t Bar Vitelli in Savoca
Not only has Italy produced many writers of international acclaim, but it has inspired foreign novelists from E M Forster to contemporary crime writers such as Dan Brown. Shakespeare based many of his plays on Italian stories, and Italy has provided the backdrop for countless classic films.
t Bar Vitelli in Savoca
Several scenes from Francis Ford Coppola’s Mafia-inspired Godfather movies were filmed in the remote Sicilian hilltop villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agro, between Messina and Taormina. Afficionados can sit at the table at Bar Vitelli in Savoca, where Al Pacino’s character, Michael Corleone, sat and asked the padrone for his daughter Apollonia’s hand in marriage. Another location to visit is the Chiesa Madre in the piazza where the two were married.
E M Forster’s novel – and the 1985 Merchant Ivory film starring Helena Bonham Carter – explores the impact of sensuous Italy on the stiff conventions of Edwardian English travellers. The famous “room” with its view of the Arno is actually Room 414 of the Hotel degli Orafi, while the piazza where Lucy is filmed fainting after witnessing a fight is the Piazza della Signoria. Lucy and Emerson have their first kiss in the hills of Fiesole, overlooking Florence.
Plotted around the murders of four Cardinals in four locations in Rome – St Peter’s Square, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Santa Maria del Popolo, and Piazza Navona – Dan Brown’s novel makes an exciting guide to the city.
Fans of author Donna Leon’s charismatic Commissario can discover Venice with Toni Sepeda’s brilliant book Brunetti’s Venice, which uses extracts from the crime novels to guide readers around the calles, campi, palazzi and fictional crime scenes, giving some fascinating insights into life in the city.
Al Pacino’s grandparents were born in Corleone, where the family came from in the Godfather novel and films.
Italy for Inspiration
1. Petrarch
This 14th-century poet refined the sonnet.
2. Dante
The Divine Comedy (1320) was one of the first major works in Italian rather than Latin.
3. Carlo Collodi
Collodi first wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio as a serial for a paper.
4. Umberto Eco
Eco is most famous for his historical novel The Name of the Rose.
5. Italo Calvino
Widely translated author of engaging and imaginative fables.