The opening sequence of No Time To Die put Matera firmly on the map. The city was already a UNESCO World Heritage Site and had been European Capital of Culture in 2019, but watching Daniel Craig tear through its ancient streets in an Aston Martin DB5 sent a lot of people, us included, straight to the search bar to find out where it was filmed.
So on the last day of our week in Puglia, we set off in search of James Bond across both Matera and Gravina in Puglia.
This guide brings together what we found on the ground and the facts behind the scenes: exactly what was filmed where, what is real, what is movie magic, and how to visit the locations yourself.
The Italian scenes, which make up the film’s pre-title sequence, were shot mainly in two places; the cave city of Matera, in the region of Basilicata, and the town of Gravina in Puglia, a little under an hour’s drive away. A couple of other scenes were filmed elsewhere, including a coastal road along the Tyrrhenian Sea and a railway station scene at Sapri, but Matera and Gravina are the two you will want to visit.
The film blends both towns into one fictional place. Scenes cut seamlessly between Matera and Gravina, and some famous shots use clever editing and CGI to make the two look like a single location. Once you know which bits are which, the locations make far more sense.
The single most common mix-up is the bridge. That dramatic aqueduct where Bond fights his way across and leaps into the water below is not in Matera at all. It is in Gravina in Puglia. In the arrival scene, you also see a tall bridge to the left of the city as the DB5 sweeps in, and that bridge is Gravina’s too, added digitally into the view of Matera.
In short, the cave city, the streets, the cathedral and the car chase are Matera. The big bridge is Gravina. The cemetery was a temporary film set split across both.
Most people reach Matera by car from Bari airport, which is about a 45 to 50 minute drive. You will want a car anyway, both to get here and to reach Gravina and the cemetery viewpoint, which are outside the city.
Within Matera, the film locations are close together and best explored on foot, so wear comfortable shoes for the steps and cobbles. Gravina and the Murgia plateau each need a short drive. If you are basing yourself in the Itria Valley, as we were, Matera and Gravina make a good final day on the way back to Bari, though half a day here never feels like enough.
If you would rather have the stories brought to life, a good local guide is worth it here, partly because the film plays such games with the geography that a guide with film clips and a map helps it all click into place. These are real, well-reviewed options on GetYourGuide. Check current prices and availability before booking.
Matera is walkable, and most of the film’s locations sit within the historic Sassi districts, so you can see them on foot. In fact, you can quite easily do a self-guided James Bond walking tour if you wanted. Here is what was filmed where:
Bond and Madeleine sweep into the city in the DB5, appearing to emerge from a tunnel. That tunnel was built just for filming near the Convento di Sant’Agostino on Via D’Addozio, and it is not there in real life. The viewpoint at Via D’Addozio is still well worth finding, though, because it gives you the same sweeping look over the Sassi that opens the sequence.
The scene where the car is rammed, tests its bulletproof windows and spins in a cloud of smoke was filmed at Piazza San Giovanni, in front of the church of San Giovanni Battista. Fans have nicknamed it doughnut square.
One of the most talked-about stunts, the motorbike leap up towards the cathedral, was filmed on the stepped street of Via Gradoni Duomo, with Matera Cathedral and Piazza Duomo as the backdrop. The cathedral sits at the highest point of the city, on the ridge dividing the two Sassi, so the views from up here are lovely in their own right.
The high-speed chase weaves through the narrow lanes and staircases around Sasso Barisano, including Via Madonna delle Virtù. Wandering these alleys is the best way to appreciate just how tight the filming must have been.
For the quieter, romantic moment, Bond and Madeleine walk up Via Muro, a narrow lane along the edge of the Civita hill that looks down over the older cave dwellings of Sasso Caveoso.
This is a question a lot of people ask, so here is the honest answer. The glamorous hotel room with the sweeping view of the Sassi does not exist. It was a set, built on a raised platform at the northern end of Piazzetta Pascoli, just below the Belvedere, specifically so the windows would frame those gorgeous night-time views of the city.
The good news is that the view is real, even if the room is not. Head to the Belvedere di Piazza Giovanni Pascoli and you will see almost exactly what fills those hotel windows on screen. If you want to actually sleep with that outlook, several boutique hotels around Sasso Caveoso and the Belvedere offer similar views, and a night in a cave hotel is a wonderful thing in its own right.
The bridge is the star of the sequence, and it is in Gravina in Puglia, roughly an hour’s drive from Matera. Its full name is the Ponte Acquedotto Madonna della Stella, an old aqueduct that carries water as well as people. It stands about 37 metres high and 90 metres long, spanning the ravine of the Gravina river.
This is where the fight with Primo plays out and where Bond makes his escape into the water below. For the film, the wall was dressed and a few extra details were added, but the bridge itself is genuine and you can walk across it.
An honest word from our own visit: when we called in at Gravina on the way to Bari airport, the bridge was completely wrapped in scaffolding and cranes, so we could barely see it. What a let-down after driving all that way. Do check its condition before you make a special trip. You reach it from a car park on the opposite side of the ravine to the town, with a short walk down to the bridge.
No. The cemetery where Vesper’s tomb sits, and where the explosion happens, was a temporary set built for the film. In fact two sets were used: one on a plateau across the ravine from Matera, in the Murgia Materana park, reached along a dirt track outside the city, and another near the bridge at Gravina, in the Botromagno archaeological park.
Neither cemetery is there today, but the Murgia plateau is worth the trip for the view alone. Looking back across the ravine, you get the widest panorama of the Sassi anywhere near Matera, the same angle used for the film’s aerial shots, and it is usually blissfully quiet.
If you like to know which bits to believe, here is the quick version.
Real and visitable: The streets of the Sassi, Matera Cathedral and Piazza Duomo, Via Muro, Piazza San Giovanni, the Via D'Addozio viewpoint, and the Gravina aqueduct bridge.
Built for filming: The tunnel at the city entrance, the luxury hotel room, and the cemetery with Vesper's tomb.
Added with CGI: The tall viaduct you see beside Matera in the arrival shot, which is really Gravina's bridge dropped into the view.
Even setting Bond aside, Matera is one of the most remarkable places we visited in southern Italy. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on earth, and its Sassi neighbourhoods are a warren of limestone caves and dwellings tumbling down around a steep ravine.
It has a moving history, too. For a long time families lived in the caves without electricity, running water or sanitation, and the poverty became a national scandal. From the 1950s, around 15,000 people were rehoused in the modern town above. Today those same caves hold hotels, restaurants and homes, and the transformation is part of what makes the place so special.
If you have time beyond the film locations, the walk down through the Sassi from the Belvedere di Piazza Giovanni Pascoli is beautiful at every turn, and the cave church of Santa Maria di Idris, perched on its rock, is a highlight. We started our own visit at the Chiesa del Purgatorio, whose doors are carved with skulls, before a final holiday gelato in the shade.
Alternatively, there are many guided tours which take place within Matera – unrelated to James Bond! I think if we returned, we will definitely take one to get an understanding of the UNESCO side of the site.
We think we did. Matera looks every bit as wonderful in real life as it does on screen, and you can easily picture the DB5 on a high-speed chase through those narrow lanes. It looks and feels just the same.
Our only regret was time. Half a day was nowhere near enough, and the scaffolding on the Gravina bridge did not help. If we went again, we would stay two nights, ideally in a cave hotel, to explore the Sassi properly and see Matera lit up after dark, which is said to be spectacular. We suspect Daniel Craig would agree.
This trip was the final chapter of our week in Puglia. If you are planning your own, start with our full one-week Puglia itinerary, which links to all our guides for the region.
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