In depth · Film and the city
Venice on Film: from Summertime to Casino Royale
No city has been filmed more lovingly than Venice: the light on the water, the domes and the narrow calli have drawn directors for seventy years. Here are six films really shot in the city, the places you can stand in today, and the official trailer wherever the studio or distributor offers one.
Updated October 2026
Summertime (1955): Katharine Hepburn in Venice
David Lean’s Summertime is the film that taught the world to fall for Venice. Katharine Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, an American on the holiday of a lifetime, and Rossano Brazzi is Renato de Rossi, the antiques dealer who changes it. Both Lean and Hepburn were nominated for Academy Awards.
Turner Classic Movies quotes the press kit: ninety per cent of the film was shot in and around Venice and on the island of Burano. The most famous scene is Hepburn stepping backwards into a canal while she photographs de Rossi’s shop on Campo San Barnaba, in Dorsoduro, a few minutes’ walk from Ca’ Rezzonico. The campo is still a neighbourhood square.
Death in Venice (1971): Visconti on the Lido
Luchino Visconti’s film of Thomas Mann’s novella stars Dirk Bogarde as Gustav von Aschenbach, with Björn Andrésen as Tadzio and Silvana Mangano as his mother, set to the music of Mahler’s Third and Fifth Symphonies. It was shown at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival, where Visconti received a special 25th Anniversary prize.
The film was shot at the Grand Hotel des Bains on the Lido, the beach hotel built in 1900 where Mann himself had stayed in 1911. The hotel closed in 2010 for a planned conversion, so today you see it from the seafront: take the waterbus to the Lido, walk down the Gran Viale to the Adriatic and follow the shore.
Our Lido guide The Lido by bike
Don’t Look Now (1973): the winter city
Nicolas Roeg’s thriller, with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a grieving couple, shows Venice out of season: grey water, empty fondamente and church scaffolding. It is one of the great British films, and the city is its third star.
The BFI traced the locations for the film’s fiftieth anniversary. The church John is restoring is San Nicolò dei Mendicoli, in the far west of Dorsoduro, now fully restored and one of the quietest corners of the city. The interior where Laura lights a candle is the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Castello; the closing sequence plays out at San Stae on the Grand Canal; and the couple’s hotel is the Hotel Gabrielli on the Riva degli Schiavoni, which the BFI found closed for renovation in 2023.
Our Dorsoduro guide Our Castello guide
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999): Piazza San Marco
Anthony Minghella’s film of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, with Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett, moves across Italy from the Bay of Naples to Rome and ends in Venice. Italy for Movies, the national film-location portal, lists Piazza San Marco and St Mark’s Basilica, where the characters walk, and the station of Santa Lucia, where Marge arrives with the Grand Canal behind her.
We found no official studio upload of the trailer online, so we leave it out.
St Mark’s Basilica Venezia Santa Lucia station
Casino Royale (2006): Bond on the Grand Canal
Daniel Craig’s first Bond ends in Venice. Martin Campbell’s film sails Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) into the city along the Grand Canal, and Bond chases a figure through the crowds of Piazza San Marco. Italy for Movies also names the courtyard of the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory, where Bond finds Vesper again; the hotel where they stay was, it notes, filmed in Prague.
The Conservatory is a working music school, in Palazzo Pisani in San Marco.
The Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal
The Tourist (2010): Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s caper is a tour of the city. Italia.it, Italy’s official tourism portal, follows the shoot: the Grand Canal and the Rialto fish market; Palazzo Pisani Moretta, whose exterior stands in for the Hotel Danieli, with interiors filmed inside the Danieli itself; dinner on the terrace of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, home of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection; the Libreria Sansoviniana for the police scenes; and the Arsenale as Interpol’s headquarters.
The boat chase runs through Cannaregio, along the Rio della Sensa and the Rio della Madonna dell’Orto, and ends by the Misericordia, whose Scuola Nuova provided the ballroom. It makes a fine walk: start at the Madonna dell’Orto and follow the fondamente back towards the Strada Nova.
The Danieli Peggy Guggenheim Collection Cannaregio’s fondamente
Our advice
Watch the film first, then go early: Campo San Barnaba and San Nicolò dei Mendicoli are at their most cinematic before the day’s visitors arrive. Churches are places of worship, so cover shoulders and knees, and check opening times locally. Our advice: end the day on the Lido, where the Venice International Film Festival has been held since 1932.
The Venice Film Festival Venice, the serene and the new Join the conversation in our forum
Questions and answers
Where did Katharine Hepburn fall into the canal in Summertime?
On Campo San Barnaba in Dorsoduro, while photographing de Rossi’s shop.
Where was Death in Venice filmed?
At the Grand Hotel des Bains on the Lido, the hotel where Thomas Mann stayed in 1911. It has been closed since 2010.
Which church is in Don’t Look Now?
San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in Dorsoduro is the church John restores; interiors were filmed at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, and the ending at San Stae.
Where was Casino Royale filmed in Venice?
On the Grand Canal, in Piazza San Marco and in the courtyard of the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory; Bond’s Venice hotel was filmed in Prague.
Join the conversation
Which Venice film do you love? Share your favourite scenes, the locations you have found and the films we should add.
- Loading the conversation…
Sources: Italy for Movies (italyformovies.com, the national film-location portal of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà), Italia.it, the BFI (Adam Scovell, “Don’t Look Now at 50”, 2023), Turner Classic Movies, the Festival de Cannes and Wikipedia, checked on 28 October 2026. Trailers are embedded from the official YouTube channels of each film’s studio or distributor; where none exists online, we leave it out. Church opening times change: check locally.