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Rome residents hope to cash-in on James Bond

Property owners on a street in Rome are reportedly hoping to rake in thousands by renting their homes to wealthy tourists when a James Bond car chase is filmed on the street in March.

Published: 17 February 2015 12:13 CET

Rome residents hope to cash-in on James Bond

007 Daniel Craig will shoot a car chase on Rome's via Neomontana in March. Photo: Daniel Craig photo: Shutterstock

Residents on via Nomentana have put their business prowess into action and are charging up to €1,000 a day to those who want to watch the scene live, the British daily, The Mirror reported.

The move could net them up to €4,000 for the four-day shoot, which gets underway on March 7th.

The residents are hoping most of the demand will come from rich Russians, who they believe would happily stump up the price to see 007 Daniel Craig in action in Sceptre, the 24th Bond installment.

Giuliano Pintus, a porter, told the newspaper: "Everyone in my building is very excited because they have a fantastic view of the street, and are selling tickets for the night and inviting friends for big parties."

The scene will see Craig stop outside Villa Torlonia, the private residence of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, before being chased down secret tunnels and bunkers that were built to protect Mussolini's family.

Craig will also reportedly be filmed parachuting out of a helicopter and onto Rome's Ponte Sisto, a narrow 15th-century pedestrian bridge across the River Tiber that is itself a replacement for an earlier walkway dating back to the fourth century.

Sceptre is set for release in November and also stars the Italian actress, Monica Bellucci.

The film is being directed by Britain's Sam Mendes, the acclaimed theatre director responsible for the phenomenally successful 23rd installment of the Bond story, Skyfall.

As well as for via Neomontana property owners, the shooting of scenes in Rome also represents a boost for the capital's Cinecitta Studios, which is currently undergoing a revival of its fortunes.

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'€150 rent a month': Why you don't always need to buy when you move to Italy

Retiring and moving to Italy at a certain age isn’t an easy job, particularly if one has to first get rid of a burdensome mortgage.

But Tim Wood, a 72-year-old British retiree who used to work as an interior designer, in 2016 managed to sell his house in Brighton, pay off the remaining part of his mortgage and move to southern Italy.

But instead of buying a cheap dwelling as most expats do, he settled for an extremely low rent.

“I was just so scared of buying another home, even if it might have been mortgage-free and extremely cheap. I wanted to live without any financial weight on my shoulders. I now pay just €150 per month to rent a 4-bedroom rural cottage in Abruzzo”, Wood tells The Local.

‘Abruzzo popped up after I researched cost of living throughout Italy’

Renting was also a much easier option than buying, because he wanted to avoid the paper work, the bureaucracy and procedures involved in purchasing and eventually having to restyle a house.

After selling his UK house, Wood moved to the countryside near the coastal town of Vasto, on the Adriatic sea.

“I did some online search on which were the cheapest regions to live in Italy, reading articles about national statistics on cost of living and life quality, and Abruzzo popped up”, says Wood.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about navigating Italian rental contracts

Wood, who after losing his wife in 2015 decided to change life, said relying on advice from distant relatives of his who had already moved to the region a few years earlier proved crucial.

“They suggested I picked a place near the sea, for great summer dips, but at the same time far from the touristy areas and relatively quiet. That’s why I chose Vasto’s pristine rural surroundings,” he says.

‘Get a feel for the place before you move’

Being close to trains that cross Italy and even connect to Europe is vital if one has forsaken driving a car like he has, he says.

Wood advises anyone eager to follow on his steps to never rent or buy property if they haven’t seen it first hand, not just online.

Get advice from friends or other people who have made similar moves, he adds.

The old fishermens huts at Vasto marina. Photo: Tim Wood

“Prior to making the big leap I decided to take a two-week holiday in Vasto and tour the surrounding areas of Abruzzo. It’s important to get a feel of the place not as a tourist but as a local, meeting people, hanging out at the bar till nightfall, getting a haircut at the barber’s and listening to the gossip at the butcher’s shop, even if you hardly speak Italian,” he says.

The warm weather year-round in Vasto was also a major perk, as in some mountain spots in Abruzzo it can be as cold as in England in winter, he says.

Wood lives off a small pension, plus the remaining revenues from the sale of his UK home. He says he spends around €150 a month for food and locally-sourced fresh produce.

He’s so glad to be finally living the idyll after what he called a “nightmare” in the UK.

‘Make sure you’re not a victim of a scam’

Almost 24 years ago Wood purchased a two-bedroom apartment in Brighton for £400,000, with a downpayment of £250,000, and had been paying a £500 monthly mortgage since then.

“It was a nightmare. When I retired I realised I no longer wanted to live to pay a mortgage so I decided to move to Italy before post-Brexit new travel rules kicked in.”

Wood put his home on sale and managed to get £550,000. He now lives on a UK yearly pension of £8,000, which he says is more than he will ever need in Vasto.

He was granted Italian residency in 2017, when the UK was still part of the European Union and Brits did not face the hurdles of today in traveling and relocating to Europe.

One key tip he shares is to do a lot of prep research. Prior to relocating, he surfed the web to get an idea of what rentals were like in the area and also wanted to make sure he was not going to be a scam victim.

So during his vacation there, he selected 10 properties, and booked a one-day tour with four local agencies to see them all before he picked the cottage.

“Online photos don’t work, one needs to see the building and when I stepped into that farmhouse, I felt a special vibe”, says Wood.

He also recommends meeting the local owners if possible, and starting with them a friendly relationship from the beginning in case there are bumps along the road, like the sewage system breaks down or a tree collapses on the front porch.

READ ALSO: Italian rental scams: ‘As soon as we handed over the money, we kissed it goodbye’

The cottage was fully furbished, distant only two kilometres from Vasto’s historic quarter. And the icing on the cake was that it came with a 2-acre patch of land, olive trees and vineyard.

“Locals have been making a premium extra-virgin olive oil here for centuries and I just found these trees in my garden. I now have farmers teaching me how to collect the olives and take them to the press.”

Cost of living and high quality of life are plus points.

Family-run taverns in the countryside are very cheap and he can afford to eat out almost every night being alone. A meal is just €15, including a glass of wine.

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