Does this Palace look familiar?

My folks, Evan and I had a great time exploring the Royal Palace of Caserta this week.

The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the eighteenth century and it was modeled after Versailles. It is absolutely huge, and has some 1,200 rooms, including two dozen state apartments, a large library, and a theatre modelled after the Teatro San Carlo of Naples.

Another cool thing about the palace and surrounding gardens is the fact that this location was used in a bunch of blockbuster movies. Caserta palace was used as the location for Queen Amidala's Royal Palace on Naboo in the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and again in the 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as Queen Jamilla's palace. The same room was also used in Mission: Impossible III as Vatican City. In fact, the square where the Lamborghini is blown up is actually the square inside the Palace. The main staircase is also used in Angels & Demons (film) as the Vatican's staircase. The mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli used the palace as primary location for the film "L'art des castrats" that accompanies her album "Sacrificium", dedicated to the music written for the castrato singers of the baroque period. So...this palace may just look familiar. If you look really closely as you watch those movies, you may also see The Berry/Blank family bobbing their heads amongst the 'extras'...haha..