On Location: Shot All Over Italy, Netflix's 'Ripley' Takes Us to Capri, Atrani, and More

Lorenzo Sisti/Netflix

Ripley, Steve Zaillian’s eight-episode adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, takes its protagonist on a jet-setting tour of Italy. After the titular con man (Andrew Scott) is hired by a wealthy New York socialite to bring his son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) back from Europe, Tom finds himself immersed in a precarious game of cat and mouse with the Italian police when he takes on Dickie’s identity to access his money. The story takes Tom from Manhattan to Italy, where he spends time in Atrani, Rome, Naples, San Remo, Palermo, and Venice. The series shot in many of the real places, including the real seaside town that takes over for the novel’s fictional setting of Mongibello.

“The model for the book is Positano,” Ripley production designer David Gropman explains of the popular coastal resort town, which is known for its steep, winding streets and vibrantly colored houses. “Patricia Highsmith used a different name for it, but it’s definitely Positano. The Hotel Miramare is a real hotel in Positano, but we shot it all in Atrani because Steve fell in love with Atrani.”

Due to pandemic delays, Gropman spent nearly two years in Italy between scouting and filming. Ripley was shot largely on location, with some sets built on soundstages. The episodes were filmed entirely in black and white as a reference to the cinema of the time period, and there was an emphasis on showcasing Italy’s impressive architecture. “It’s just all around you,” Gropman notes. “To be able to shoot in these wonderful buildings was an amazing experience.”

In total, Gropman estimates that Ripley was filmed in more than 200 locations in Italy and New York. Here he explains some of the key sets.

Where did you film in New York City?

It gets harder and harder to do a period piece in New York City, so we scouted everywhere from Harlem to the Lower East Side. We ended up in Chinatown on Madison Street, which is just below the Manhattan Bridge, for Tom’s apartment. We used Mechanics Alley, which Tom walks through after he gets off the subway and feels he’s being followed. The antique store was in the West Village. It’s an empty space. The shipyard [where Dickie’s father works] was at the [Brooklyn] Navy Yard in an old warehouse space.

What locations did you use in Atrani?

The piazza [Piazzetta Umberto]. The exterior of Marge’s house. The beautiful beach. One of my favorite locations is the little post office, which was really a garage with strange proportions that just felt so right to me. I love the fact that it’s sitting in a little tunnel that runs through the town square. We also didn’t think we were going to put the bus stop [where Tom gets off] in Atrani. If you know the Amalfi coast at all, there's one two-lane road that runs through all of it, so being able to control traffic for the few scenes we had was not easy. But you get this fantastic view when Tom’s on the road looking back down into the square.

Where was your version of the real-life Hotel Miramare?

The exterior was an entrance to a convent in Atrani and the interior was a private home we stripped out and made into the hotel. It had that beautiful room on the corner, where Tom stays, and it looks out to the sea and to Dickie’s house.

Was Dickie’s house an actual villa?

It was actually a villa in Capri, Villa Torricella. We looked at a lot of possible villas and palazzi. We had seen something in Ischia, where [The Talented Mr. Ripley] film was shot. But Steve had been in Capri for the film festival a number of times and noticed this villa and was so taken with it. There are three different factions of a family that live in the house, so the parts of the villa were broken up. We had to negotiate with all the different families to get permission to use the different parts of the house to put together Dickie’s house.

Where did you shoot the pivotal scene between Tom and Dickie that takes place in San Remo?

We shot the water scenes and the beach of San Remo in Anzio, although most of the boat sequence was shot in a swimming pool that was on the property of our special effects coordinator.

When he gets to Rome, Tom checks into the Hotel Excelsior. Did you shoot in the real hotel?

We shot the Hotel Excelsior in three different places and none of them was the Hotel Excelsior. We shot the exterior at the Hassler Roma. We shot the interior at the The Plaza [in New York City.] The scenes with the front desk were in the ballroom where we built the [check-in] counter. And we shot Tom and [Dickie’s rich school friend who becomes Tom’s rival] Freddie’s suites at Palazzo Ruspoli in Rome, which is from the 16th century. There are quite a few hotels on Tom’s journey and none of them was one simple location. His hotel room in Palermo was in Rome, with the exterior in Palermo. In the script the Hotel Bolivar had a different name, but we found a hotel with an amazing flight of stairs up to it with a sign at the top that said Hotel Bolivar, so we used it, although those rooms were shot at a house in Rome.

Caravaggio’s paintings appear throughout the series. Were any of them real?

When Tom is in Palermo he goes to a little chapel, the Oratory of Saint Lawrence and it had a painting by Caravaggio [Nativity with Saints Lawrence and Francis of Assisi], which was stolen. It was replaced with a replica, so that’s what you see in the series. The only real Caravaggio we filmed was in Naples.

At the end of the series, Tom goes to live in Venice. How did you find the right palazzo for his house?

A number of years ago, I did a film called Casanova with Heath Ledger and became pretty familiar with all of the palazzi in Venice. I had that particular one, Palazzo Contarini Polignac, earmarked when I read this script, although we looked at a lot.

Were there any challenging locations to find?

We couldn’t shoot in any actual train stations or on any actual train platforms. We never entertained pursuing Rome Termini [in Rome] because logistically it would have been practically impossible. And although the spectacular architecture is intact, everything from modern customs booths and turnstiles to advertising kiosks would have been a big obstacle. We could use the EUR, the Esposizione Universale Roma, which is this kind of city created by the government in hopes of hosting the 1942 World Fair. We turned their big meeting hall into the station. We used another of their buildings as the bank in Rome where Tom goes. The Naples train station didn’t actually open until 1960, so we had to cheat that in an empty, grand hospital from the late ’30s.

Did you spend time anywhere while in Italy that you would recommend?

Hotel Locarno is my favorite hotel in Rome. We moved into an apartment, but we started out and ended up there. To eat: Restaurant L’Arcangelo, Carter Oblio, Marzapane, and Nevi di Latte Gelateria. To see: Museo Nazionale Romano, Musei Capitolini, and Papal Basilica Saint Mary Major.

Ripley is now streaming on Netflix.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler