Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 357 Today's Peep Takes the Godfather Tour of Sicily, A Rooftop Night with Ryan and Theresa as we discuss our visits to the Godfather Movie Locations

• Pat Walsh

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The night air in Calabria felt like a soft invitation: a rooftop view, a glowing gelato window with a line out to the street, and a table full of friends replaying a day that blurred cinema with real life. We had just stepped through Savoca, the small Sicilian village that became the soul of The Godfather, and the details were still buzzing—the climb, the stones, the doorway at Bar Vitelli, and that unforgettable line Michael delivers with quiet menace.

We walk you through how Francis Ford Coppola found a truer Corleone by leaving the modern one behind, why Savoca’s textures carry the story’s weight, and what it’s like to sit where Michael once sat while tourists order espresso inches away. Our guide Marco anchors the journey with vivid local history, from the town square tribute to Coppola to the wedding road said to be repaved for the iconic procession. Even with the wedding church under renovation, touching the relocated set pieces—the kneeling pillows, the vestments—turns a famous scene into something you can feel in your hands.

Between sips of wine and the lure of late-night gelato, we talk about what film tourism does to real places, how crowds ebb and flow with cruise schedules, and why guided travel can free you to actually see. Teresa shares the thrill of a first trip with the group, and by the rooftop sign-off we’re all set to rewatch the trilogy with new eyes and fresh context. If you love The Godfather, Italy, or the strange magic that happens when stories inhabit streets, this one will take you there.

If this journey sparked your curiosity, follow the show, share it with a friend who quotes Coppola by heart, and leave a quick review—then tell us your favorite Godfather scene and why it still hits.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, we are back. It is Saturday night. It's November the 1st. It's All Saints Day. Ryan and I are what hotel is it? Where are we? Where are we? We're in uh Calabria Calabria. We so we came back from Sicily today. So anyhow, it's Pat's Peeps Podcast 357. We're sitting atop a rooftop Saturday night. You know, it's not it's beautiful air. It's not even cold out here. We're literally looking down at a place that says Caesars, but Ryan calls it Cesare. Cesare's award-winning gelato. And here it is after 10 p.m. And there is a line coming out the door, out the window. You gotta walk up to the window, but this is apparently one of the, if not the greatest places in the world to get gelato.

SPEAKER_04:

And let me tell you, my friend, uh, it is a tiny little shop. You do go in. I went down there earlier with uh Darlene and Lori, and we had some gelato. It is some of the best I've ever had. It really is that good. I'm gonna have to try it. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

You have to try it. Oh, it's been a fabulous day. Look who's with us, ladies and gentlemen. One of the past peeps, Teresa. Teresa? Hi Teresa.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi, I missed the gelato because I was drinking wine.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god. That's a good reason. So was I. So is there if there's any more, we're gonna have to salute to that, but we may have completely finished off of that bottle. So Teresa's uh this is her first time with our group. Uh it's so nice to have you. You know, I was thinking, Teresa, if it listen, if people wanted to listen, and by the way, the weather, it's beautiful, the moon is out, there's no rain, it's just gorgeous. We're back in Italy. We came from Sicily, we took a ferry today. Well, more on that on tomorrow's podcast, but on 357, we're back in Italy. And I think uh uh Teresa, if I'm not mistaken, if people want to hear my podcast, Teresa, Teresa, where would they find that?

SPEAKER_01:

Wherever you listen to your podcast.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, well, where there you go. I think that it pretty much explains it. On iHeartRadio.

SPEAKER_01:

iHeartRadio or other places wherever you listen. Wherever, right? Wherever. Wherever you listen, it's great. Wherever you listen.

SPEAKER_03:

Teresa and her husband, first time uh on our trip. You ever are you enjoying yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh gosh, I love it. So we are having such a I I love the um I love the entire group, how you're getting to know a little bit about each person, you know? Yeah and it's just been loads of fun. Easy for people who are not like, I want to plan, but I'm not very good at planning.

