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007, 007 location, Casino Royale, filming location, Italy, James Bond, James Bond location, james Bond locations, James Bond movie locations, Moonraker, movie location, Saint Mark's Square, St Mark's Basilica, St. Mark's Square, Venice
When I returned to Venice in Italy this summer, I’ve decided to take some photos that were missing from my previous articles: “Moonraker” in Venice and ‘Casino Royale’ in Venice. This time I would like to invite you for a walk around St Mark’s Square.
Let’s begin the tour from small square called Piazzetta dei Leoncini next to St Mark’s Basilica and the north corner of St Mark’s Square. You will find there Venini shop, known from ‘Moonraker’.
It’s been 40 years already since Roger Moore as James Bond entered Venini Glass, but not many detailes have changed. There is no sunblind above the antrance to the shop as in the movie and the door has been moved a bit, but every Bond fan will recognize that place.
Next to the shop there is a clock tower called Torre dell’Orologio, that was filmed at the end of fight scene with James Bond and the villain Chang (Toshiro Suga), also in ‘Moonraker’.
When they were fighting, there was a live concert right below the tower. Chang fell on the piano that was standing in the same place as the group of tourists in the next photo.
Walking along the north side of the square you will get to the passage called Sotoportego del Cavalletto. It was filming location of the scene with James Bond (Daniel Craig) noticing Vesper (Eva Green) walking away with suitcase full of money in ‘Casino Royale’.
A few steps away in the eastern corner of the square you will get to Longchamp shop. It was Basel Bank in ‘Casino Royale’.
Through the window you can see interior of the shop that was designed as a bank lobby just for the film.
Standing there you would notice that James Bond didn’t take the shortest route from the hotel to the bank. He ran into the square from its southern corner (right side of the photo below). Later the camera was directed towards St Mark’s Basilica as in the photo below. 007 was running from left (eastern corner) to the right (southern corner). 
Finally he came to the Basel Bank located in the corner on the left (eastern corner).
Visit LOCATIONS GALLERY on top of the page to see locations photos compared with movie scenes.
To film the scene, the camera was attached to special wires, so it could be moved high above the roofs from the street level. To look at historical city center over the archway at Chiesa di San Giuseppe (as in photo below) you may walk up the Via Sant’Agata to the square at Sant’Agostino church. 
The entrance to the tunnel was filmed at Piazzetta Della Paglietta square located at Via Salicotto street (see photo below).
Next photo of Piazzetta Della Paglietta was taken from Vicolo della Manna right above the entrance to the tunnel.
The door to the tunnel is different than in the film as you may see in next photo.
Nowadays it would be difficult to drive in the tunnel as
There was MI6 safe house at the end of the tunnel. M (Judi Dench) was waiting there for 007 and his prisoner. Mr. White told them, that 
To film the chase of the rooftops, two kilometers of special cables for safety and camera support were used. Cables were suspended on arms of four giant cranes. Each crane weighted two houndred tons. It was necessary to make first geological investigation. There were holes deep at about 10-20 meters made in the ground and filled with cement. It took three months to complete this.
The driver stopped the bus when he heard James Bond jumping on the roof. When 007 was rolling on the bus, Via Pantaneto street was seen in background.
In next photo you can see the window from which Bond jumped on the bus and the gutter he climbed.
After the chase James Bond returned to MI6 safe house. When he turned left from Via Salicotto to Piazzetta Della Paglietta, the building visible in the last photo was seen in background. 
Car chase was filmed on the road near Navene 
When James Bond was writing the resignation letter, there was Santa Maria della Salute Basilica visible in background (photo below). On his laptop monitor you could see his e-mail inbox with 
When Vesper left the hotel room, M called and asked 007 about the money that he won in Casino Royale. Bond immediately called the Swiss banker and got information that while they were talking someone was withdrawing the money in a bank located at Saint Mark’s Square in Venice. James Bond guessed that it was Vesper who stole the money and ran after her.
The hotel where Bond and Vesper stayed didn’t exist. The hotel lobby scenes were filmed at the Czech National Museum in Prague.
James Bond tried to find Vesper under arcades that you can see in photo below. Finally he saw her walking on the bridge located at Sotoportego del Cavalletton street. The entrance to that street from Saint Mark’s Square is located behind fifth arch from the right in photo below. 
In the next scene Eva Green who played Vesper was walking alone on Ponte del Malpaga bridge (see photo below). Daniel Craig was looking at her from the bridge connecting Fondamenta Toletta and Calle Lotto from which the photo was taken.
Bond followed Vesper down the Sotoportego de le Colonne. As she passed over the Ponte de le Colonne bridge she looked back, but she couldn’t see 007 who was hidden in the shadows.
Next photo was taken from the bridge towards the shadows where 007 was hidden.
Finally Vesper came to the courtyard where she met Gettler. The villain saw James Bond hiding behind the column and took Vesper hostage. Gettler’s men tried to shoot 007.
She turned left and passed through the doors (that are closed in photo below) to the courtyard.
Next photo was taken from the courtyard. Vesper 
On the right in photo below you can see the column where 007 was hiding when Vesper was talking to Gettler. On the left there is a sculpture that was seen behind Daniel Craig’s head.
Next photo of the courtyard was taken from Bond’s hide behind the column. Vesper and Gettler were standing 
When they started shooting, James Bond was running behind columns visible in the middle of the photo below.
James Bond pursued Gettler and Vesper into a building under renovation. During the fight the building started to sink.
The scene with people looking at sinking building was filmed at Campo Erberia (photo below). 
