James Bond locations galore for your 'Quantum of Solace' journey
— -- Forget shaken martinis and smoldering sidekicks. If you really want to make like James Bond, you'll need a passport and an appetite for high-octane locales. The new movie Quantum of Solace was shot in more overseas backdrops than any other film in the franchise's 46-year history. A 007 fan's guide to key locations:
•London. Bond's creator, writer Ian Fleming, was born in Mayfair in 1908, and several Quantum scenes were filmed at nearby Pinewood Studios (which doesn't give public tours). Pall Mall's Reform Club, famous as the gentlemen's club where Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg started and ended his race Around the World in 80 Days, plays a cameo.
Britain's tourist office (visitbritain.com/007) suggests Bond-inspired itineraries, and London's Imperial War Museum hosts a "For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond" exhibit through February.
• Italy. The movie opens with a signature car chase that begins at northern Italy's Lake Garda, shifts to the 2,000-year-old marble quarry at Carrara and ends at the medieval Tuscan town of Siena. There, Daniel Craig's Bond scampers across tile rooftops, and horses thunder through the Piazza del Campo during the city's famous bareback horse race, the Palio.
The four-bedroom Villa La Guardia (wimco.com), on Tuscany's southern Maremma coast, doubles as a CIA agent's digs in the film and rents for $10,472 a week through March 27. Siena's centuries-old Palio is held every July 2 and Aug. 16 (ilpalio.org).
• Austria. Bond takes in a performance of Tosca— and chases a villain across a floating stage — at the futuristic Bregenz Festival House on the alpine shores of Lake Constance. Next summer's festival (bregenzerfestspiele.com) features Verdi's Aida and runs July 22 to Aug. 23; tickets start at about $36 per person if booked online.
• Chile. In reel life, Bond confronts bad guy Dominic Greene in a Bolivian ecohotel that's destroyed by a series of spectacular explosions. In real life, filming took place in Chile's Atacama Desert, where Greene's hangout is part of the Cerro Paranal Observatory (eso.org). Free tours are offered the last two weekends of every month except December, but accommodations are restricted to visiting scientists.
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