Much of Billy Wilder’s Avanti! is set on the Italian island of Ischia.
The 1972 film follows American businessman Wendell Armbruster Jr. as he travels to Ischia after his father dies in a car accident. There he discovers that his father had maintained a decade-long affair with Pamela Piggott’s mother, who died in the same crash. The island’s hotels, beaches, thermal baths and relaxed bureaucracy shape both the comedy and the romance.
Ischia lies in the Bay of Naples and is famous for volcanic landscapes and thermal springs. In the story, Wendell’s father supposedly visits annually for the island’s therapeutic mud baths, giving the setting a direct role in the plot rather than serving merely as scenery.
A common mix-up is Capri: the production filmed some exteriors there, as well as in Sorrento and along the Amalfi Coast. However, the fictional events themselves are centered on Ischia, including the Grand Hotel Excelsior and the characters’ attempts to arrange the dead couple’s funeral.