The actress Audrey Hepburn, famous for her beauty, elegance and naturalness, was the main protagonist of the movie Roman Holiday, filmed in 1953. Actually this was the role for which she would have been recognized worldwide and thanks to it she won an Oscar. The movie meant a revolution for what concerns locations at that time, because the director didn’t want to reproduce the city and prefered Rome itself to shoot, making the city the third leading character on the film.
The movie is about a young princess (from an unknown country), happy but at the same time she felt oppressed by her full agenda and the court, tired of her many responsabilities she decides during her visit in Rome, to escape one night and see the city in disguise as a normal girl, then she meets an american journalist (Gregory Peck) who proposes to be her guide.
This romantic comedy immortalized both actors in the typical roman piazzas, as a matter of fact nowadays in the streets of Rome you can see in the stands, many postcards, posters and calendars with those scenes.
If you are visiting Rome and you want to discover where Audrey Hepburn was, its not that hard because is almost all in the center:
- Cafe Rocca: in Via della Rotonda, at th corner of the piazza with the same name, currently is a fashion shop.
- Castel Sant’ Angelo: in front of this beautiful castle the princess goes dancing with the barber.
- Fontana di Trevi
- Piazza Venezia.
- Piazza di Spagna: where Joe sees again the princess while she is eating an gelato.
- Colosseum
- Joey Bradley’s apartment in Via Margutta 51, the entrance to the small courtyard is a few doors ahead in Vicolo dell’Orto di Napoli.
- Via dei Fori Imperiali: where Gregory Peck finds Audrey sleeping.
Barber: Via della Stamperia 85, nowadays is a leather shop.
Bocca della verità: Santa Maria in Cosmedin, probably the most funny scene was filmed here, Gregory Peck hides his hand inside his sleeve and put his arm inside the mouth stone, the fright that Audrey shows was real, because she didn’t know what the actor would do, that prank was not planned, nevertheless it was so natural that the director decided to include it.The legend says that whoever doubted of the couples’s faithfulness, could take him or her there, if the person was unfaithful he/she would loose the hand.
- Palazzo Colonna: Press conference, Via della Pilotta, 17 . Open only saturdays 9:00-13:15, it’s a private palace of an aristocratic family, it’s construction began on the XVI century and ended five centuries later.
- Palazzo Barberini: Princess Embassy’s exterior. Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13.
- Palazzo Brancaccio: the interiors of the Embassy were filmed inside here. Viale del Monte Oppio 7. This is the last aristocratic palace built in Rome in 1880. The gardens and the balcony from where the princess sees with sadness the people dancing, both are still there. Booking mandatory for visitors. (+39064873177)
- Castra Pretoria: The Wall of the wishes, though the plates are no longer there, the wall it is in Viale del Policlinico, between Piazza Girolamo Fabrizio and Via Castro Pretorio.
Visualizza Audrey Hepburn en Roma in una mappa di dimensioni maggiori
We hope that Audrey Hepburn’s fans will enjoy this tour and have a fantastic roman holiday!
Paulina Ceballos
