Page 273 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

mainland Italy, and on summer evenings it’s the venue for open-air free films. The
lighthouse here (the faro) is dwarfed by one of the two towering electric pylons that
flank either side of the Straits. No longer in use (Sicily is now tethered to the mainland
electricity grid by underwater cables), the pylons remains a much-loved landmark,
decked out with multicoloured lights each Christmas. Here, too, was the whirlpool

where the legendary Charybdis once posed a threat to sailors – along with the rock of
Scylla on the opposite shore – still remembered in the locality’s name of Cariddi.

< Back to Messina, Taormina and the northeast

Savoca

Around 30km south of Messina, the small resort of Santa Teresa di Riva is the
jumping-off point for the evocatively situated SAVOCA. The village sits at the end of
a winding 4km run up from the coast, its houses and three churches perched on the
cliffsides in clumps, and with a tattered castle (originally Saracen) topping the pile.
Two pincer-like streets, Via San Michele and Via Chiesa Madre, reach around to their

respective churches, the grandest being the square-towered thirteenth-century Chiesa
Madre. Seated on a tiny ridge between two opposing hills, it’s a fine vantage point
from which to look down the valley to the sea and across the surrounding hills. Spare
a glance, too, at the house next door, lovingly restored and displaying a fifteenth-

century stone-arched double window; the house is one of many in the village that have
had a facelift as outsiders move in to snap up run-down cottages as second homes.
These days, Savoca lies within the Taormina commuter belt and most of the people
who live here work elsewhere. That’s to its advantage: during the day the streets and
hillside alleys are refreshingly empty, and the medieval atmosphere still intact.

ON THE GODFATHER TRAIL

Many scenes from Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather movies were filmed in
Savoca and Forza d’Agrò, both deemed rather more picturesque than Corleone, the
actual setting of Mario Puzo’s novel. Fans of the film are spoilt for choice when it

comes to guided tours of locations: key stopoffs are Bar Vitelli, which displays a
collection of photographs taken during the filming of Godfather II – the table where
Micheal Corleone sat to ask the padrone for the hand of his delightful daughter
Apollonia is still in situ. You can also see the Chiesa Madre in the piazza, where
they married on screen. The best tours continue to the crows’ nest village of Forza
d’Agrò, perched on a spur of the Peloritani Mountains high above the sea, which

featured in the third Godfather movie.

For a tour run by enthusiastic, well-informed English-speaking guides contact
Sicily Travel ( 360 397 930, sicilytourguides.net/Godfather_tour.htm).