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Il Commissario Ricciardi: Naples in the 1930s

Il Commissario Ricciardi, the TV series based on Maurizio de Giovanni's novels, is set in 1930s Naples and was filmed at the Teatro di San Carlo, Caffè Gambrinus, Piazza del Plebiscito and the Palazzo Reale.

Mapped by Mapped Chronicles editors6 locationsCountries: ItalyCities: NaplesGPX

#filming-locations#tv-series#naples#maurizio-de-giovanni#il-commissario-ricciardi#1930s

Timeline & locations

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The pin marks the actual place where it happened or was filmed.

  1. In March 1931 the great tenor Arnaldo Vezzi is found dead in his dressing room at the San Carlo, just before a performance of Pagliacci. The murder opens the case for Commissario Ricciardi, and his widow Livia Lucani, a former soprano, soon turns to him. The series filmed in the theatre itself: its first episode shows the magnificent interiors. Founded in 1737, the San Carlo is one of the oldest opera houses still working.

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    Visitor guidance: Opera house in Via San Carlo, on Piazza Trieste e Trento side.

    Sources

  2. The Liberty-style Caffè Gambrinus appears in the first episode, on Piazza Trieste e Trento beside the San Carlo and the church of San Ferdinando. The real café was founded in 1860, and in the 1930s it had a political edge: on the evening of 5 August 1938 the prefect ordered it closed as a meeting place of anti-fascists.

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    Visitor guidance: The café stands on Piazza Trieste e Trento, beside the San Carlo.

    Sources

  3. The gardens and interiors of Villa Pignatelli on the Riviera di Chiaia are among the sights of the first episode. Sir Ferdinand Richard Acton commissioned the neoclassical villa in 1826. It is a monumental villa on the Riviera di Chiaia.

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    Visitor guidance: Villa and museum on the Riviera di Chiaia.

    Sources

  4. The Royal Palace stands on Piazza del Plebiscito, in the same view as the seat of the Prefecture that appears in the series. It was once the home of Spanish and Austrian viceroys and then of the Bourbons, and it is now mainly a museum. Season one lists it among its Naples locations.

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    Visitor guidance: Museum with the Royal Apartments; its main entrance is on Piazza del Plebiscito.

    Sources

  5. Piazza del Plebiscito, with its colonnade, is called one of the two great protagonists of the series, the other being Piazza Trieste e Trento. It lies at the end of Via Toledo and covers about 25,000 square metres, making it one of the biggest squares in Naples.

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    Visitor guidance: Public square at the end of Via Toledo.

    Sources

  6. Not every Prefecture scene was shot at the Prefecture. Its outdoor spaces were filmed in the courtyard of the Capodimonte museum, which sits inside the royal palace of the same name. The museum officially opened in 1957.

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    Visitor guidance: Museum inside the royal palace at Capodimonte; check opening times.

    Sources

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