Rome
Asa nisi masa
At a party at the spa a mind-reader writes ASA NISI MASA on a blackboard, read out of Guido’s head.
The family tomb
Guido meets his dead parents at a family tomb built in the Cecchignola military area.
Via dell’Idroscalo
Via dell’Idroscalo, Lido di Ostia, Rome
The launch tower
A huge launch tower stands ready for a science-fiction film Guido cannot write.
The ring
The cast and crew walk into the set and circle it hand in hand; Guido and Luisa join last.
Isola Sacra
Isola Sacra, Fiumicino
The kite
Guido floats out of a jammed car into the sky until a rope round his ankle pulls him back to earth; the beach scenes were shot between Ostia and Fiumicino.
La Saraghina
The boy Guido runs to the beach at Isola Sacra to watch La Saraghina dance.
Paradiso sul Mare, Anzio
Seafront, Anzio
The spa hotel
The spa’s architecture is modelled on the casino at Anzio.
Filacciano
Palazzo del Drago, Filacciano
Claudia
Guido drives Claudia to a village square at night to tell her about her part and admit he is lost.
Piazza Garibaldi, Tivoli
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, Tivoli
Tivoli
Exteriors are shot near Piazza Garibaldi, and interiors in the town’s old cinema.
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