From Russia with Love: Istanbul to Venice

The film opens on SPECTRE Island, where a fake Bond is garotted during the opening teaser, and Kronsteen devises a plan to lure the real Bond into a trap. The island is not real. It was shot in the grounds of Pinewood Studios at Iver Heath, with the studio's main administration building standing in for SPECTRE headquarters. Filming of the whole picture began here on 1 April 1963, and the Bond franchise itself began at Pinewood with Dr. No (1962).

Location precision: SPECTRE Island exists only in the story; the pin marks the Pinewood Studios grounds where it was filmed.

Once in Istanbul, Bond works alongside the head of MI6's branch in the city, Ali Kerim Bey, played by Pedro Armendáriz. Bond is driven to meet him in a covered market, the Grand Bazaar. It is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops. It is still bustling today.

Visitor guidance: A covered market of 61 streets and over 4,000 shops; allow time to wander.

Bond and Kerim Bey travel beneath the Russian consulate through a flooded underground chamber, where a periscope pokes up through the floor. The real location is the Basilica Cistern, whose ceiling is held up by a forest of 336 marble columns. Don't believe everything Kerim Bey tells Bond: the cistern was commissioned in 532 AD by the emperor Justinian, not Constantine. Today fifty-two stone steps lead down into the cistern.

Visitor guidance: Fifty-two stone steps descend into the cistern.

Tatiana leaves a plan of the consulate and the whereabouts of the Lektor machine inside Hagia Sophia, and the building also hosts a killing. In a late change during shooting, it is Grant who kills the bespectacled spy here, rather than Bond simply finding him dead. The building was raised by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I as the Christian basilica of Constantinople, between 532 and 537. Today it is a mosque and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul.

Visitor guidance: Hagia Sophia is a mosque and a major historical site; check current visiting arrangements.

With the Lektor in hand, Bond and Tatiana board the Orient Express here. Sirkeci was built in 1890 as the eastern terminus of the world-famous Orient Express, so the casting was apt. The same station also stood in for the Belgrade and Zagreb stations. In Belgrade, Bond informs one of Kerim Bey's sons of his death; Grant overhears the conversation, kills Nash and assumes his identity. The terminal reopened on 26 February 2024.

Visitor guidance: The terminal reopened on 26 February 2024 as a working station.

Bond and Tatiana have to evade helicopter and boat attacks by SPECTRE agents before reaching safety. Neither chase was in the original novel; they were added to create an action climax. They were first planned for Istanbul but were moved to Scotland, and the filming was completed at Crinan and Lochgilphead. On 6 July 1963, while scouting locations in Argyll for the day's boat chase, Terence Young's helicopter crashed into the water.

Location precision: The chase was filmed around Crinan and Lochgilphead; the pin marks the Crinan Canal basin, not an exact shooting spot.

Visitor guidance: The Crinan Canal, open since 1801, links Ardrishaig on Loch Gilp with Crinan on the Sound of Jura.

The film ends in Venice, where Bond spends some time on a romantic gondola ride with Tatiana and drops the blackmail film into the canal. The Venice scenes were filmed by a Second Unit, and the shot of the couple sailing under the Bridge of Sighs is clearly rear projection. The real bridge, made of white Istrian limestone, connects the Doge's Palace with the New Prison across Rio di Palazzo.

Visitor guidance: The Bridge of Sighs crosses Rio di Palazzo beside the Doge's Palace.