Paradiso

This post will be my last about Sicily. We just had a ball there and I want to be sure we remember all the special parts. We drove across the middle of the island to get back to the airport. We took a roundabout path that led us to the teeny Sicilian town of Palazzo Adriano way up in the hills. It ended up being several hours out of our way (oops), but that is kind of what it made it even more fun.

Palazzo Adriano is the town that inspired the film Cinema Paradiso and also where it was filmed. Kirk and I saw this movie together back in 1996, the year we started dating. Back then it was playing at the NC Art Museum on the lawn and we loved the Italian film (even with subtitles!) So discovering the film's real town 13 years later was powerful - even if a little off the beaten path! Here is the film trailer in case you are interested in this movie about the movies....
We were driving right along on our way to the Cinema Paradiso town, twisting and turning through rugged mountain roads. Connor was just waking up from a nap and this is what we saw...it definitely snapped Connor awake and had us all in hysterics. We felt like WE were in the movies!

Connor was laughing so hard that she cried! She couldn't believe the cows and horses in the road taking their sweet time moseying along.

We arrived in Palazzo Adriano joyful and giddy from our eventful travel. We hopped out of the car in this town that couldn't have been bigger than 10 blocks. We started to recognize some of the movie spots and found the plaque commemorating the Academy Award winning film.

There was a small city market going on with lots of leather jackets and food stuff. We found a soft stuffed elephant for 2 euros and just had to have him. We named him "Paradiso" and snuggled him close.

There were men everywhere relaxing in the afternoon sun. I have no idea where all the women were in the village. It was a clear omission and I was a little self conscious about being the only lady around. But at the same time the men were just adorable. They spoke not a lick of English, but of course they all had to dote on Connor in Italian.

We were only in our Cinema Paradiso town for a few minutes. But it was enough to breathe it all in. So we turned around and headed back. And wouldn't you know we had sheep escorting us out of town?!?!

Click here for full album photos from our time in Palazzo Adriano