Life Is Beautiful: From Arezzo to the Camp

In 1939 Guido Orefice arrives in Arezzo to work with his uncle Eliseo in a hotel restaurant. Piazza Grande serves as the backdrop for much of the film, so this square is the best place to start. Beyond the film, it is home to the Giostra del Saracino, a jousting tournament of medieval origin. Information boards pointing out the film's locations are dotted about the town.

Visitor guidance: A public square in the centre of Arezzo.

One of Guido's early meetings with Dora happens here: the scene in which he falls off a bicycle and lands on her was shot in front of the Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla. The abbey church was begun in 1278 and rebuilt from 1565 to designs by Giorgio Vasari, so the building behind the tumble has been in the town for centuries.

Visitor guidance: The abbey stands in the old town of Arezzo, a short walk from Piazza Grande.

Dora tells Guido she is going to see an Offenbach opera, and he turns up too. At the theatre he shows more interest in his 'principessa' than in The Tales of Hoffman. The scene was filmed at the 19th-century Teatro Signorelli on Piazza Signorelli in Cortona, about 15 miles south of Arezzo, so a Cortona stage stands in for the story's Arezzo.

Visitor guidance: On Piazza Luca Signorelli in Cortona; check the theatre for opening times and performances.

Guido steals Dora from her engagement party on Uncle Eliseo's horse, Robin Hood. The famous scene with the green-painted horse was actually filmed at Villa Masini in Montevarchi, also called Casa del Nonno. The crew used the lemon house, the garden and one room of the villa, then recreated most of the interiors in a studio.

In 1944 Guido, Eliseo and Giosuè are arrested on Giosuè's birthday and sent to a camp. To protect his son, Guido says it is a game: whoever reaches one thousand points first wins a tank. The camp never existed here: it was built for filming in an old abandoned factory near Papigno, in Terni, on the remains of a chemical works near the Marmore Falls. The complex was later developed by Benigni into the Papigno film studio.

Location precision: The camp in the story is not a real place; the pin marks Papigno, where the film built its set.