Fellini's memories of Rimini

“I sometimes get desperate when another film crew wants to capture the locations of Fellini's Amarcord,” admits Lydia Zoffoli of the regional tourism office. “There aren't any. Fellini didn't want reality to steal his memories.” Most scenes were shot in the Cinecittà, the major film studio in Rome. There he recreated Rimini, as he remembered it. Not the way it used to be. We are curious about the places that inspired Fellini when creating Amarcord. We start at the Grand Hotel opposite the beach. We peek through the hedge just like Titta, the alter ego of 16-year-old Fellini, and his friends. No, the rich are not dancing now. It still looks so fancy that we don't dare go inside. That is very different on the pier where the beach pavilion still stands on wooden poles in the water. Fellini will probably never have seen the large letters Rockisland. Between sturdy fishermen with their casting rods, all by herself, lies a sun-tanned woman in a white bikini. It seems like something straight out of a Fellini film. Other sun worshipers have found a spot on the tiny stretch of public beach at the foot of the pier.

Along the harbor channel, where white yachts have almost driven away the last fishing boats, we walk from the busy seaside resort of Rimini to old Rimini. Before we reach the old town, we walk down a side street to take a look at Fellini's birthplace. Or rather the place where that house stood. Through the lively straight streets of the Roman city we continue past Fellini's old high school and the photo shop, which the filmmaker ran together with his friend Boninni before he left for Rome at the age of 19. And then suddenly we find ourselves on the majestic Plaza Cavour with the fountain on which, in the film, a peacock descends in a snow shower and spreads its feathers.

Behind the theater is the brand new Fellini Museum, which consists of three parts. The central point is the beautiful sloping square that is now called the Square of Dreams. The exhibition space in Sismondo, the sturdy brown brick castle, has just opened. The Fulgor cinema, where Titta dreams that he places his hand on the knee of the much-desired red lady Gradisca, is still being renovated. All of the maestro's films will soon be on permanent display here. There is still a lot of work being done on the square and the public gardens. Here it is easy to imagine that the old city was impoverished until about ten years ago. In the beautiful bronze circus ring in the middle of the square, parents watch their children run around like circus horses. What fun those children are having, we would like to stay, but we still go into the castle. We lean against a huge plush statue of Anita Ekberg and watch frame by frame at her just-not-kiss with Marcello. It is a celebration of recognition. The room with Fellini's dream books is surprising. They are opened to us page after page. On the advice of his psychoanalyst, he wrote down his dreams. The brightly colored drawings by Federico himself are beautiful. Here too, many busty ladies, which contrast so strongly with the boyish appearance of wife Giulietta Masina. And yes, Jesus is there too. You probably remember how the statue of Jesus dangles beneath a helicopter in the opening scene of La dolce vita. The famous statue hangs above the entrance to the exhibition.

Full of impressions, we walk over the Roman bridge and leave the old town and enter the neighborhood, whose name was initially Amarcord's title: Il Borgo or actually E Borg in Rimini's dialect. The low houses, where fishermen once lived, all have different colors. The bewigged head of Donald Sutherland appears on a yellow wall as Fellini's Casanova. And hey, look there on that lilac wall, the mysterious motorcyclist from Amarcord is tearing away. A walk through the neighborhood is a kind of written examination of the Fellini catalogue. We cannot identify everything. Maybe you.

The final leg of our pilgrimage takes us through a park in a former riverbed and a sleepy suburb to the cemetery. It is behind the track. In Amarcord, the funeral procession of Titta's aunt has to wait in front of the railway barriers, but we can walk under the railway. We don't have to search long for the grave of Federico, Giulietta and their son, because Rimini is proud of its famous fellow citizen. Immediately to the left after the main entrance is the impressive grave monument. A copper triangle balances above a small pond. It looks like the bow of the ocean liner Rex from Amarcord, in front of which Tutti Rimini sails out to sea in small boats to admire “the greatest achievement of our government”. Quite strange, this choice for a boat. Fellini was afraid of water.