Where ‘Call Me By Your Name’ was filmed in Italy

"Слабые люди всю жизнь стараются быть не хуже других. Сильным во что бы то ни стало нужно стать лучше всех." Борис Акунин

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Though the Oscars didn’t recognise it as they should have, 2017’s Call Me By Your Name was a thing of beauty, from the physical form of its stars Timothée Chalamet (Elio) and Armie Hammer (Oliver) and the women around them to the emotional power of its tale of first love and self-realisation. Most beautiful of all, though, was the Italian countryside and architecture that fills almost every scene.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Director Luca Guadagnino has a track record of placing locations at the centre of his work. In his previous film, 2015’s A Bigger Splash, the Italian island of Pantelleria pretty much drove the plot, drawing his characters into a series of drastic actions. This time, the effect is just as powerful but altogether more beatific.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Guadagnino is a little cagey about the details, giving us just the on-screen line that the story takes place ‘somewhere in Northern Italy’. He does tell all in the end titles, though, so perhaps his reservation is that this is home territory for him. André Aciman’s source novel was set on the coast, but the director moved the action to Lombardy, chiefly the town of Crema, an hour from Milan and close to where he lives. ‘It is quintessentially Italian without being an idea of Italy,’ he explained. ‘It’s just Italy.’

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Of course, ‘just Italy’ is just gorgeous. The 17th-century mansion where Elio lives with his family, the Villa Albergoni, is just south in Moscazzano and sadly not open to visitors. Console yourself that this means you’ll never have to find out that both the peach trees and plunge pool that play central roles were faked up.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Crema is worth the pilgrimage, though, with classically eye-catching high-walled streets and a 14th-century cathedral overlooking markets, boutiques and restaurants.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    The colonnaded square where Elio and Oliver cycle and sit for a first conversation is the Piazza del Duomo, although the bar itself doesn’t exist.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    To the north-west is Pandino, site of the striking war memorial in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, where Elio begins to declare his feelings to Oliver, and the Gothic-style Castello Visconteo beyond, where visitors are free to look around the outside. For wild swimming, stay north of Crema for the Laghetto dei Riflessi, where Elio takes his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel) after dancing to The Psychedelic Furs at the village discoteca, or to Fontanile Quarantina, a park near Capralba further north-west, where he and Oliver swim after a long cycle ride.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    You’ll find more refreshment in the film’s most familiar location, Lake Garda, where they visit Sirmione at the southern end of the lake with Elio’s father, who’s working on an archaeological dig, the first-century Roman villa Grotte di Catullo. The trio’s sunset dip takes place at nearby Spiaggia Giamaica, aka Jamaica Beach.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Almost as famous is Cascate del Serio, the waterfall they visit in their last days together – it’s Europe’s second tallest, and a spectacular sight even for those not in the grips of passion and erotic metaphor.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Their pensione is in nearby Bergamo, and you can follow their drunken night out to the Piazza Padre Reginaldo Giuliani, in front of the basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.

  • Where Call Me By Your Name was filmed in Italy

    Finally, if you can’t resist the chance to relive the heartbreak, the station where Elio and Oliver part is at Pizzighettone (even though Elio asks his mother to pick him up at Clusone). It is, inevitably, beautiful.

    ‘Call Me By Your Name’ is available on DVD or streaming services

    In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences.

    Like this? Now read:


    What to wear in the Italian Lakes

    What to wear in the Italian Lakes

Where is The Durrells filmed?

Where is ‘The Durrells’ filmed?

Top 10 wild swims in Italy

Top 10 wild swims in Italy

How to rent the villa from Under the Tuscan Sun

How to rent the villa from ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’