Inferno Filming Locations in Italy, Istanbul & Budapest + Map!
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You and I, my friend, must be kindred spirits. There are so few people on earth who like any of the movies adapted from Dan Brown books, let alone Inferno (2016). So only a fellow Robert Langdon sympathiser and symbology fangirl would be interested in the Inferno filming locations.
But they are quite interesting, to be fair. Inferno is the third film in the Robert Langdon trilogy after The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels and Demons (2009). Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes up in a hospital in Florence with no recollection of how he got there. With the help of his enigmatic sidekick Sienna (Felicity Jones), Langdon must follow a trail of clues connected to the poet Dante across Italy and Istanbul. There is a whopping great conspiracy at play in this film. It makes zero sense and I am 100% here for it.
But you do not watch the Robert Langdon trilogy for the narratives. Oh no. You watch them for the laughs and the wanderlust-inspiring scenery. So, let’s see exactly where all the Inferno locations are in Florence, Venice and Istanbul. And there are a few in Budapest, too, so I’ve mentioned them at the end too.
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Where Was Inferno Filmed?
Inferno Filming Locations in Florence
1. Badia Fiorentina, Via del Proconsolo, Florence
During the opening sequence, we’re treated to a few Inferno locations around Florence in the form of establishing shots. Some of the iconic locations you can spot are the Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio, which Langdon can see out of his hospital window. The first main location is Badia Fiorentina Monestary‘s Bell Tower in Florence which Ben Foster’s Bertrand Zobrist runs up to escape the men chasing him.
2. Via Della Spada, 19, Florence
After running from the Italian police, Dr Sienna hides Prof Langdon in her apartment. He sorts himself out and finds the pointer in his pocket and decides to call the US Consulate to straighten this mess out.
Suspecting they might not be who they say they are, he lies and says that he is stopping at Pensione La Fiorentina. It doesn’t exist. Also, very unoriginal name. The shady hackers find out Robert is actually located at Via Dolorosa, N.12, Apartment 3C. Again, it doesn’t exist. But the pin on their GPS map does have the correct Inferno film location for the apartment’s exterior! Which is roughly around Via Della Spada, 19 in Florence.
3. The Boboli Gardens, Florence
After hopping in a share car, the Prof and the Doc hightail it to Palazzo Vecchio where there is a painting with cerca trova written on the top, which connects with clues found on the pointer. But to head straight to the Palazzo would be too easy. Instead, they take an ancient route through the Vasari Corridor. Originally built as a secret passageway through the city from Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace through the Ponte Vecchio, it is not as “unknown” as the film makes out. In reality, the corridor is a popular tourist attraction.
Anyway! In reality and in the film, this Inferno location is The Boboli Gardens in Florence. They do look like nice gardens and they are on the Vasari Corridor route. About the only plot point in this film that makes complete sense.
4. Ponte Vecchio, Florence
The Provost gives instructions to the rogue Italian police officer as she drives her motorbike through Ponte Vecchio in Florence on the trail of Robert and Sienna, to the horror of the hoards of tourists. First built by the Romans, this bridge is the most photographed in Florence and has the unusual quality of having tons of small shops sat on top of it.
5. Vasari Corridor, Florence
We very briefly see the Prof and Doc run through the Vasari Corridor in Florence which just proves that it isn’t an “unknown” route because it looks recently renovated with beautifully framed artwork hung on its pristine and freshly-painted white walls. Still cool, though!
6. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
Robert and Sienna make it to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It is a 13th-century former palace-turned museum and one of the top things to do in Florence. It is here they visit The Hall of the Five Hundred to check out Giorgio Vasari’s Battle of Marciano (yup, same dude the corridor is named after), as they said earlier in the film. Dante’s death mask is also in the Palazzo in real life, too.
This is a 100% authentic Inferno filming location, but the film crew did shoot the roof scenes elsewhere. Where exactly? You’ll have to keep reading to find out!
7. The Baptistery of Saint John, Duomo, Florence
The last Dan Brown Florence location is The Baptistery of St John, which is part of the Duomo in Florence. They discover Dante’s death mask in the baptismal font which is where Ignazio hid it.
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Inferno Filming Locations in Venice
8. Padova Centrale Station, Padova
The first of the Inferno film locations isn’t technically in Venice but it’s near enough, so just go with it. After getting on a train with Bouchard to Venice and realising he’s a liar, they knock him out and hop off a few stops early at the Padova Centrale Station in Padova.
9. Grand Canal, Venice
What’s a film set in Venice without an epic, sweeping shot of the Grand Canal in Venice? I’ll tell you. It doesn’t exist. Sienna and Robert have supposedly hopped on a boat to travel from Padova to Venice through the canals. This route seems impossible but, you know, this is the movies. Nothing is impossible.
