ITALY – Rome, Ponte Sisto & the Tiber banks // Spectre (2015)
Why drive on the streets, when you have a river bank? In “Spectre” Bond and his pursuer rush along the Tiber banks – a whole new way to see Rome.
Why Bond was here
James Bond (Daniel Craig) is up to uncover a sinister organization called “SPECTRE”. Having killed a high-ranking member of the terror group, Bond travels to Rome – and joins a secret meeting of “SPECTRE”.
After getting recognized by kingpin Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), 007 escapes in his Aston Martin – but is followed by Blofelds muscle Hinx (Dave Bautista). A car chase in nightly Rome ensues, climaxing at the banks of the Tiber.
How you gonna get there
As the cars highspeed along the Tiber banks for for quite some seconds, the action sure had been filmed at numerous places. Here are the locations from enter to (wet) exit:
- Bond and Hinx drive their cars along Monumento a Giacomo Matteotti and from there down the large steps that led to the river banks. It is in the north of Rome, close to metro stop “Flaminio” and the popular tourist spot Piazza del Popolo.
- The ramp where both cars ride along the wall is some meters to the south – on the eastern riverside between Ponte Pietro Nenni and Ponte Regina Margherita.
- More speeding took place at the bend south of Castel Sant’Angelo underneath Ponte Vittorio Emmanuele II.
- Bond used the fire “Exhaust” flamethrower shortly after passing and Ponte Guiseppe Mazzini, driving south at the eastern river bank.
- The car finally crashes at Ponte Sisto with Bond parachuting to safety at adjacent road Lungotevere Farnesina.
Good to know
To cover all of Rome’s most beautiful areas you can easily use the Tiber as a landmark. Ponte Sisto connects the historical center with the famous Piazza Navona and the Pantheon with the romantic Trastevere, whereas Ponte Vittorio Emmanuele II bridges the city center to the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo. Further north Ponte Regina Margherita leads directly into posh Spagna – home to both poets and fashionistas.
We highly recommend a stop at “La Buvette” café and bar at Via Vittoria in the heart of Spagna. You can either come early in the morning for a sip of freshly brewed café and then start your Tiber tour. Or you hang out in the evening after the walk – end enjoy a shaken Martini at the well-equiped bar of “La Buvette”.
Though you could see all the car chase locations along the Tiber with one stroll – we did not. Rome is to beautiful to explore to just walk along the river. We stayed in Trastevere for a day, and at the Vatican for the other. We went to Spagna and the Center and just stopped by a Tiber location when one was nearby.
© HuntingBond (1,3) © 2015 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Danjaq, LLC, Eon Productions, and Columbia Pictures, Inc. (2)