SPEAKER_03:

Seriously. Right. So yeah, no, it's really a luxury to ride in that coach and not have to sweat any of that kind of planning and getting to see so many great things. And speaking of seeing great things, so here's what we did today. Well, last night, Ryan and I were talking about the fact we were gonna go on the Godfather Tour, and I was really looking forward to this. So the Godfather tour means that we're gonna see many of the locations that they used in the movie The Godfather, The Godfather II, which of course was shot in Sicily. A lot of the moves movies were shot in Sicily. Ryan is much more of an expert on this. I'm a fan. Ryan's fair to say you're somewhat of an expert. I'm a super fan. You're a super fan, right?

SPEAKER_01:

You've seen all of them. I have seen all of them many, many times. Yep, us too.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Oh, I love where we're sitting tonight watching the traffic go by. You can it smells good, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

It smells so good. I'm smelling your cigar.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's what the cigar goes. Like a steak or something on the grill. We had a wonderful dinner tonight.

SPEAKER_01:

I love seeing all the different levels of all the homes. You know, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, tomorrow we're supposed to be going to some places like one of the most beautiful places on earth. I don't remember the name of this place. But so what we want to do today is talk about the Godfather tour. And so I thought, since we're talking about movies, uh Teresa, it might be a good idea if you you know how they do in the movies, you know what? You how do they start action on Action? Awesome. So that's perfect. So Ryan. Uh well we're gonna play we're gonna play part of the tour today with Marco describing some of the places that we went. You want to start us off and tell us where we were and what we were seeing at first, Ryan?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh well, we were in the town of Savoca, which is where uh Francis Ford Coppola chose uh as a good location for the Sicily scenes for the original Godfather part one, uh, because he wanted something that was more like a small, authentic Sicilian village, because apparently the town of Corleone had grown up so much and had become so modern, it just wasn't really ideal uh for a setting for that. So he wanted something smaller. And uh one of the places that you'll recall is uh Barvitelli. After Michael spots Apollonia, he and his two bodyguards go stop at the bar after walking around in the heat all day, and they want to have a drink, and they're talking about oh, the women here are so beautiful, and we saw this one that gave our friend the thunderbolt. And that was Apollonia the Thunderbolt, yes, and it that was Apollonia, and they were just they didn't know who she was, so they were describing her, and the bar owner, Vitelli, gets all bent out of shape because he knows they're talking about his daughter. And then that's where Michael Corleone, they're sitting outside Barvitelli, and he makes the speech, you know. Uh I'm an American hiding in Sicily. There are a lot of people who would pay good money for this information, but then your daughter would lose a father instead of gaining a husband. Oh man, what a line. That's a great line. Jeez. And Barvitelli is still there. When you first walk up to the entrance to this little town of Sabocca, it's right there and it's exactly as it was.

SPEAKER_01:

So fun.

SPEAKER_04:

Then you walk up this crazy hill because everywhere in Italy is built on a hill. There's no place flat in Italy anywhere you go. And you walk up in the church where Michael and Apollonia were married, it's just right up the hill there. Beautiful church. It's just it's just unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03:

So Marco was our liaison. If you go to Pat's Peeps, uh, if you go on our our our tour group, Pat's Peeps group, with conservative tours, Marco was one of the great liaisons, Lorenzo, Romina. Uh we've had so many Bernie in Ireland, so many good, and they do such a wonderful job. So, what what we're gonna do is uh Ryan uh just explain where we what where we visited. So this is Marco, our liaison, talking a little bit about uh what we were saying. Well, it's a little bit of us too. Yeah, it's a well we're in it too, of course.

