Quantum of Solace

The film Quantum of Solace (the title comes from a Fleming short story) starts where Casino Royale ends with Bond taking Mr White to a secret site to be interrogated. The only location hitch is Bond has jumped a couple of hours from Lake Como to Lake Garda. A chase ensues with the DBS of Bond being chased by the Alfa Romeos of SPECTRE on the north of the lake outside of Malcesine through the many tunnels.

At this point, we find ourselves in the making of the film. Sort of. We had been staying in Malcesine for a few days and on the morning of our departure, we left very early to avoid the busy lake road traffic. The road was suspiciously quiet and arriving at the first of the many tunnels around the lake, a Carabinieri patrol was blocking the entrance. We stopped as requested and after eyeing our numberplate he said 'Closed' nodding at the tunnel. 'Bomb' he said. He didn't look worried so we presumed it was some unexploded WWII ordinance, not unexpected in these parts. So we duly turned around and took the long trip back around the lake the opposite way. Some weeks later we saw the announcement they were filming a follow-up to Casino Royale with some shots of what was to become the opening scene of Quantum of Solace in the tunnels of Lake Garda. A lightbulb went on - it was 'Bond', not 'Bomb'. This made much more sense.

The Alps make another appearance later in the film when Bond is tailing Mr Greene to Bregenz in Austria and visits a performance of Philip Himmelmann's 2007 production of Tosca on Bregenz's spectacular floating stage on Lake Constance. Some of the driving and chase scenes were shot in nearby Feldkirch.