Where it was filmed 'Sono Lillo'

The TV series Sono Lillo (shot entirely in Rome) begins with the crisis between Lillo and his wife Marzia (Sara lazzaro). This is when the comic has to reckon with the alter ego – the superhero Posaman – that made him famous, which he will have to relinquish if he wants to win back the woman of his life. Helping him (not always) are friends and colleagues including many of Italy’s most famous contemporary comedians: Pietro Sermonti is Sergio, Lillo’s agent; Paolo Calabresi is Agenore, once a successful cabaret artist in China and now manager of a cabaret which features Valerio Lundini, Edoardo Ferrario, Emanuela Fanelli, Caterina Guzzanti, Stefano Rapone, Michela Giraud and Maccio Capatonda; Corrado Guzzanti is a German artist; and Marco Marzocca is Sante, a friend fixated on role play.

Recurring features of the city include the gazometro, symbol of the Ostiense neighbourhood, which makes an early appearance when Lillo tries, unsuccessfully, to start his car after a night of work and has to return on foot. The following shots feature the contemporary lines of the Città del Sole where Marzia works as an exhibition curator: it is located in the area bounded by via della Lega Lombarda, viale delle Province, via Giano della Bella, via Arduino and via Pietro I’Eremita, several hundred metres from Rome’s Tiburtina station.

Lillo’s apartment is near the ponte dell’Industria, also known as ponte di Ferro, which links the Ostiense and Portuense neighbourhoods connecting via del Porto Fluviale to via Antonio Pacinotti across the Tiber river. Another recurring location is the pedestrian walkway on via degli Annibaldi, which links via del Fagutale (colle Oppio) with via Vittorino da Feltre and offers a wonderful view of the timeless beauty of the Colosseum: in nearby via delle Carine, on the corner with via Vittorino da Feltre, is the entrance to the apartment building where Marzia’s sister Claudia lives.

Lillo is expected at studios located in via Tirone for a rather vague screentest, while on the nearby ponte della Scienza, in the shadow of the gazometro, Lillo and Sante carry out a night ritual. Sante’s shop selling magic and medieval articles is in via Ottaviano (a suit of armour indicates the entrance).

Lillo’s grouchy mother – played by Anna Bonaiuto – lives in a residence in a garden with a fountain: actually villa Mattei in Grottaferrata an elegant borgo in the Castelli Romani, whose main nucleus dates to the 1700s. Interiors were also built in the soundstages of Videa Studios.