Elios or Cave Studios?

Been there it is bloody gorgeous but my hat got blown off and I had to chase it like a gazelle on steroids!!

My mistake, thanks Aldo! :smiley:! A site that no longer exists, A Fistful of Westerns, started by a fan in the UK, showed some pictures of a trip he had taken to I think maybe was the Leone village. For some reason I thought he said that it was the only town left, so I’m glad to be wrong. Nice to know three are left to visit and have some nostalgia moments.

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The towns are a little disappointing, as there’s a lot of careless restoration which loses much of the Carlo Simi vision of how these places might look.

They’re still a must see … but it’s the desert and canyons which are the real stars of the area … absolutely breath taking :slight_smile:

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That was Gordon Mitchell and me in 1971 at his western village in Cave near Rome. In the background you can see that the cottages were solidly built with stone. Not a purely scenic village. Gordon had lost 30 kilos by this time, hence the face so wrinkled temporarily. Muscle men were out of fashion in those days. Gordon adapted perfectly.

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Very cool photo! And welcome to the site.

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not Cave!!!

At that time, the films shot in Cave were offered including English dubbing for $400,000. That could not go well for long :slight_smile:

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Clemens can you remember where exactly cave was located? I am thinking of also contacting the municipal administration of Canale Monterano to find our :slight_smile:

Can we publish the photo in the SWDb? Any idea who took it?

I thought I saw the location on a map- will check my laptop to see.

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Q: If a movie lists a location “manziana” (the village next to CAnale Monterano), does that mean Mitchell’s CAve studio or does Manziana cover a variety of locations

Edit: to answer my own question, there are various locations up there, e.g. this one .Westerns...All'Italiana!: Spaghetti Western Locations ~ La Casaccia

Cave location

Lots of locations near Manziana - Mignone River & Valley, Rota, Cupellara etc.

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Do you have a Google maps link or is this just where Cave (the town) is

Here is the close up of the photo that I got on the internet, for the Cave studio location…

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Hi guys,

Cave is certainly a municipality south-east of Rome, as the map indicates, which therefore has nothing to do with Manziana or Canale Monterano.
I haven’t tried to go there yet, but according to the little information that can be found there is nothing left of the village; The owner, who purchased the property in 1983, had also asked the municipality to renovate but, according to him, did not obtain the permits.
In the 1980s, a western-themed paintball field was built on the site.
The best source of information I’ve found is a FB post (Italian) by Wainer Mortimer Tassoni, with a documented visit on site and an interview (Italian) to the site owner.


From an interview I saw with Ruggero Deodato it would also appear that there is a village in Manziana.
If I’m not confusing myself with another location, which you may already know, I saw it in Quintana and a couple of other films I’m trying to remember; in one of them the “village” was called Eagle Pass.
It stands out because it is built inside a quarry (“cava” in Italian, this may have created the confusion between the two sites) with a single entrance, also dug into the tuff. As soon as I find some other information and images I will make a post in Locations near Rome topic.
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time for some field trips :slight_smile:

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