Rocco Schiavone: the café in Aosta

Rocco Schiavone rests on a contrast: a Roman deputy police chief, gruff and allergic to rules, exiled to the mountains of the Aosta Valley as a punishment. Marco Giallini plays the character from Antonio Manzini’s novels, and the Rai series really did film in Aosta, with the support of the Fondazione Film Commission Vallée d’Aoste and the regional government.

The Aosta locations

For season 4, the regional film commission lists among the city sets Via Porta Praetoria, the Roman Theatre, the Pépinière d’Entreprises — used as the police headquarters — the Beauregard Hospital, the Maria Adelaide school and the historic Caffè Nazionale on Piazza Chanoux.

A café reopened for the set

The story of Caffè Nazionale is the most curious of the lot. The venue, a nineteenth-century historic café under the town hall arcades, was closed at the time of filming: it was reopened specifically for the set, under an agreement between the production and the City of Aosta.

The closure was not a temporary one. The Nazionale sat empty for around two years before genuinely reopening to the public on 27 August 2022 under chef Paolo Griffa, as “Paolo Griffa al Caffè Nazionale”. Today it brings together a restaurant, patisserie, salon de thé and cocktail bar under one roof, and has entered the Michelin Guide. The historic decagonal room, known as “la Chapelle”, has been preserved.

What to see in Aosta

Aosta is a Roman city in miniature: the Arch of Augustus, the Porta Praetoria, the Roman Theatre and the cryptoporticus are all within a ten-minute walk. Piazza Chanoux, with its arcades, is the exact centre of town — and the place to stop.

In short

Few film locations can claim to have been reopened for a series and then genuinely brought back to life. Caffè Nazionale is one of them: the show used it while it was closed; today you can actually walk in. Discover more films and shows shot in Italy.