{"id":3006,"date":"2014-05-28T06:36:37","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T04:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2018-05-31T19:37:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T17:37:33","slug":"the-great-beauty-tour-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/the-great-beauty-tour-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Beauty Tour of Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opening scene of Paolo Sorrentino\u2019s Academy Award-winning film, La Grande Bellezza,<\/em> lets us know exactly what we\u2019re in for: a collective attack of Stendhal syndrome.\u00a0 A tourist beholds Rome from above, is overcome by its great beauty, and then promptly dies on the spot.\u00a0 This might sound like Italian-style operatic melodrama to some, but don\u2019t be too sure.\u00a0 In this American\u2019s mind, it\u2019s entirely possible. This city has caused my heart to skip a beat more than once over the years.<\/p>\n

Looking to recreate the same emotion, if not the final death blow, I joined our host for the weekend, Baglioni Regina Hotel<\/a>, for their \u201cLa Grande Bellezza Experience,<\/a>\u201d The Great Beauty Tour of Rome. We were treated like high-society VIPs for a day, escorted around to the various filming locations by two guides and a professional driver.\u00a0 Just to make sure that we\u2019d be able to connect the sites of the tour with the scenes of the movie, they sent a copy of the DVD to our rooms the night before, so I was able to watch it for a second time and refresh my memory.<\/p>\n

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\"the<\/a>For those who haven\u2019t seen the film, the cinematography alone is enough to warrant a viewing.\u00a0 Pretty scenes are not such a difficult task when your main character is the city of Rome.<\/p>\n

But of course Rome can\u2019t actually speak for itself, so Sorrentino introduces us to Jep Gambardella, an aging novelist with a chronic case of writer\u2019s block who becomes our guide through the upscale sleaze of the modern city\u2014much the same way that Federico Fellini followed Marcello around Rome 55 years ago in La Dolce Vita<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The comparisons between the two films began immediately after last year\u2019s release of La Grande Bellezza<\/em>.\u00a0 For one thing, the Fellini-esque moments in this new film are impossible to miss.\u00a0 Just when you think you\u2019re starting to sense the slightest suggestion of a plot, you\u2019re abruptly yanked inside one of Sorrentino\u2019s muddled dreams\u2014a trick that Fellini enjoyed playing on his audience, as well.<\/p>\n

Some of the more surreal moments include a plastic surgeon\u2019s studio that\u2019s part theater of the absurd, part carnival freak show.\u00a0 A giraffe wanders among the Baths of Caracalla as a magician attempts to make it disappear; the feisty dwarf who happens to be Jep\u2019s editor and confidant; a flock of pink flamingos who halt their migration to rest on Jep\u2019s balcony overlooking the Coliseum.\u00a0 A mystic nun that bears a striking resemblance to Mother Teresa falls asleep on Jep\u2019s bedroom floor (because she\u2019s unaccustomed to a mattress, apparently), startling him in the middle of the night.\u00a0 She asks our protagonist the pointed question that everybody wants to know the answer to: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you ever write a second novel?\u201d<\/p>\n

He responds, \u201cI was looking for the great beauty. But I never found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result of all of these fragmented vignettes is hallucinogenic; so discordant that it breaks your concentration, makes you forget all about story and plot, and begs you to just admire the seductive visuals.<\/p>\n

The Great Beauty Tour<\/h2>\n

During our tour, we were able to actually visit many of these sites, standing both in Jep\u2019s shoes, as well as Sorrentino\u2019s.\u00a0 We stood in Piazza Garibaldi as the cannone<\/em> fired off at 12:00 sharp. We strolled the Old Appian Way, alongside ancient Roman aqueducts, the scene of the performance artist who strips naked (revealing that she\u2019s \u201cred\u201d in every sense of the word\u2014I\u2019d show a screenshot, but I\u2019m trying to avoid the NC-17 rating for my blog) then rams head first into the stone wall. We drank from the same fountain as Jep, as he watched a convent of little girls chase after a young nun in the labyrinthine garden.\u00a0 We dined in high-society style at the Ristorante Brunello<\/em>, indulging in a feast worthy of Jep\u2019s crowd.\u00a0 Finally, we went up to the Roman Penthouse Suite for a sunset view of Rome\u2019s Great Beauty.\u00a0 It was too early for a rave party or conga line, but it wasn\u2019t hard to imagine the possibilities in such swanky digs. \u00a0Here some pictures from our day:<\/p>\n