Where it was filmed 'La Storia'

La Storia, TV series directed by Francesca Archibugi based on the novel by Elsa Morante, is about a widowed Jewish teacher, Ida (Jasmine Trinca) and her two sons: the elder Nino (Francesco Zenga) and Giuseppe (Christian Liberti), born after she was raped by a German soldier.

Giuseppe becomes the focus of Ida’s will to survive. The child, nicknamed "Useppe" by his brother, suffers the same kind of convulsions that Ida had as a child, but they are becoming more severe as he grows up. His elder brother, Nino, is an anarchist and activist, just like his maternal grandfather. Nino lives in an idealist but also dangerous and daring fashion, turning up at the family home every now and again without warning, only to disappear again. The consequences of war and the struggles of the post war period test the resilience of the family who fight tooth and nail to keep going.

In the early years of the war, Ida and her sons live in the historic neighbourhood of San Lorenzo in Rome, near piazza dei Sanniti, via di Porta Labicana and via dei Sabelli. Their apartment is on a walkway in a building known as palazzo Lamperini located at 180 via Tiburtina very close to piazza dei Sanniti. But their home was destroyed in the bombing of 19 July 1943 (when 4,000 bombs were dropped, killing 3,000). The scene of the bombing shows a street sign for piazza degli Equi which does not actually exist (there is instead a via degli Equi in San Lorenzo).

Scenes were filmed in the ancient squares and alleys of Anagni (Frosinone), including the areas around the town hall, piazza Cavour and piazza Innocenzo III. The latter serves as the town square for Marino where Remo (Valerio Mastandrea) finds Eppetondo (Elio Germano) decimated by the Nazis. Piazza delle Erbe in Tivoli stood in for piazza Paganica in the Ghetto, where, amidst a flurry of leaflets, a vendor stops Ida to sell her some apples and asks if she is Jewish. Ida often comes to this square which, following deportation, slowly begins to fill up after the war. Tivoli also serves as the headquarters for the Partisans that Eppetondo joins, in the novel set in Frascati. The area around the real Ghetto, a small neighbourhood filled with historical and artistic heritage, serves as a background for several scenes: with glimpses of via Tribuna di Campitelli, piazza Costaguti and teatro di Marcello. Nearby is the isola Tiberina (seen when Ida takes Useppe to a specialist) and its bridges: Garibaldi and Palatino.

Parco degli Acquedotti is the setting for the exodus of Ida and Useppe who are forced to move to Pietralata, another working-class district of Rome, where they find hospitality in a warehouse. Then its the historical neighbourhood of Testaccio, with via Giovanni Branca and via Anicia. The Cestia Pyramid is in the background of a scene where the partisan Davide Segre (Lorenzo Zurzolo) takes the tram and greets Santina (Asia Argento) and another when Ida and Useppe go to the hospital. When the war is over, Ida and Useppe move to an apartment in a residential building: a small entrance gate at lungotevere Testaccio n.11 leads to the inner courtyard of the housing complex.

In piazza della Consolazione in rione Campitelli (which appears to be just around the corner from Ida’s rented room in Testaccio) the Nazis set up a checkpoint, stopping those breaking curfew and arresting Jews and men for deportation to Germany. The square is also the setting for the departure of the Nazis, a signal to the people that Rome has been liberated.

The imposing atrium of hospital San Camillo Forlanini serves for the place where the Jews are listed (Ida is forced to declare her Jewish maternal line despite her Christian baptism). This is also the setting for Useppe’s hospital visits. Nino goes to school in via Vittorino da Feltre 2, near the Colosseum, while the nursery where Useppe goes for a very short while after Ida is unable to get him into her class at primary school is in piazza Nicola Longobardi (Garbatella). Ida teaches at the scuola elementare IV Novembre in via Alessandro Volta (Testaccio).

Nino and his comrades dig in the Regional Park of Appia Antica, near torre Selce, trying to find arms buried during the war. They run into a police checkpoint on via Appia Antica and escape while being fired on.

The train station in Ronciglione (Viterbo) was used for the 1940s Tiburtina Station when the racial laws and Nazi invasion build to the raid on the Ghetto of Rome. Nino takes Patrizia (Romana Maggiora Vergano) and Useppe to lake Martignano, where the young couple express their affection.

Locations also included piazza di Porta Maggiore, piazza San Giovanni, Villa Borghese.

The crew worked for 21 weeks in Rome and in Naples, where scenes of Nino were shot at the harbour, while Alto Adige provided the icy Russian countryside for a short sequence.