In search of the locations from Bicycle Thieves

One of the landmark films of the Italian neorealist movement of the 1940s and 50s, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (1948) tells a deeply affecting narrative of poverty and personal morality, all against the backdrop of a struggling post-war city.

The film follows the tribulations of Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani), an initially out-of-work family man. With his wife Maria (Lianella Carell) and son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) to look after, Antonio finally has a stroke of luck in being offered a job putting up posters around Rome. The work requires a bike, and again he is lucky to get one. But not long into the work, the bike is stolen. It’s up to him and Bruno to track down the missing vehicle, treading many corners of the city in their search for it. But, with time limited before he’ll lose his job, and no sign of the bike, how far will Antonio go in order to find what was stolen from him?

De Sica films Rome in a new, fresh light. The growing tragedy of the story finds a likeness in Rome’s still-dilapidated post-war streets. Even some of the city’s most famous (and now busy) areas feel worn down under De Sica’s firm gaze. From dodgy markets and back streets to gleaming new housing projects, the director took the city as it stood, filming it in a radically straight way that transformed it into an almost spiritual backdrop for his moral tale.

Here are some of the locations from the film as they stand today.

When Antonio first gets his job, he’s sent to collect his bicycle, which he’ll use to ride around the city putting up posters. Maria waits for him as he goes to an office to get the precious purchase. These shots were taken on Via dei Montecatini, with the one below looking east towards Via del Corso.

The pair cannot contain their excitement at the possibilities provided by the bike. They celebrate while standing next to a restaurant on the same road. Though likely a different restaurant, there’s still one on the same spot today.

The entrance of the office is still standing as well. It’s recognisable in particular by the distinctive ironwork above its pair of huge wooden doors.

Finally, Antonio and Maria ride the bike away from the office. This is on the other side of Via dei Montecatini looking west towards Via del Caravita.

Straight after picking up the bike, Maria insists on visiting a fortune teller, so the pair ride all the way over to the other side of the Tiber in the Trastevere area of the city. The house is initially shown to be near Via della Paglia. This shot looks all the way down the street, marked by the spire of Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio in the distance.

However, the house itself was around the corner on Via Giacomo Venezian. We first see it with this shot of its window.

We see the house of the fortune teller inside and out, although with the changes to the many doorways in the intervening years, finding exactly which one was initially difficult.

However, a later shot shows the doorway to be number 19, and it’s still distinctive today with its very particular frame.

The inciting tragedy of the film, the theft of Antonio’s bike, takes place in a sequence filmed around Via Francesco Crispi. It starts with Antonio putting up a flyer on the wall there.

Once the bike is stolen, Antonio attempts to give chase on foot. De Sica films looking up Via Francesco Crispi, the shot marked by the pillars of the Gagosian art gallery on the right-hand side.

The chase continues as the thief (Vittorio Antonucci) enters the busy crossroads at the end of Via Francesco Crispi.

The thief then enters the Traforo Umberto I, the tunnel straight on from the crossroads.

Antonio loses the thief and comes back through the tunnel, dismayed at what has happened.

Later in the film, Antonio and Bruno wander hopelessly in search of the missing bike. While trying to see if it has been sold in one of Rome’s various markets, they spot the thief talking to a beggar (Giulio Chiari). Losing the thief, they chase after the beggar through several squares around Trastevere. The following shot is in Piazza dei Mercanti with the entrance of the Santa Cecilia in Trastevere seen in the background.

They run frantically to the other side of Piazza dei Mercanti, which is now filled with restaurants.

Failing to initially spot where their witness went, they walk back on themselves, then stare down Vicolo del Canale before running down it to corner the man they’re looking for.

With no possibility of finding the stolen bike, Antonio is driven to desperation. He finds himself on Via Flaminia not far from the Palazzetto dello Sport.

Antonio is taunted by the bicycles left by the many sports fans. Torn by his dilemma, he sits on the pavement deciding what to do while Bruno watches on. This shot is still on the same road.

Antonio decides to go through with a theft of his own. He spots a bike left outside of a nearby house. The house is on Via Pietro da Cortana. The location marks the tragic end of the story, its final, haunting shots taken back up the main road after he is caught.

IMDb 
Bicycle Thieves Locations 

Bicycle Thieves screens as part of Like Riding a Bike: Cycling on Film, a series of Big Screen Classics at BFI Southbank in June 2026.