The Vittoriano in Cinema

Italian Post-war Cinema

Rome, Open City (Roberto Rossellini, 1945): the Vittoriano is absent from frame, but the Rome Rossellini depicts — that of Nazi occupation, resistance, sacrifice — is the same Rome the Unknown Soldier was meant to symbolise. The monument's absence is part of the film's emotional landscape.

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953): Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck traverse a Rome that includes Piazza Venezia and the Vittoriano as a natural backdrop. The monument appears not as subject but as part of the urban environment — exactly how tourists experience it.

La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960): Fellini's Rome includes the Vittoriano as background monumentality — the hollow grandeur of a city that has lost touch with its origins. It is never framed directly, but its shadow falls across the entire film.

The Marquis of Grillo (Mario Monicelli, 1981): scenes set in eighteenth-century Rome show the hill before the Vittoriano's construction — an implicit counterpoint to the modern monument's overwhelming presence.

International Cinema

Mission: Impossible III (2006): action sequences set in Rome use Piazza Venezia and the Vittoriano as spectacular backdrop.

Angels & Demons (Ron Howard, 2009): the Vittoriano appears as an orientation marker in the tourist Rome the film constructs around its cardinal-hunting plot.

The Vittoriano in Literature

Italian Literature

Carlo Emilio Gadda, in his Roman novels of the 1950s and 1960s, uses the Vittoriano as a metaphor for nationalist rhetoric — an excess of marble and words over a foundation of historical ambiguity.

Pier Paolo Pasolini: in the novels Ragazzi di vita (1955) and Una vita violenta (1959), the Rome of the peripheral borgate implicitly contrasts with the monumental Rome of the centre. The Vittoriano stands as the symbol of that official Rome from which Pasolini's protagonists are excluded.

Travel Literature and Reportage

Henry James visited Rome before the Vittoriano's construction (he died in 1916, while work was still under way). In his writings on Rome, he described the Capitoline with nostalgia for a medieval Rome that was disappearing — a nostalgia the Vittoriano's construction would go on to confirm.

Lawrence Durrell and Gore Vidal — both long-term Rome residents — wrote of a city in which the Vittoriano was perceived by foreigners as an irritating but now inevitable addition, like the Eiffel Tower in its early years.

The Vittoriano is one of Rome's most recognisable symbols in tourist guides worldwide. Its form appears in thousands of posters, postcards and promotional images. The nickname "wedding cake" is now codified: it appears in travel guides in every language as standard information.

In recent years, the Terrace of Quadrigas has become one of the most photographed Instagram spots in Rome — the combination of a total panorama over the city and spectacular sculptures makes it immediately recognisable on social networks.

With a Private Driver

Reach the Vittoriano by private driver. From your hotel, airport or station — direct and on time. Service from €49. → Book at myromedriver.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Has the Vittoriano ever been used as an official film location? Official filming inside the monument requires special permits. For the most part the Vittoriano appears as an exterior backdrop in film productions.

Is there an important novel set at the Vittoriano? The Vittoriano is rarely a direct narrative protagonist. It appears more as a background symbol in Italian and international literature about Rome.

Article no. 192 — TIER S — MON-10 Altare della Patria / Vittoriano Type: HISTORICAL Words: ~610

See also