The Dog Stars

Aeroporto dei Parchi Preturo L'Aquila Italia

The real airport behind the hangar where Hig lives with his dog. This small airfield sits in the Preturo district of L'Aquila, and its runway and hangar building became the film's refuge almost unchanged. The novel already has its narrator living in an airport hangar, which is why the crew picked a working airfield rather than a set.

Ovindoli L'Aquila Abruzzo Italia

The village where the first clapperboard of the shoot came down. Ovindoli, a mountain town at 1,375 meters known as a winter ski resort, plays the emptied-out highlands left behind after civilization collapses. Ridley Scott reportedly scouted the area in person before locking it in.

Parco Naturale Regionale Sirente-Velino Secinaro Abruzzo Italia

Most of the film's ravaged mountain skyline comes from the Sirente-Velino Regional Natural Park. This protected stretch of the Apennines reaches toward the village of Secinaro, and its 2,000-meter peaks and high plateau grassland were shot largely as they are. The park has several marked trekking routes, so visitors can walk the same ground on foot.

Avezzano L'Aquila Abruzzo Italia

Several scenes were also shot around Avezzano, the main town of the Marsica area. It sits on the flat basin where the former Lake Fucino once was, and its wide-open plain supplied a visual counterpoint to the film's mountain locations. It is about 40 minutes by car from L'Aquila, close enough to combine with the mountain sites in a single day.

Foresta del Cansiglio Veneto Italia

The early part of the shoot took place in the Cansiglio plateau forest in northeastern Italy. Straddling the foothills of the Belluno Prealps, this stretch of forest and meadow added a different register of wilderness alongside Abruzzo's barren mountains.