Villa del Balbaniello

I had just recently seen Casino Royale (the new one) and one of the locations they shot at was simply spectacular. So incredible, I had to look it up, first by scanning the movie's end credits to see the locations where the movie was shot, and eventually doing a web search.

For those who've seen Casino Royale, Bond was sent to a "hospital" to recover from his gruesome ordeal. That "hospital" is located in Lago di Como, a lake in Lombardy, Italy (more here).

The "hospital" is actually Villa del Balbaniello, one of many villas overlooking Lake Como


I thought the place looked familiar, and sure enough, that second link above confirmed my suspicion. That area in the front, with the big tree, is the same spot where they shot the scene with Anakin and Padme in Star Wars: Episode II. Imagine that, Bond on Naboo!


Actually, the location in "Casino..." that I really fell in love with is the one at the end, where Bond kills the assassin. When I saw that place, I thought, Whoa! That's what Heaven must be like!

I assumed it's also somewhere in Lago di Como, but I couldn't find a photo on the web. I'll see if I can do a vidcap of the DVD and try to post here with an update.