Where the drama on Mameli was filmed: the locations of the series

Great success for the RAI drama that tells the short but extraordinary life of Goffredo Mameli (Genoa, 1827 - Rome, 1849). Mameli. The boy who dreamed of Italy, this is the title of the drama, directed by Luca Lucini and Ago Panini, stars young Riccardo De Rinaldis Santorelli as the patriot who wrote the Canto degli italiani, which later became the anthem of Italy. The miniseries tells the story of the poet and hero of the Risorgimento, whose poems and Song inflamed the spirits of the patriots who fought with him in the defense of the Roman Republic of 1849. The story told by the fiction focuses on the last two years of Mameli’s life , and there are several historical locations in which the miniseries was set. The filming involved three regions (Liguria, where the scenes set in Genoa were shot; Lazio, where the last moments of the series take place; and Piedmont, used in the locations of Agliè Castle and Strambino Castle for the filming of some interiors) and several sites also open to the public. We offer below the roundup of the main locations of the series on Mameli, always, as per our tradition, with the comparison between the scene of the fiction and reality.

1. The initial ball scene: Palazzo Angelo Giovanni Spinola, Genoa

The initial ball scene, the one in which Goffredo Mameli meets his future fiancée Geronima Ferretti, is set in Palazzo Angelo Giovanni Spinola: it is located on Via Garibaldi, the “Strada Nuova” of Genoese palaces, is one of the historic Palazzi dei Rolli, and is now the headquarters of Deutsche Bank. In the opening scene of the fiction, one can easily observe the faux arcade that architecturally “breaks through” the wall, frescoed by brothers Lazzaro and Pantaleo Calvi.

2. The garden where Mameli and Geronima talk about their ideas: Palazzo Bianco, Genoa

The garden in which the scene featuring Goffredo Mameli discussing his political ideas with Geronima is set in the lower garden of Palazzo Bianco in Genoa. It is one of the palace’s two gardens: sttecentesco, it is accessed from the first room of the palace, which is now a visitable museum, one of the main ones in the Ligurian capital.

3. The house of Geronima Ferretti: Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino, Genoa

Several scenes are set in what in the fiction is the home of Goffredo Mameli’s fiancée. This is Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino, one of the most beautiful palaces of the Rolli in Genoa. In one scene, Mameli is seen hurriedly leaving the palace, lest he be discovered by his fiancée’s mother in intimate attitudes with her, and the palace’s nymphaeum is clearly distinguished. Managed by a private entity, it is routinely open for tours and hosts exhibitions.

4. Villa Zoagli: Villa Luxoro, Genoa-Nervi

The scenes following the suicide of Goffredo Mameli’s fiancée (in reality, Geronima Ferretti did not commit suicide after her marriage to Stefano Giustiniani: the fiction mixed Geronima’s story with that of Ferretti’s first wife, Anna Schiaffino, who committed suicide, however, long after she last saw her love, Camillo Benso Count of Cavour), take place in a fictitious “Villa Zoagli” in Nervi, where Mameli retires following the mournful event: the scenes are filmed at Villa Luxoro and are one of the most obvious cases of anachronism in the fiction since the residence on the Genoese waterfront was built only in 1903, more than fifty years after the events narrated in the Rai script.

5. The shrine of Our Lady of Loreto in Genoa: the church of San Giacomo di Corte, Santa Margherita Ligure

On December 10, 1847, the Canto degli Italiani, with words by Goffredo Mameli and music by Michele Novaro, which would later become the anthem of Italy, was sung for the first time in the square in front of the shrine of Nostra Signora di Loreto in the Oregina district of Genoa during an event reportedly attended by about 30,000 people. In fact, the fiction is not set in front of the Genoese church, but a few kilometers further south, in Santa Margherita Ligure, in front of the scenic church of San Giacomo di Corte, which dominates the town from a hill just above the historic center, near Villa Durazzo.

6. The University of Genoa: the law room of the University Palace, Genoa

Some scenes in the third episode feature Mameli and other patriots attending some university lectures. The lectures are actually held in an old lecture hall of the Genoa University: this is the Law Room, or Aula Cabella, inside the University Palace on Via Balbi, once the Jesuit College. The lecture hall still retains its original decoration from when the college was transformed into the seat of the University of Genoa after 1773.

7. The governor’s palace: Palazzo Giovanni Carlo Brignole, Genoa

In the third episode, a demonstration takes place in front of what is called the “governor’s palace” of Genoa in the fiction. This is actually Palazzo Giovanni Carlo Brignole, one of the most severe-looking of the palaces of the rolli: it is located in Piazza della Meridiana and can be recognized by the two large telamons sculpted in 1671 by Filippo Parodi that adorn the large portal.

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8. The seat of the Constituent Assembly of the Roman Republic: Palazzo Firenze ai Prefetti, Rome

In the last two episodes, several scenes are set in what is supposed to be the Palazzo del Campidoglio, from whose balcony the Roman Republic was proclaimed in 1849, and in whose defense Mameli is said to have participated. The scenes were actually shot in the courtyard of Palazzo Firenze ai Prefetti, a sober 16th-century palace that is now the headquarters of the Dante Alighieri Society.

Where the drama on Mameli was filmed: the locations of the series

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