SPEAKER_02:

We've been waiting to see this, Ryan. Oh my god, dude. I'm gonna let you narrate a little bit when we get there, okay? We're doing the podcast right now. Pat speech 357. We're coming up to this building where it's a famous scene in the Godfather. Michael Corone comes to inquire about what's her name in the name of Apollonian and Apollonia and she comes to inquire about abalone from her father.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh the table and the future, when Michael Corlione with Fabrizio and the other gentleman and the answer they interview and have a conversation with the the father of the future, the father of Apollo's future wife. So this is the thing, everything's inside the time. If you're watching the 1970s, nothing changing the last time, never still decide for style, it's everything original, authentic, and presiding. If you reach the seat and to go up inside this on the on the right, there's a room with all the original pictures of the movie, okay? And you can do that to 9 30, okay? So now take some picture.

SPEAKER_04:

It's it's always Marco giving us the logistics, too. Yeah, we gotta be out of here at 9 30 because we have to be at the next place before noon. Exactly. So, but it's I mean, that was just Marco giving us the the little intro as uh as we started uh working our way into the town there, and Marco again, like you said, uh is always just uh unbelievable incredible.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh and so then we moved from Well Teresa, you you got you were telling sorry to interrupt you, but you were saying that you guys watched the Godbother movies before you came here just to kind of see those scenes, right?

SPEAKER_01:

To see to to have watched the movies and then to hear like the history of how it was made and to see where it was made, it was just it was just so fun. It was so great.

SPEAKER_03:

And to s and to be there, you know, it was okay, it was a little surreal because that scene that you're describing, Ryan, it's it's very uh it's it's just a very memorable scene. And to be sitting in that same chair where Michael Corlione was sitting was really interesting and and seeing the inside of the building. But the bizarre part was there's a bunch of people chamed in this place buying gelato. I'm like, what are you doing? This is not you shouldn't be doing that here. And I do understand that, as Marco was saying, that some of these places need to make the money, and I understand that, but uh but nonetheless it was really surreal to be there right in that stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

To make that walk, to make that walk, and to learn that uh Francis Ford Coppola paid to have it paved to make it very unique, you know, the whole road where from the church that they made that walk down.

SPEAKER_03:

I didn't hear him say that. He paid to have that repave.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was so it was so amazing.

SPEAKER_03:

And they have up on the uh they have a Francis Ford Coppola uh art piece, I guess you might say it, a piece of art where he's got his camera looking at the village or whatever. It's a tribute to him. Yeah, it's really up.

SPEAKER_04:

It's just a tribute to him, and and you know, you to your point about all the people in uh Bar Vitelli today, uh there was a Viking cruise ship and a ton of people showed up, and it seemed like they had made arrangements with Bar Vitelli ahead of time where we just kind of showed up.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So like we were trying to get some coffee and and do our thing and you had to sit down to enjoy, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

But yeah, to sneak inside, it was just uh it was just so honestly, it was just amazing, you know. And I'm gonna go home now and I'm gonna re-watch those movies.

SPEAKER_03:

So am I.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, just to know that I was there where it all happened.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it feels real, you know. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So where do we move? So next year we moved to that cafe, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Is this where we're well no, we went, we we didn't actually stay at the cafe, but that's sort of the starting point in the town there, and then the little tiny little town square there with the Coppola tribute thing. Excuse me, but then we moved up to a church because the actual church where Michael and Apollonia got married is under renovation right now. So the some of the they had a few, like a couple of set pieces, the pillows they were kneeling on during the wedding, and the the vestments that the priest was wearing were moved into another church, and we have Marco talking about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And here you can see the original uh the part of the uh the Godfather movie, like the abdication of the priest celebrated. Celebrated the marriage of uh Michael Corrione and Napoleon. Să vă mulțumim pentru vizionare!

SPEAKER_03:

57, we may go get a gelato downstairs.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, Pat as we go out there. Yes, listen. Pat.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Pat. Yes. What have I ever made you do to treat me so disrespectfully? Be a man. Be a man. You're gonna act like a man. What's the matter with you? Teresa, let me ask you.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, but you're listening to Pat's Peeps on iHeartRadio or toe everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

Who's this Pat Wolf? Who's this Pat's Peeps? Do I know this?

SPEAKER_01:

Pat's peeps, you know him, you know him. We love, we love, we love. Come join us. Chow.

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