Rock Hudson drives through Portofino

I have explained how Come September was at the origins of this project. It is therefore logical that we should start with this romantic comedy from 1961.

In this romantic comedy Rock Hudson plays Robert Talbot, an American millionaire who, once a year in September, travels to his sumptuous villa on the Italian Riviera to enjoy a well-deserved holiday and see Lisa, his girlfriend (Gina Lollobrigida). However that year Talbot arrives unannounced in July and he is in for a few surprises.

After landing in Milan for a business meeting, Robert then drives to the Riviera. Approximately 10 minutes into the movie we get to see our first Italian Riviera movie location…Portofino!

First an overall view.

Then we can see him driving his luxurious car on the Piazzetta.

 

Robert slows down to say hello to Dino, the owner of a local restaurant who,

 

as soon as Talbot drives away, rushes to make a phone call to Maurice (Walter Slezac), Robert’s majordomo.

The restaurant spotted in the movie is still here today, it is the Ristorante Delfino on Molo Umberto I. Not only it has featured in a number of movies (as we’ll see), but across the years movie stars and VIPs have enjoyed a meal or drink there. Many of whom have their pictures on Delfino’s walls. Let us know how many you can recognise on your next visit!

 

Trivia Look at where Robert is heading to after waiving at Dino? Of course back in the 1960s hardly anyone had travelled to Portofino. Cinema-goers around the world couldn’t possibly imagine that Robert was heading to nowhere…There was, and still is, no road in that direction, no Villa! We are on the Molo Umberto I. If nothing else, within a few seconds, the sea and the dolphins awaits Robert… Not the first time that movie directors would try to trick us around Portofino!

 

 

 How to get there?

Hollywood on the Italian Riviera Movie Map

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