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Friday, October 21, 2022
What you probably already know is that parts of the trilogy of Godfather movies was filmed in Sicily. What you may not know is that none of them were filmed in Corleone. There seem to be several competing reasons why: one is that the Mafia wanted to extort money for the filming rights, another is the remote location, and another is that the town no longer resembled a typical Sicilian village from the early 1900s. In any event most of the Italian scenes were filmed in the Northeast region of Sicily, in and around the towns of Savoca and Forza d’Agrò. We booked a tour to see these sights. Lauren was particularly interested in taking this tour. Ironically, she’d only seen a short part of the first Godfather film – only up to the point where the horse’s head winds up in Woltz’ bed.
We were picked up in front of our apartment, drove North on the coastal road, and up a narrow, hilly, switchbacked way to the top of a mountain. It took us about an hour to reach the town of Savoca. There really isn’t much of anything there. Most of the residents have moved away to larger cities. The town seems to survive simply to service tourists wanting to see where The Godfather films were made.
Our guide dropped us off in front of a small cafe. It was immediately familiar. It was the place where Michael and his bodyguards initially met Signor Vitelli and described the girl that Michael had seen on the road. We took bunches of pictures and then sat down at one of the tables and had coffee while we waited for another carload of tourists to join our group. We had a lot of fun with it.
Soon the main tour guide arrived with another bunch of people. They too sat and had coffee. He was one of those people who always had a story. We liked him right away. He had a deep knowledge of The Godfather movies and shared some of his insights. It was clear that he was a movie buff because he liked to refer to other movies that had used similar plot devices.
Outside, high on a hilltop, there was a church on an outcropping. When the group had finished their coffee we walked up to that church. Along the way the guide asked us all sorts of trivia questions about the movies to test our knowledge. As a group, we did fairly well. Along the way to the church we found the ruin of a synagogue. In 1492, when Spain expelled its Jewish population, this part of Italy was under Spanish control. The building had been abandoned at that time.
When we finally got to the church we realized that it was the place that Michael and Apollonia had gotten married. The guide pointed out that we never see the inside of the church. The interior of the church had been too hard to light properly for filming. He said there was only one scene in the entire trilogy that was actually filmed inside a church. I knew the answer. It was the scene where Connie’s child was baptized. Our guide said that the baby used for the scene was actually Sophia Coppola, the director’s daughter. In fact, she was the only person to appear in all three movies.
Next we drove some more narrow, winding roads to the town of Forza d’Agrò. There we saw where several more scenes had been filmed. The Cattedrale di S. Maria Annunziata e Assunta was the backdrop for a wedding scene and the arch in front of it (Arco Durazzesco) was where the puppet show took place. It is also used in the third move.
A second church, Cattedrale di S. Maria Annunziata e Assunta, was used for the scenes involving young Vito Andolini, aka Vito Corleone – especially the one where he rides off after hiding in the donkey’s basket. Nearby is the house that Michael shows to Kay as the place where his father grew up.
After seeing the sights our guide steered us to a small cafe where we had freshly made arancini and cannoli. While we ate we continued discussing The Godfather saga and movie trivia in general. We had a great time.
Back in the car we talked freely with our now familiar driver. A favorite topic was foods and restaurants. She recommended a Gelateria near The Bellini Theater and graciously offered to drop us off at our favorite restaurant were we got dinner and gelato. Our favorite waitress wasn’t there so our medium gelatos really were medium sized. Back in the apartment we stayed up late and the three of us watched Godfather I.
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Today was Lauren’s last day so we did whatever she wanted – and what she wanted was to go to the open air market. We strolled around all of the fish mongers and bought some swordfish, Parmesan cheese for her to take back home, fruits and vegetables, bread, cookies, and the like.
Later we went to the outdoor flea market. It goes on for block after block. There is a food section but it is mostly goods. We were looking for things that Lauren could bring back as gifts from her trip. The market caters mostly to locals so there aren’t a lot of touristy things but we managed to find exactly what we were looking for. As usual we wound up at our favorite restaurant for lunch and gelato.
In the evening we watched Godfather II.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Lauren’s taxi came at 4:40 am. We took her downstairs, said goodbye, and went back to sleep. It had been a hectic week and we were planning on taking it easy today.
Lauren texted us when she got to Rome (shockingly there was no WiFi at Catania Airport). Her flight back to the States left an hour late. It’s going to be a VERY long day for her.
We spent the rest of the day resting, doing laundry, and catching up on personal items.