The setting (not just the tower, but the lake, the big blocks of vacant land, the wide streets, the very nice apartment blocks, etc.) is the EUR district. (A good source of further information about the EUR district is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUR,_Rome) "Fungo" means "fungus", i.e. "mushroom".
The EUR was set aside as the location of a hoped-for 1942 Worlds Fair, which of course never happened. It was well outside of the boundaries of the the urbanized area at the time. Several years after WWII ended, the government decided to go ahead with development as a high-end residential and business area, and even used some of the same architects that had worked under Mussolini. At the time of the film, development was just taking off again on the "new" (ritzy) district. The huge water tower was built to i) provide water for irrigation of all the planned green spaces and ii) provide enough water to fight a fire even in one of the tall buildings.
That was the early 60's. Now the district is listed as a "historic area", is quite urban, is served by several subway stops in the middle of a line, and is well inside the "ring" road. The water tower fell into disrepair at one point in time, but has now been restored. It's been transformed not only by rebuilding the restaurant (especially the windows) but also by different paint, some very very large advertising billboards, and the growth of nearby trees. As a result, although it's still there, the tower is barely recognizable as the one in L'Eclisse, and the distinctive legs are almost invisible.
reply
share