10. Piazza San Marco, Venice
One of the most iconic and realistic Inferno movie locations! Sienna and Robert walk through an absolutely heaving St Mark’s Square in Venice and I imagine this is exactly how it looks most of the time in real life. Sienna even says, “If you wanted to start a plague, this is where you’d do it.”
St Mark’s Square appears in so many films including The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
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11. Saint Mark’s Basilica, Venice
Sienna and Robert came to Venice to check out the four houses situated above the front entrance of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. This is where Robert realises that the riddle on the back of the Dante mask stating “The Gilded Museum of Holy Wisdom” does not refer to the Basilica in Venice, but the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Time to head to Turkey!
Inferno Filming Locations in Istanbul
12. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
The first Inferno movie location in Istanbul is an establishing shot of the Gilded Museum herself, the Hagia Sophia. Built as a church in 537 AD, it then became a mosque, then a museum, and recently reverted to being a mosque again. But it is my understanding that non-Muslim tourists can still visit.
When Robert and Elizabeth arrive at the Hagia Sophia, they head straight to the tomb of Enrico Dandolo.
13. Sahaflar Carsisi Old Book Bazaar, Istanbul
I’m not 100% sure about this location, but it looks like Sienna buys a headscarf at one of the shops in the Sahaflar Carsisi Old Book Bazaar in Istanbul as opposed to the Grand Bazaar. Firstly, it does look like this bazaar and the Grand Bazaar is largely indoors, whereas this one isn’t.
How Sienna got to Istanbul, we’ll never know. Again, anything is possible if you want the plot to work that much.
14. Istanbul University, Beyazit Square, Istanbul
Sienna, now with a headscarf so she can blend in, heads to Istanbul University. This Inferno movie location is 100% real. She enters the University through the main gate in Beyazit Square. Here, Sienna will meet up with another person dedicated to her cause.
15. Byzantine Walls, Kennedy Avenue, Cankurtaran, Istanbul
Driving from the airport to the Hagia Sophia, Robert and Elizabeth drive down Kennedy Avenue next to the Byzantine Walls, AKA one of the only remaining Walls of Constantinople.
16. Basilica Cistern, Alemdar, Istanbul
The conspiracy detectives work out that the virus is in the ancient Basilica Cistern, the old city cistern that is part of the Hagia Sophia complex dating back to the 6th century.
The final confrontation happens here with Siena trying and failing (spoilers!) to kill half of the world’s population with a virus. Thankfully, our friendly neighbourhood superhero symbologist saves the day, yet again. This is the last of all the Inferno movie filming locations and it’s a pretty good one.
Yes, the movie does return to Florence but we’re just revisiting locations seen earlier in the movie.
Inferno Filming Locations in Budapest
17. Museum of Ethnography, Budapest
Yes, some of the Inferno filming locations are in Budapest, Hungary! But no scenes in the film are set here. Oh well. The first Budapest filming location is in the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. This building’s roof stood in for the Palazzo Vecchio’s roof which Robert and Sienna climb through as they try to leave the museum without being caught. The pair access the roof through a hidden door which Robert learned about on a “Secrets of the Palazzo Invisible” tour. ‘Course he did, the little swot.
I imagine the people who run the Palazzo didn’t want a Hollywood film crew traipsing through their 700-year-old building’s support beams.
18. Budapest Airport Terminal 1, Budapest
Christophe Bouchard, a shady dude working for the European Centre for Disease Preparation and Control, has been on Robert and Siena’s tail all day and he finally catches up with them in The Baptistery of St John in Florence. He insists on flying them to Geneva (or so he says), so immediately following the scene in the church, the next Inferno filming location is at Florence Airport. This is where Elizabeth, head of the World Health Organisation, hopes to catch the pair.
Except it’s not Florence Airport, it is actually Terminal 1 in Budapest Airport.
19. Hungarian National Museum, Budapest
On the train from Florence to Venice, Robert Langdon gets a flashback to when his old pal Elizabeth visited him at his workplace, Harvard University, not Bouchard. The Inferno production team did not shoot this scene at the actual Harvard University but in the gardens outside the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.
20. Gutenberg Tér OR streets near the Hungarian State Opera House, Budapest
What I do know is that the rainy flashback scene with Robert and Elizabeth standing in a doorway was set in Florence but filmed in Budapest, but I don’t know where. My sources tell me the street is somewhere near Gutenberg Tér or maybe the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest. If you know, please tell me. Pretty please.
And those are all the top Inferno filming locations in Florence, Venice and Istanbul! Have you watched the film or visited any of the filming locations? Let me know in the comments below!
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Thank you for the info on Palazzo Vecchio! I suspected that it wasn’t the actual roof, but didn’t know it was so far away as Budapest. I visited the movie locations in Florence, Venice and Istanbul some years ago, but you found even more locations than I did.
Thanks so much for your comment, Reine! It’s always interesting when a completely different location is used as a stand in. You’ve done better than me in some respects as I’ve not visited Istanbul yet.