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

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.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_03 (00:00):
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 Sicilytoday.
So anyhow, it's Pat's PeepsPodcast 357.
We're sitting atop a rooftopSaturday night.

(00:23):
You know, it's not it'sbeautiful air.
It's not even cold out here.
We're literally looking down ata 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 outthe door, out the window.
You gotta walk up to the window,but this is apparently one of

(00:44):
the, if not the greatest placesin the world to get gelato.

SPEAKER_04 (00:48):
And let me tell you, my friend, uh, it is a tiny
little shop.
You do go in.
I went down there earlier withuh Darlene and Lori, and we had
some gelato.
It is some of the best I've everhad.
It really is that good.
I'm gonna have to try it.
Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03):
You have to try it.
Oh, it's been a fabulous day.
Look who's with us, ladies andgentlemen.
One of the past peeps, Teresa.
Teresa?
Hi Teresa.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Hi, I missed the gelato because I was drinking
wine.

SPEAKER_03 (01:16):
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 completelyfinished off of that bottle.
So Teresa's uh this is her firsttime with our group.
Uh it's so nice to have you.
You know, I was thinking,Teresa, if it listen, if people

(01:37):
wanted to listen, and by theway, 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 aferry today.
Well, more on that on tomorrow'spodcast, but on 357, we're back
in Italy.
And I think uh uh Teresa, if I'mnot mistaken, if people want to
hear my podcast, Teresa, Teresa,where would they find that?

SPEAKER_01 (02:00):
Wherever you listen to your podcast.

SPEAKER_03 (02:03):
Oh, well, where there you go.
I think that it pretty muchexplains it.
On iHeartRadio.

SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
iHeartRadio or other places wherever you listen.
Wherever, right?
Wherever.
Wherever you listen, it's great.
Wherever you listen.

SPEAKER_03 (02:17):
Teresa and her husband, first time uh on our
trip.
You ever are you enjoyingyourself?

SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
Oh gosh, I love it.
So we are having such a I I lovethe um I love the entire group,
how you're getting to know alittle bit about each person,
you know?
Yeah and it's just been loads offun.
Easy for people who are notlike, I want to plan, but I'm
not very good at planning.

SPEAKER_03 (02:41):
Seriously.
Right.
So yeah, no, it's really aluxury to ride in that coach and
not have to sweat any of thatkind of planning and getting to
see so many great things.
And speaking of seeing greatthings, so here's what we did
today.
Well, last night, Ryan and Iwere talking about the fact we
were gonna go on the GodfatherTour, and I was really looking
forward to this.
So the Godfather tour means thatwe're gonna see many of the

(03:03):
locations that they used in themovie The Godfather, The
Godfather II, which of coursewas shot in Sicily.
A lot of the moves movies wereshot in Sicily.
Ryan is much more of an experton this.
I'm a fan.
Ryan's fair to say you'resomewhat of an expert.
I'm a super fan.
You're a super fan, right?

SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
You've seen all of them.
I have seen all of them many,many times.
Yep, us too.

SPEAKER_03 (03:27):
Right.
Oh, I love where we're sittingtonight watching the traffic go
by.
You can it smells good, youknow.

SPEAKER_01 (03:32):
It smells so good.
I'm smelling your cigar.

SPEAKER_03 (03:34):
Yeah, that's what the cigar goes.
Like a steak or something on thegrill.
We had a wonderful dinnertonight.

SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
I love seeing all the different levels of all the
homes.
You know, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
Yeah, tomorrow we're supposed to be going to some
places like one of the mostbeautiful places on earth.
I don't remember the name ofthis place.
But so what we want to do todayis talk about the Godfather
tour.
And so I thought, since we'retalking about movies, uh Teresa,
it might be a good idea if youyou know how they do in the
movies, you know what?
You how do they start action onAction?

(04:08):
Awesome.
So that's perfect.
So Ryan.
Uh well we're gonna play we'regonna play part of the tour
today with Marco describing someof the places that we went.
You want to start us off andtell us where we were and what
we were seeing at first, Ryan?

SPEAKER_04 (04:21):
Uh well, we were in the town of Savoca, which is
where uh Francis Ford Coppolachose uh as a good location for
the Sicily scenes for theoriginal Godfather part one, uh,
because he wanted something thatwas more like a small, authentic
Sicilian village, becauseapparently the town of Corleone

(04:45):
had grown up so much and hadbecome so modern, it just wasn't
really ideal uh for a settingfor that.
So he wanted something smaller.
And uh one of the places thatyou'll recall is uh Barvitelli.
After Michael spots Apollonia,he and his two bodyguards go
stop at the bar after walkingaround in the heat all day, and

(05:07):
they want to have a drink, andthey're talking about oh, the
women here are so beautiful, andwe saw this one that gave our
friend the thunderbolt.
And that was Apollonia theThunderbolt, yes, and it that
was Apollonia, and they werejust they didn't know who she
was, so they were describingher, and the bar owner, Vitelli,

(05:29):
gets all bent out of shapebecause he knows they're talking
about his daughter.
And then that's where MichaelCorleone, they're sitting
outside Barvitelli, and he makesthe speech, you know.
Uh I'm an American hiding inSicily.
There are a lot of people whowould pay good money for this
information, but then yourdaughter would lose a father

(05:49):
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 theentrance to this little town of
Sabocca, it's right there andit's exactly as it was.

SPEAKER_01 (06:06):
So fun.

