The Don’s throaty voice echoes on the wind around Taormina in Sicily an offer you can’t refuse.
It may be 50 years since Francis Ford Coppola set the Sicilian scenes of his epic, The Godfather, around Taormina.
But that world still exists for movie fans today, authentic, unchanging, and without the need for trickery, for props.
Taormina treats
Taormina is timeless which is why it was so convincing as 1945 Sicily.
Don’t just take my word for it though (well, do).
Better still get out there to Taormina.
Where you can sit in Don Corleone’s chair in Bar Vitelli and relive Michael Corleone’s wedding.
And so you’ll also be taking in the world as the newly-weds did.
From the clifftop villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agro where the film was shot.
Tours are half-day on Saturdays, from £33pp from Giardini Naxos, Taormina and Taormina Mare.
Pacino’s casa
Choose from the San Domenico Convent Hotel where Coppola stayed when on a recce ahead of the film.
And the locals pointed him in the direction of the now iconic villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agro.
Or the Belmond Villa Sant’Andrea where the entire crew stayed.
Happen too that you’ll dine more like a guest at Michael Corleone’s wedding than I did on my only trip to Sicily to date.
The Big Formaggio
When trying to show off to the-then Miss F my schoolboy Italian and ended up with a plate of formaggio, or cheese.
Maybe I’ll use my Sicilian connections and seek out that establishment and follow through on The Don’s mantra.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
In Sicily an offer you can’t refuse.
