Anecdotes

The distributors were initially not convinced by the cast: for example, by Virna Lisi, more used to dramatic roles, and by Christian De Sica, who wasn't yet a famous actor. De Sica declined a role in the historical comedy Il conte Tacchia (1982) to take part to this movie, thinking that it was the best role for him and that it could have launched his career.

The movie title is taken from a song of Italian songwriter Gino Paoli, actually called Sapore di sale (1963). It was decided to use the second line of the song ("sapore di mare", "taste of sea") instead of the original title ("sapore di sale", "taste of salt") because another movie with that title was already in pre-production under the direction of Neri Parenti and with the exclusive rights for the song (which therefore doesn't appear in this movie). Anyway, the movie was never completed, and so they could use the song, performed by Gino Paoli itself in a cameo, in the sequel Sapore di mare 2 - Un anno dopo (1984).

Producers Pio Angeletti and Adriano De Micheli were initially doubtful about the costs of the movie and considered not to produce it. At the end Claudio Bonivento, the manager of Jerry Calà, stood as guarantor to avoid budget overruns. Anyway, the brothers Carlo and Enrico Vanzina decided to move to another production company, the Filmauro, for their following movie, Vacanze di Natale (1983).

For the role of Paolo Pinardi (Angelo Cannavacciuolo), actor Massimo Ciavarro was initially considered. Ciavarro was then cast for the sequel Sapore di mare 2 - Un anno dopo (1984) for the role of Fulvio Comanducci.

Jerry Calà wasn't initially cast in the movie, because it was originally conceived as a low cost movie and the production couldn't afford his engagement. Calà casually read the script while being in the production studios and liked it so much that he proposed to Carlo Vanzina to take part for a much lower fee. He obtained to insert a clause that he would have received a large amount of the gross in case the movie had grossed more than 8 billions lire. The movie actually grossed 10 billions lire.