Where it was filmed 'Il Commissario Ricciardi'

In 1930s Naples, in the midst of the Fascist regime, Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi (Lino Guanciale) is a police commissioner whose station, the Regia Questura di Napoli, is shown as the entrance to the Palazzo della Prefettura, one of the buildings that stands on the striking piazza del Plebiscito which is dominated to the east by the Royal Palace, also a story location, and to the west by the Neoclassical façade and colonnade of the Basilica of St. Francis of Paola. The interiors of the police station are those of the courtyard of the Capodimonte museum.

The Palazzo della Prefettura also flanks the Western side of piazza Trieste e Trento, housing on the ground floor the Caffè Gambrinus, a renowned cafe dating to the early 1900s whose  original liberty style interiors have been perfectly conserved, where Maurizio De Giovanni could “see” his commissioner, later transforming him into the focal point of a very successful series of novels: it is a place favoured by Ricciardi who often chooses an indoor table and here meets his doctor friend Bruno Modo (Enrico Ianniello), Livia Lucani (Serena Iansiti) and others. Facing the cafe is the prestigious, historic Teatro di San Carlo where a famous tenor is murdered in the first episode. On the other side of piazza Trieste e Trento is the 17^th century Church of St. Ferdinand (which gives its name to the entire neighbourhood) also known at the Artists Church, where Ricciardi has several conversations with don Pierino Fava (Peppe Servillo), an opera afficionado. The second episode opens and closes in the nearby Teatro Sannazaro, the “jewellery box” of via Chiaia.

Sets recreating the dressing rooms and wardrobe department of Teatro San Carlo were built in the former NATO area of Bagnoli, as was via Toledo in the 1930s with its shops including that owned by the Colombo family which attracts the commissioner’s attention. The steep, stepped alleyways that appear to be the historical centre of Naples actually hide the postierle, as the streets that connect the lower and upper parts of Taranto are known: the Apulian town also provided locations in via Duomo, via Nuova and several interiors. Locations in Portici included the Reggia which stood in for a hospital and the former Landriani College.

Numerous palaces in Naples and the surrounding area provide backdrops. The pensione Belvedere, where Brigadier Raffaele Maione (Antonio Milo) heads to investigate the victim’s movements in episode 1, is actually Villa Volpicelli, a 17^th century monumental palace in via Ferdinando Russo in the hilltop neighbourhood of Posillipo. Livia Lucani, wife of the victim and future friend of the commissioner, is a guest at Villa Pignatelli, a Neoclassical building on the Riviera di Chiaia. Palazzo Mondo in Capodrise is the setting for the crime involving a woman in episode 3. In the series it serves as the residence for the family of the Duke of Musso di Camparino and appears to be in largo Donna Regina next to the Church of St. Mary Donnaregina Nuova where the victim’s funeral is held. The Pompeian house ofPalazzo Venezia is the residence of the murdered woman’s stepson. Shortly after, Livia shows off her singing voice during a dinner with Ricciardi in the frescoed salon of Villa Domi.

In a series set entirely in Naples, the seafront of via Partenope must naturally be included, it leads to Castel dell’Ovo which offers a view described as a “spectacle of eternal beauty” by a man who calls himself Falco, charged with “protecting” Livia Lucani.

In episode 4, the Succorpo Vanvitelliano, an underground 18^th century Church built beneath the imposing cupola of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata Maggiore in Forcella, is a refuge for street children. In the area near the massive Annunziata complex, its interiors and courtyard (where the funeral procession of the victim leaves for burial at the cemetery of Poggioreale), Ricciardi investigates the mysterious death of one of the small guests whose body is found in the tondo di Capodimonte, an oval-shaped piazza in the Stella neighbourhood that the police approach through the adjacent gardens of the Princess  Iolanda.

The funeral procession for “Vipera”, the victim in episode 5, is held at the Royal Forest of Capodimonte, where Dr. Modo reacts to the provocation of a Fascist squad and is arrested shortly after. While waiting to be taken to Ventotene, he is held near the San Vincenzo harbour.

In episode 6, Enrica (Maria Vera Ratti), a counsellor at the summer camp in Monte di Procida (Ischia in the series) who is unhappily in love, meets a man on Acquamorta beach.  Ricciardi, meanwhile, is busy with the case of a murdered doctor, while Brigadier Maione, a jealous husband, is reassured about his wife in the Church of Sant’Anna dei Lombardi.

In addition to Naples, shooting took place in Capua, in via Ludovico Abenavolo and corso Gran Priorato di Malta, Castel Volturno and Nocera Inferiore at the former Bruno Tofano Barracks (in the medieval Borgo neighbourhood); and some interiors in Marcianise and Recale.