Have you thought about traveling to Sicily soon? It is a beautiful destination that has a lot to offer: beaches, nature, history, gastronomy. All cities and towns have a special charm that makes you want to discover them all. Whether you are planning a trip there or not, write down these movies filmed in Sicily. They will be the best inspiration for your next getaway and, undoubtedly they will awake your curiosity about this beautiful Italian region.
Travel to the island with these movies filmed in Sicily
Cinema Paradiso
A classic directed by Giuseppe Tornatore! Surely you have already seen the movie and if not, well you are missing out! It narrates about a friendship that will get close to your heart and will transfer you to the best memories of your childhood, we won’t tell more!
Watching one of these movies filmed in Sicily, you will travel through a lot of places in the north of the province of Palermo: Bagheria, Castelbuono, Cefalù (a very important fishing village where the sea scenes were filmed), Palazzo Adriano (with the fictitious name of Giancaldo, where “Cinema Paraíso” is), Santa Flavia and Termini Imerese.
Baarìa
Another work by Giuseppe Tornatore. This movie narrates the story of Peppino, a boy from a humble family of shepherds. At a very young age, he takes part in the Italian Communist Party and climbs to the highest positions. Peppino and Mannina (a very pretty young woman from the same city) fall in love and start a relationship, but her family is against the low income of the boy.
This love story, politics and social changes take place in Bagheria, the municipality where the director was born. The plot runs for more than 50 years and shows real situations that took place in the city and its surroundings between 1930 to 1981. Although most scenes were filmed in Bagheria, it was in Tunisia, where the plans for reconstructing the ancient Italian city were recorded.
Malena
We continue our trip through Sicily with the third film of Tornatore. It was released in 2000 and this is one of the movies filmed in Sicily where Monica Bellucci was playing one of the main roles. The story takes place in the small village of Castelcutó, in Sicily, during World War II. The movie is about the passions of the new and beautiful neighbor, Malena, who is alone in the village because her husband is a soldier, sent to Africa. Men and women become obsessed with her, some for attraction and others for envy, and she has to deal with that situation alone.
It’s in the Piazza del Duomo in Siracusa where the majority of the film has been shot as it turns into the municipality of Castelcutó.
Have you thought about traveling to Syracuse on your next trip?
The Leopard
Released in 1963, the film’s director is Luchino Visconti although the novel on which it’s based was written by Prince Giuseppe Tomasi of Lampedusa. However, it was a great success.
The action happens in 1860 in Palermo and the protagonists are Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, and his family. Together they flee to Donnafugata (a real place near Ragusa, although it’s certainly not a feud like the one reproduced in the film) when Garibaldi’s troops invaded Sicily. In general, the convulsive years of the unification of Italy were narrated.
The famous dance scene (you’ll know which one we mean if you’ve seen the movie) was filmed in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Valguarnera and Gangi, in Palermo.
Italian divorce
Now we travel to Ragusa with the black and white comedy Italian Divorce, released in 1961. In the story is described, as a caricature, the society of Sicily in the mid-twentieth century. The protagonist is a married man but has fallen in love with his cousin and there’s no other way of being with her than divorcing with his wife. However, in those times, divorce is forbidden. The film shows bizarre occurrences of murder and scenes of black humor mixed with the typical setbacks of a comedy of this type and thoughts in voice OFF of the protagonist.
The actor won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was also nominated for Best Leading Actor and Best Director.
You will like to see the locations of Ragusa, with its steep streets on the hill, between the valleys of Cava San Leonardo and Cava Santa Doménica.
The Godfather
Impossible not to travel to Sicily with this cult trilogy. We couldn’t stop mentioning The Godfather because, as you already know, Sicily is the homeland of Vito Corleone. The action takes place, in a fictitious way, in the medieval city of Corleone, which is real, but it was impossible to record there because of an altercation that occurred at that time. Instead, the director Coppola shot in two towns in the province of Messina, Forza D’Agro and Savoca.
Savoca is a small town, and in the Church of Santa Lucia, was recorded the wedding of Michael Corleone and Apollonia. There is also Bar Vitelli, Apolonia’s father bar, which is a real bar, still open and with the same name and appearance as in the fiction.
On the other hand, Forza D’Agro (which is about 10 kilometers from Taormina) was the scene in which Michael Corleone hid after killing police officer Mark McCluskey and mobster Virgil El Turco. The square of this same town is where the wedding of the first movie was filmed. Right there, when you climb up the stairs that lead to the Madre di Forza D’Agro Church is the moment in which Michael shows his ex-wife the town where he was born, in The Godfather III.
Have you seen any of these movies filmed in Sicily that will take you to the island? If you have already planned your getaway, you may want to know which are the best restaurants and the best nudist beaches in Sicily.
