Destinations

Where 'Call Me By Your Name' was filmed in Italy

Following news that a sequel novel is set to released in autumn 2019, discover the real Italian locations where the beautiful, critically-acclaimed original love story was shot
Where was Call Me By Your Name filmed
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Though the Oscars didn’t recognise it as they should have, 2017’s Call Me By Your Name was a thing of beauty, from the physical form of its stars Timothée Chalamet (Elio) and Armie Hammer (Oliver) and the women around them to the emotional power of its tale of first love and self-realisation. Most beautiful of all, though, was the Italian countryside and architecture that fills almost every scene.

  • Director Luca Guadagnino has a track record of placing locations at the centre of his work. In his previous film 2015s A...
    Rex Features

    Director Luca Guadagnino has a track record of placing locations at the centre of his work. In his previous film, 2015’s A Bigger Splash, the Italian island of Pantelleria pretty much drove the plot, drawing his characters into a series of drastic actions. This time, the effect is just as powerful but altogether more beatific.

  • Director Luca Guadagnino, Timothee Chalamet and Arnie Hammer during filming of Call Me By Your Name, Rex Features
  • Piazza del Duomo, Crema, Italy, Alamy

    Guadagnino is a little cagey about the details, giving us just the on-screen line that the story takes place ‘somewhere in Northern Italy’. He does tell all in the end titles, though, so perhaps his reservation is that this is home territory for him. André Aciman’s source novel was set on the coast, but the director moved the action to Lombardy, chiefly the town of Crema, an hour from Milan and close to where he lives. ‘It is quintessentially Italian without being an idea of Italy,’ he explained. ‘It’s just Italy.’

  • Rex Features

    Of course, ‘just Italy’ is just gorgeous. The 17th-century mansion where Elio lives with his family, the Villa Albergoni, is just south in Moscazzano and sadly not open to visitors. Console yourself that this means you’ll never have to find out that both the peach trees and plunge pool that play central roles were faked up.

  • Piazza del Duomo, Crema, Lombardy, Italy, Alamy

    Crema is worth the pilgrimage, though, with classically eye-catching high-walled streets and a 14th-century cathedral overlooking markets, boutiques and restaurants.

  • Rex Features

    The colonnaded square where Elio and Oliver cycle and sit for a first conversation is the Piazza del Duomo, although the bar itself doesn’t exist.

  • Sirmione, Italy, Getty Images

    To the north-west is Pandino, site of the striking war memorial in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, where Elio begins to declare his feelings to Oliver, and the Gothic-style Castello Visconteo beyond, where visitors are free to look around the outside. For wild swimming, stay north of Crema for the Laghetto dei Riflessi, where Elio takes his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel) after dancing to The Psychedelic Furs at the village discoteca, or to Fontanile Quarantina, a park near Capralba further north-west, where he and Oliver swim after a long cycle ride.

  • Rex Features

    You’ll find more refreshment in the film’s most familiar location, Lake Garda, where they visit Sirmione at the southern end of the lake with Elio’s father, who’s working on an archaeological dig, the first-century Roman villa Grotte di Catullo. The trio’s sunset dip takes place at nearby Spiaggia Giamaica, aka Jamaica Beach.

  • Grotte di Catullo in Sirmione, Lake Garda, Italy, Getty Images

    Grotte di Catullo in Sirmione, Lake Garda, Italy

  • Serio waterfall, Cascate del Serio, Lombardy, Italy, Getty Images

    Almost as famous is Cascate del Serio, the waterfall they visit in their last days together – it’s Europe’s second tallest, and a spectacular sight even for those not in the grips of passion and erotic metaphor.

  • Rex Features

    Call Me By Your Name

  • Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, Lombardy, Italy, Getty Images

    Their pensione is in nearby Bergamo, and you can follow their drunken night out to the Piazza Padre Reginaldo Giuliani, in front of the basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

TopicsOn locationInspirationItalyEurope