Sardinia has played itself on screen in everything from a classic James Bond adventure to international streaming productions. Its granite coastline, turquoise coves, mountain roads, villages and contrasting landscapes have made the island a natural open-air set, while the Sardegna Film Commission continues to offer location-scouting support to productions interested in filming here.
James Bond and the Costa Smeralda
The island’s best-known international screen appearance is The Spy Who Loved Me, the 1977 James Bond film starring Roger Moore as 007 and Barbara Bach as Soviet agent Anya Amasova. Sardinia was not simply used for a few establishing shots: several locations became part of one of the film’s most memorable action sequences.
Official Sardinian tourism information identifies Cala di Volpe, Cala Pitrizza, Capriccioli, San Pantaleo, Palau and Capo Caccia among the locations connected with the production. The Costa Smeralda Consortium also recalls the famous sequence in which Bond and Anya leave San Pantaleo in the white Lotus Esprit, are pursued along the roads of the Costa Smeralda and eventually reach the coast.
Capriccioli is particularly recognizable to Bond fans as the beach associated with the Lotus emerging from the sea after its transformation into a submarine. Cala di Volpe also appears in the film, while Palau is linked to the sequence involving Q and the Lotus. Even San Pantaleo, today known for its granite setting and village atmosphere, retains a direct connection with 007: Sardegna Turismo specifically notes that scenes from the Bond production were filmed there.
The official James Bond website confirms Sardinia as a location for The Spy Who Loved Me, describing the island as the setting for the chase involving Bond’s Lotus, cars, a motorcycle and a helicopter, as well as Bond’s journey towards Stromberg’s aquatic base.
Netflix also chose Sardinia
Decades after Roger Moore drove across the island, Sardinia has continued to attract international productions. One clear example is the Netflix drama What We Wanted (Was wir wollten), released in 2020. According to the Sardegna Film Commission, filming on the island took place in autumn 2019, with Villasimius, Muravera and Cagliari providing locations for the story of a couple whose relationship is tested during a holiday in Sardinia.
The production is also an example of why film shoots matter beyond what appears on screen. The Film Commission reported five weeks of filming plus preparation work, with the crew using local accommodation during the low season. Film tourism can therefore begin long before viewers arrive: a production itself brings crews, logistics and demand for local services.
Sardinia later became the destination in the title of Netflix’s reality series Love Never Lies: Destination Sardinia. Netflix described the programme as taking place in two villas on the island, again using Sardinia’s landscape as a defining part of the setting rather than an anonymous backdrop.
Why filmmakers keep scouting Sardinia
The appeal is partly geographical. Within one island, productions can find polished coastal resorts, isolated beaches, granite formations, Mediterranean vegetation, historic towns and landscapes that can look dramatically different after relatively short journeys. That variety gives location managers multiple visual options without necessarily moving an entire production between distant regions.
There is also an established institutional structure behind the scenery. The Sardegna Film Commission says it provides audiovisual productions with technical, logistical and administrative assistance and connects companies with local professionals. Its location-scouting service can help organize scouting activity and support part of the related costs, while its location map and geoportal are designed to help productions explore possible settings.
The Film Commission has previously reported scouting activity involving major international streaming and entertainment companies, showing that the search for Sardinian sets extends well beyond the films and series already released.
A film-location itinerary for visitors
For travellers interested in cinema, the Bond locations offer an unusually easy way to combine film history with a trip through north-eastern Sardinia. San Pantaleo provides the village setting, while the coastal area around Cala di Volpe and Capriccioli brings visitors closer to the scenery associated with the Lotus chase. Palau, farther north, adds another point connected with the film.
Capo Caccia is the geographical outlier among the principal 007 locations listed by Sardegna Turismo. It lies in north-western Sardinia near Alghero, making it a useful reminder that the Bond production ranged beyond the Costa Smeralda.
Visitors should remember that a film sequence is assembled through editing: what looks like one continuous journey on screen may combine places separated by substantial distances in the real world. That is part of the fun of following Sardinia’s cinematic geography. The island seen by the camera is both real and carefully reconstructed — from Roger Moore’s 007 to contemporary streaming productions still looking for the next Sardinian set.
