Cinema and TV have often used the beautiful scenery of Sicily: definitely another reason to go and visit the marvellous island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea!
Movie tourism in Sicily
In a previous post we blogged about the amazing food heritage of Sicily, made famous by the books and tv series “Il Commissario (Inspector) Montalbano”, Andrea Camilleri’s character. Another “character”, both of the books and the tv series, is the landscape of Sicily.
While the names of many places in the books are fictional (starting with “Vigata” and “Montelusa”), they are anyway inspired by real towns and cities, as Porto Empedocle for Vigata, where Montalbano lives, and Agrigento for Montelusa, the mane municipality of the area.
The sets of the tv series are a great anthology of the beauty and variety of the natural and historical landscapes of Sicily.
Movie tourism in Sicily: Welcome to casa Montalbano
First of all, Montalbano’s house: as Marinella di Vigata doesn’t quite exist, the beautiful house so close to the seaside is located in Punta Secca, a small fishing village in the Ragusa province.
Meanwhile, part of Vigata is set in Scicli, again in the Ragusa province: there it is placed the “commissariato”, the police station where Montalbano works with his team.
Finally, as Montalbano’s stories are definitely crime fiction, a church for the many funerals of killed people in the series: the Beautiful “duomo” (cathedral) di Ragusa Iblea.
Not only Montalbano: more Movie tourism in Sicily
The Leopard’s den
A beautiful and famous, even if not recent, film set in Sicily is “Il Gattopardo” (The Leopard): Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece, a true milestone in the history of cinema.
One of the most iconic scenes of the film, the story of the twilight of a noble Sicilian family along Garibaldi’s “Expedition of the Thousand” in 1860, is the grand ball, set in Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi, Palermo, which ball room can be nowadays hired for functions.
Over the volcano
Caro Diario (Dear Diary) is a 1993 film by Nanni Moretti, one of the most important, and sometimes controversial, Italian Director. One of the episodes of the film is set in Sicily, and one of its most iconic scenes is set on the volcano of Stromboli island: Stromboli island is another must see, with its black sand beaches and a stunning mix between mediterranean luxury and the lunar scenario of the volcano.