After Vesper’s death James Bond was sitting on the yacht’s deck and talking on the phone with M. The scene was filmed at Santi Cosma e Damiano church. Behind 007 the dome of Santa Maria della Salute (in photo below) was visible.
He entered the museum-lobby of the Venini Glass Works that belonged to his main opponent – Hugo Drax. The scene was filmed in real Venini shop located at Piazzetta dei Leoncini next to Saint Mark’s Basilica (in the center of the photo below).
After leaving the museum Dr. Goodhed appeared in the door on the right side of the photo presented below and walked towards the place from which the picture was taken.
Next picture looks similar to the film shot. James Bond was standing behind the column and looking at Dr. Goodhead walking to the stairwell. The stairwell is clearly visible in next pictures taken from another side. It is worth noticing that the same courtyard was used as location in “Casino Royale”.
In the next scene James Bond pretended that he accidentially met Dr. Holly Goodhead. It was filmed at La Scuola nuova della Misericordia (pictured below), however the building was not seen.
I visited this place 40 years after Roger Moore and Lois Chiles were standing there, however the place has not changed much. There are only some new details, such as city monitoring warning sign (pictured below), that would probably be seen in background.
After short conversation with Dr. Goodhead, on his way back via gondola, James Bond was attacked. He killed the assassin and by opening a hidden control panel converted the gondola into a motorboat.
Chase sequence ended when James Bond arrived at St. Mark’s Square and converted the gondola into a land-capable hovercraft. The sequence with gondola leaving the water (see filming location in photos below) had to be repeated six times because the vehicle was not stable and Roger Moore was falling into water.
James Bond in the gondola converted into the hoovercraft was riding next to the Doge’s Palace (photo below) and then on St. Mark’s Square (next photos). Specially designed gondola with Ford chassis had a horn to worn surprised tourists. St. Mark’s Square could not be entirely closed so there was a lot of unaware people among actors and extras.
At night James Bond returned to the glass factory dressed as a gondolier. The scene was filmed at the Ponte dell’Accademia bridge with Santa Maria della Salute basilica in background. The place where 007 arrived in gondola is visible on the left side of the picture below).
Bond throwed gondolier hat on figurine decorating a gondola similar to the one presented in photo below.
He opened a padlock with a skeleton key and entered the courtyard that he visited earlier when he was following Dr. Goodhead. The passage between the Canal Grande and the courtyard of Conservatorio di musica Benedetto Marcello really exists. In picture below the sunlight brightens the place where Roger Moore was standing with the skeleton key. The passage to the Canal Grande is on the right from that place.
Next picture was taken from James Bond’s perspective. There is an entrance to the staircase visible on the right. He walked there a few seconds later. Dr. Holly Goodhead entered the same entrance after she left the glass museum.
Next two pictures were taken from the other side of the fence. There is an entrance to the staircase mentioned before on the right side of the second photo.
After visiting the laboratory and stealing a sample of deadly fluid, James Bond emerged from the stairwell (on the left in photo below). He was attacked between columns by Chang.
Next picture was taken from courtyard side. James Bond and Chang were fighting and slowly moving behind columns from right to left. 007 throwed his opponent against the wall and they both fell into the room full of glass throught the door on the left. In the next scene they used the largest amount of breakaway sugar glass ever.
Meanwhile Dr. Holly Goodhead was relaxing in Hotel Danieli (second building from right in next two photos). James Bond joined her soon in her apartment. There was a flood during filming, so the film crew had to stop working several times to move power generators to upper floors.
James Bond will be back in Venice 28 years later in “Casino Royale” with Daniel Craig as 007.
They turn right. 007 throws the film of him and Romanova into the water. A few seconds later there is only his waving hand visible with the Doge’s Palace in background. Piazzetta San Marco (picture below) leading to Piazza San Marco is a background for end credits.
All scenes in Venice were filmed using rear-projection technique. In Venice there was only film director Terence Young who filmed the city in one day only. Actors were filmed in Pinewood studio.
Cars were riding on a road next to the river as seen in a picture below.
The crew occupied for the film the street along the river between Umberto 1st bridge and Sisto bridge and there were crew 
After sunset all city lamps and film lamps were on as seen in a picture taken from Ponte Sisto bridge.
The crew has started preparations for shooting. There was motorboat and jet ski on Tiber river and tracking vehicle with cameras riding both ways.
During the day at the
In the movie there was only one Jaguar chasing one Aston Martin, however on the set there were 3 Aston Martins DB10 and 5 Jaguars C-X75 from … 5 existing in the world (according to information i.e. from Wikipedia). 4 Jaguars were standing in one row next to each other, but the last one was parked a few meters from them with sheet of paper by wiper with „FLAME PROOFED DO NOT TOUCH NON TOCCARE” written on it. Two Aston Martins had paper sheets by wipers with „NO SMOKING” written on them. So we could expect flames on the set that night.
All Jaguars on the set had the same license plates numbers: “ROMA860K”. I was a bit surprised when I have noticed that all of them had steering wheels on the left side.
There was one Aston Martin and one Jaguar with remote drive POD system mounted on roofs. Using such system, stunt driver can drive a car sitting in metal cage on a roof of the car, while actor is sitting inside, pretending steering.
Besides Aston Martins and Jaguars there was another interesting car – tracking vehicle with several cameras on it.
On the platform of the tracking vehicle there was clapperboard with the title of the movie “Spectre” written on it.
Around 10 p.m. the car chase began.
There were only two cars – one Aston Martin DB10 and one Jaguar 
Some time later Jaguar C-X75 with license plate “ROMA 860K” appeared and drove away on 
And finally the Jaguar DB10 left the parking lot and the filming began.
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