So, please do not go to Sicily and start talking loudly about the mafia or the Godfather, or making jokes about it, or asking locals about it. Instead, use your curiosity to learn and support several excellent tour companies, organisations, and museums who are bravely working to educate and destroy its celebration by those who don’t understand how it has shaped this land (i.e. pretty much all of us):
CIDMA | We went out of our way to visit this museum in Corleone, a small town in the countryside which gave its name to the (fictional) Godfather and his family, but also was the home of several real mafia bosses in the 20th century. Its purpose is to ‘break the silence’ and show tourists what ‘the Mafia is and has been, by taking a journey throughout history from its beginning to the current day’. Led by local guides, a tour in English leaves you in no doubt about how much blood was shed by the mafia in Sicily and that their crimes, rather than their movie celebrity, is what they should be known first and foremost for. Find out more about CIDMA on their website here.
Adiopizzo Tours | Many individuals and businesses continue to have to pay the ‘pizzo’, a protection / extortion tax in Sicily. This tour company was created by a group of young people to directly ‘support businesses which do not give in to the extortionate demands of the mafia and openly side against them’. Their No Mafia walking tour in Palermo is very popular, and offers a way to learn about organised crime’s role but actively support those fighting against it. Visit their website here.
However, it must also be said that you will see a LOT of Godfather (Il Padrino) movies tours and memorabilia in places like Taormina, Palermo, and Catania – and hear several buskers playing the theme in the evenings. Because, despite the role that organised crime continues to play in shaping the island’s present future, there’s certainly interest and money to be made from the fact that various scenes from the trilogy were filmed here, namely in Savoca and Forza d’Agrò (although the theatre in Palermo was also used in Three).
This tour and this one visit several locations and talk about the movie, as well as giving insights on the history of the mafia in Sicily.
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