Savoca, The Godfather Town in Sicily

Made famous among the tourists by Coppola’s movie “The Godfather” (Padrino), the town of Savoca sits high above the sea. The road that will get you there is narrow and curvy, as are most around this area, but the drive is captivating and picturesque.

A silver silhouette of Coppola filming will welcome you into the town. Hanging over the  cliff’s edge of a homey little piazza, the Coppola outline has within view behind it the church where the Sicilian marriage scenes were filmed.

Walking the cobblestone road uphill, the old houses are full of history. And the view over the mountain, towards the sea, precious.

The church was closed when we arrived. Many places close mid day here, but admiring the church from the outside was good enough for us. The panel in front has a scene from the movie and for me this was fresh and exciting as I had just watched The Godfather movies for the first time only a few days ago.

Gianni, the owner at Gianni House in Giardini, decided to treat Yosette and I with this trip here. We were all excited to walk around and explore the place more.  Walking past the main church we discovered a smaller church in ruin, stone walls perfectly standing, roof completely gone. Exploring nearby we found a few houses in similar condition and I made my way inside one of them, through high weeds and grass, watching for snakes and careful not to twist my ankle again. Of course I had to get in, since there was a niche in the wall holding wooden shelves with tiles piled on them. I had to find out if any other old time souvenirs were in my destiny. The walk was worth the rusted basic door handles and iron window bars I recovered. Needless to say their weight and length together with the old roof tile from the other abandoned home near Alcantara Gorge will make my bag 3-4 kgs heavier and might puzzle some customs control officers.

But these are the kind of gifts I enjoy these days: with a long history, an old and unknown story, and did I mention free?

Laughing and joking about my new found treasures and the old walls that were made out of all kinds of reused materials such as stones, pieces of old roof tiles and some bricks, the three of us followed the road further up. Turning the next corner we encountered two men leaning on a short wall,  a protection from the cliff, on the road in front of the Borgo San Rocco Resort.

The older of the two men, Vittorio, asked us something and the conversation began. He was curious where we were from and he was very friendly and talkative. Clearly he loved company and conversation and later we found out he loved people, too. He owned the hotel,  invited us inside and showed us around. It is a beautiful place designed with great taste, integrating old and new into a stylish symbiosis. Part of the old walls were intentionally left bare to show the stones they were made of. The path towards the dining room resembled a cave, with the stone  left bare and rough. The  pieces of furniture around the resort were all old and precious, with long historie, some coming here from other far away countries.

The conversation with Vittorio was the highlight of  our day. He has an open mind and a lot of  life and travel experience. He is a poet and philosopher with a great love of life and people, and the perfect attitude for the kind of business he is in today. We tremendously enjoyed the time with Vittorio and hope to see him again some day soon.

At some point during the visit I became too hungry to stay any longer and I mentioned leaving so we can look for food. Vittorio right away and with no hesitation led us into the big commercial kitchen of his hotel, now out of season, and began cooking. While some meat was being prepared on the stove we had some yogurt and yellow apples first, and fresh bread with olive oil and a rich balsamic vinegar soon after. Like a hungry wolf I devoured all that was offered and by the time the meat was done my tummy was full and happy. Even the better since I am vegetarian and try to stay this way.

With regret and early nostalgia, we left Vittorio and his beautiful hotel behind and retracted our steps back to the car on the same road we had came from.

What a great day with beautiful views, special encounters and famous movie sets!

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