Funeral in Rome - SPECTRE teaser trailer

The principal filming of Spectre started on 8 December 2014 and in February the cast and crew went to Rome. From the teaser trailer we learn that Bond will attend a funeral in the Italian capital. Bond will also drive his Aston through the streets of Rome and the city will feature a car chase close to the Vatican and along the river Tiber. A few shots from the funeral were released in the teaser trailer featuring Bond observing the mysterious Lucia Sciarra, played by Monica Bellucci.

Spectre will be the first film to feature Rome as a Bond location. Bond is nonetheless well acquainted with Italy since he previously has been sunbathing in Sardinia and Talamone, done some skiing in Cortina, driven his Aston Martin on the roads along lake Como as well as in the city of Sienna and he has visited Mr White's palazzo by the Garda lake. Bond has also been to Venice on three different occasions, which makes Venice together with Istanbul, the most visited city by Bond (excluding London of course). However, although Bond has yet to visit the Italian capital, there is a reference to Rome in the beginning of Live and Let Die. M congratulates Bond on the way he had handled the "Rome affair" on which the Italians were very pleased. Thus, Bond will probably know his way around town.

The funeral scene was filmed around the Museum of Roman Civilization (Museo della civiltà Romana) in EUR, south of the city centre of Rome. The funeral was staged in between the columns that connects the two large wings which houses the museum. The film team were actually supposed to film the funeral scene at the Verano cemetery, which is a famous early 19th century cemetery in the central part of Rome, close to the Termini Station. It boasts the graves of several Italian cultural icons. However, the film team was refused to film there by an ancient Christian confraternity, namely the Arciconfraternita di Carità verso i Trapassati. Thus the team had to relocate to the EUR district and use the museum to recreate a mausoleum. The cemetery is reminiscent of the Slumber cemetery in Diamonds are Forever.

The film crew converted the area to a cemetery with fake head stones between the columns before filming took place on and around 19 February this year.

The museum itself consists of 59 sections which illustrate the history of Roman civilization but it is currently closed for renovations, which apparently made it an ideal choice. On the back, there is an open patio that faces a row of trees that also can be seen in the bottom picture.

EUR is a residential and business district that was planned and chosen by Mussolini to hold the World Fair in 1942. The fair would celebrate 20 years of fascism but due to the war, the project was never finished. However, the usefulness of a business district outside the city centre was soon recognized after the war, and in the 1950's and 1960's the fascist era buildings were completed and new, more contemporary buildings were constructed. Two monstrous wings extend from the columns and create a big square, mainly used as a parking lot today.

                                             "-I was at a meeting recently and your name came up.
                                                        -I'm flattered London is still talking about me.
                                              -It wasn't Mi6..."
                                                                   - Bond to Mr White - 

This is not the first time that the Bond team has been refused to use a religious location for filming. In For Your Eyes Only, the monks at S:t Cyril's tried to sabotage filming by putting sheets and blankets on the roofs of their houses when they had not been sufficiently compensated by the Greek municipality as they had been promised. The film team then had to recreate the S:t Cyril monastery on an adjacent rock.