Cosa Nostra

The Mafia. It's a real thing. It still exists in Sicily. We've even been told not to talk too much about it to the locals... it's no joke. We even know a person or two who are rumored to be involved. YIKES! But, here we are in the land of The Godfather, and we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a little sightseeing!

To kick off our weekend, our usual group of friends came over to watch The Godfather. We had (well, they had) yummy Italian food & wine and took note of scenes in the movie that were shot in Sicily. The next day the Morrows, Tatros and Grovemans set out to visit the towns of Fiumefreddo, Forza D'Agro and Savoca.

In Fiumefreddo, we found Don Tommasino's villa. You'll remember from the movie, this is where they shot the scene of the car exploding. Unfortunately the Don wasn't home, and the gate was locked when we arrived, so it was onto Forza D'Agro. There we visited the church from The Godfather II. The actual town of Corleone was too developed to use for filming, so they chose these remote towns instead.

Savoca is famous for Bar Vitelli - the place where Michael Corleone arranges to meet his future bride (via her father), and it's also famous for the church where the couple marries in the film. It really is a quaint and pretty village - sometimes hard to find in Sicily! Bar Vitelli was closed, but we had fun taking pictures. It was especially amusing when Daddy, Chris and Jon sported their mafia attire - wifebeaters and newsboy caps! Even Italians were running over to snap pictures with their cell phones!

I'd say I did pretty well for a boy who was running a temperature of 102 that day! Although I won't remember this when I'm old enough to brag, it'll be fun watching the movies with my buddies and telling them, "I've been there!"

CIAO, AMICI!