SPEAKER_04 (06:06):
Then you walk up this crazy hill because
everywhere in Italy is built ona hill.
There's no place flat in Italyanywhere you go.
And you walk up in the churchwhere Michael and Apollonia were
married, it's just right up thehill there.
Beautiful church.
It's just it's justunbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 (06:22):
So Marco was our liaison.
If you go to Pat's Peeps, uh, ifyou go on our our our tour
group, Pat's Peeps group, withconservative tours, Marco was
one of the great liaisons,Lorenzo, Romina.
Uh we've had so many Bernie inIreland, so many good, and they
do such a wonderful job.
So, what what we're gonna do isuh Ryan uh just explain where we

(06:43):
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 ustoo.
Yeah, it's a well we're in ittoo, of course.

SPEAKER_02 (06:52):
We've been waiting to see this, Ryan.
Oh my god, dude.
I'm gonna let you narrate alittle bit when we get there,
okay?
We're doing the podcast rightnow.
Pat speech 357.
We're coming up to this buildingwhere it's a famous scene in the
Godfather.
Michael Corone comes to inquireabout what's her name in the
name of Apollonian and Apolloniaand she comes to inquire about

(07:14):
abalone from her father.

SPEAKER_00 (07:23):
Uh the table and the future, when Michael Corlione
with Fabrizio and the othergentleman and the answer they
interview and have aconversation with the the father
of the future, the father ofApollo's future wife.
So this is the thing,everything's inside the time.
If you're watching the 1970s,nothing changing the last time,

(07:44):
never still decide for style,it's everything original,
authentic, and presiding.
If you reach the seat and to goup inside this on the on the
right, there's a room with allthe original pictures of the
movie, okay?
And you can do that to 9 30,okay?
So now take some picture.

SPEAKER_04 (08:03):
It's it's always Marco giving us the logistics,
too.
Yeah, we gotta be out of here at9 30 because we have to be at
the next place before noon.
Exactly.
So, but it's I mean, that wasjust Marco giving us the the
little intro as uh as we starteduh working our way into the town
there, and Marco again, like yousaid, uh is always just uh

(08:24):
unbelievable incredible.

SPEAKER_03 (08:26):
Uh and so then we moved from Well Teresa, you you
got you were telling sorry tointerrupt you, but you were
saying that you guys watched theGodbother movies before you came
here just to kind of see thosescenes, right?

SPEAKER_01 (08:36):
To see to to have watched the movies and then to
hear like the history of how itwas made and to see where it was
made, it was just it was just sofun.
It was so great.

SPEAKER_03 (08:49):
And to s and to be there, you know, it was okay, it
was a little surreal becausethat scene that you're
describing, Ryan, it's it's veryuh it's it's just a very
memorable scene.
And to be sitting in that samechair where Michael Corlione was
sitting was really interestingand and seeing the inside of the
building.
But the bizarre part was there'sa bunch of people chamed in this

(09:10):
place buying gelato.
I'm like, what are you doing?
This is not you shouldn't bedoing that here.
And I do understand that, asMarco was saying, that some of

(09:31):
these places need to make themoney, and I understand that,
but uh but nonetheless it wasreally surreal to be there right
in that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (09:39):
To make that walk, to make that walk, and to learn
that uh Francis Ford Coppolapaid to have it paved to make it
very unique, you know, the wholeroad where from the church that
they made that walk down.

SPEAKER_03 (09:55):
I didn't hear him say that.
He paid to have that repave.

SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
Yeah, it was so it was so amazing.

SPEAKER_03 (10:01):
And they have up on the uh they have a Francis Ford
Coppola uh art piece, I guessyou might say it, a piece of art
where he's got his cameralooking at the village or
whatever.
It's a tribute to him.
Yeah, it's really up.

SPEAKER_04 (10:12):
It's just a tribute to him, and and you know, you to
your point about all the peoplein uh Bar Vitelli today, uh
there was a Viking cruise shipand a ton of people showed up,
and it seemed like they had madearrangements with Bar Vitelli
ahead of time where we just kindof showed up.

unknown (10:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (10:31):
So like we were trying to get some coffee and
and do our thing and you had tosit down to enjoy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
But yeah, to sneak inside, it was just uh it was
just so honestly, it was justamazing, you know.
And I'm gonna go home now andI'm gonna re-watch those movies.

SPEAKER_03 (10:51):
So am I.

SPEAKER_01 (10:52):
Yeah, just to know that I was there where it all
happened.

SPEAKER_03 (10:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (10:56):
And it feels real, you know.
And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (10:59):
So where do we move?
So next year we moved to thatcafe, right?

SPEAKER_04 (11:02):
Is this where we're well no, we went, we we didn't
actually stay at the cafe, butthat's sort of the starting
point in the town there, andthen the little tiny little town
square there with the Coppolatribute thing.
Excuse me, but then we moved upto a church because the actual
church where Michael andApollonia got married is under

(11:23):
renovation right now.
So the some of the they had afew, like a couple of set
pieces, the pillows they werekneeling on during the wedding,
and the the vestments that thepriest was wearing were moved
into another church, and we haveMarco talking about that.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
And here you can see the original uh the part of the
uh the Godfather movie, like theabdication of the priest
celebrated.
Celebrated the marriage of uhMichael Corrione and Napoleon.

(14:41):
Să vă mulțumim pentru vizionare!

SPEAKER_03 (30:00):
57, we may go get a gelato downstairs.

SPEAKER_04 (30:03):
Yeah, Pat as we go out there.
Yes, listen.
Pat.

unknown (30:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (30:10):
Pat.
Yes.
What have I ever made you do totreat 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 (30:20):
Hey, but you're listening to Pat's Peeps on
iHeartRadio or toe everybody.

SPEAKER_00 (30:26):
Who's this Pat Wolf?
Who's this Pat's Peeps?
Do I know this?

SPEAKER_01 (30:30):
Pat's peeps, you know him, you know him.
We love, we love, we love.
Come join us.
Chow.