Hotel Eden in Rome and its splendid terrace with a breathtaking view of the capital, where Federico Fellini liked to give his most important interviews; Grand Hotel in Rimini, which Fellini adored ever since he was a boy, and where he set the unforgettable scenes of his masterpiece “Amarcord”; Gran Caffè Schenardi in Viterbo, where he used to go almost daily with Alberto Sordi while shooting “Vitelloni”.
The splendid and extraordinary brainchild of Roman architect Vespignani, this is one of Italy’s great historic cafés. A Risorgimento gathering place and home of liberal ideas, in 1848 it became the headquarters of the “Circolo Popolare” for civic, moral and political improvement of society, and was closely watched over by the papal authorities. It put on banquets for Pope Gregory XVI, Victor Emmanuel III, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Guglielmo Marconi, and Queen Margherita. Orson Welles came here while shooting his Othello; Sordi and Fellini, during I Vitelloni.
The film director Federico Fellini enjoyed granting interviews on the terrace of the hotel whenever he visited Rome and before that Rommel and General Montgomery together with kings, emperors and princes. Today singers, actors and top businessmen.
A national monument and a legend. Federico Fellini was a habitué and immortalised the hotel in memorable scenes in “Amarcord”. Mussolini spent his holidays with his family in Riccione and came here to meet his lover Claretta Petacci in secret. Suite 430, with its four-poster bed, has welcomed George Bush Sr, Shimon Peres, Gorbaciov and Lady Diana. A world of the highest class. Though they were ransacked during the last war, the rooms still have eighteenth-century furnishings, and original parquets and lamps. The halls and dining rooms are a dream. A bold congress centre now flanks the hotel.
