Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1526889
R I P L E Y | P E R S P E C T I V E 1 3 On the somewhat seedier side were favorite locations like the Naples bus stop, an outdoor café set up in Vico Purgatorio, and a ragtag appliance shop created in the front courtyard of an apartment building. Rome Creating each of the different hotel rooms in the series was an important key to defining Tom's rise and fall as he navigates his game. Sometimes he's at the sublime top, only having to find his way back up again from the bottom, as with the stairs he must tackle throughout the series, climbing up and down, and back up again. A prime example is the Excelsior Hotel as the sublime and Hotel Bolivar as the step back—although in this case, the climb up to the Bolivar is part of the humiliation. When I did my initial scouting in 2019, sending back location photos to Steve, it was that flight of stairs leading up to Hotel Bolivar that got an unqualified "YES" response. As with so much of Ripley, of all the hotels we see Tom occupy, only the Hotel Danieli in Venice was an actual working hotel. For the lobby of the Excelsior, the crew turned the ballroom of the closed-for-renovation Grand Hotel Plaza into the lobby and reception desk. Tom's briefly occupied suite was in the 16th century Palazzo Ruspoli. The exterior was shot at the Hotel Hassler. All the other hotels and pensione were created in private residences. San Remo was the last of the locations to be resolved. The production searched all of Cinque Terra and Puglia. I even recommended Sardinia. But being deeper into the shooting schedule, production wanted to stay close to Rome. It was just another puzzle to solve. Our piazza and hotel exterior was a favorite in central Rome, Piazza Margana. The beach and cove were filmed in Anzio, an hour north of Rome. E. INTERIOR EXCELSIOR HOTEL LOBBY. CREATED IN THE BALLROOM OF THE GRAND HOTEL PLAZA. PRODUCTION STILL. F. INTERIOR TOM'S HOTEL EXCELSIOR SUITE. FILMED AT PALAZZO RUSPOLI, ROME. SET PHOTO. G. FLOORING PLAN FOR TOM'S ROME APARTMENT. H. INTERIOR TOM'S ROME APARTMENT. BUILT ON STAGE 5, CINECITTÀ. SET PHOTO. F E G H