Via Veneto

Hollywood stars from the ’50s established a boozy playground along this stretch, handily positioned near the US Embassy. Away from home and with no studio agents or PRs to watch over them, big-screen names were left to kick back and carouse as much as they wanted. Before too long, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergman and the rest were being bothered by squads of freelance photographers, hopping between bars and hanging around nightclub doorways and hotel lobbies. Fellini famously used the scene as a starting point for La Dolce Vita’s (1960) exploration of the dark side of our celebrity obsessions. Strolling around today may prove something of a disappointment, but it’s enjoyed a mini-revival of late, and after a couple of sips of a Negroni, you can soon feel the ghosts of glam air-kissing and flitting around you. Appears in: La Dolce Vita