Visit Sicily
Palazzo Adriano, the tourism guide
Palazzo Adriano, Sicily
The tourism authority’s page on the town: the square, the fountain, the churches and the Museum of Cinema. Pictured: Piazza Umberto I, 2014.
Read the guideNuovo Cinema Paradiso · Giuseppe Tornatore · 1988
Cinema Paradiso
Giancaldo, the village in the film, does not exist. Its square is in Palazzo Adriano, in the beam below, and its cinema was a set that is gone.
Sources
Set the flats
Build Giancaldo
Sicily Lifestyle says the village was built as a mountain town above Bagheria, with its scenes shot in Palazzo Adriano, Castelbuono, Cefalù and elsewhere. Set each real place into the empty frame.
Sources
0 of 8 flats set · 0 of 4 towns used
The stage is empty. Pick a flat from the shelf to set it.
The frame is empty.
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Cinema Paradiso location tours
Palermo and Palazzo Adriano
Live marketplace results for tours of the film’s Sicilian locations. Check which stops each one covers.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
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The ruin
Not the war
The movie-locations.com list says the war-damaged streets where Toto walks with his mother are here. The town is now a ghost town, destroyed by an earthquake in 1968, not by wartime bombing.
Italy for Movies says it is the street where Totò and his mother walk, and that the 1968 Belice earthquake destroyed the town, not war.
Summer in Italy says the ghost town served as the war-damaged Giancaldo, about 20 miles from Palazzo Adriano.
A ruined town. The sources do not say how far it can be entered, so check local access before going.
Sources
Lights up
Go and find the pieces
The square, the street, both churches and the pier are open to walk. The cinema was a set and is gone. The museum is listed without a pin.
Sources
Where it is now
7 places you can pin in Palazzo Adriano, Cefalù, Castelbuono and Poggioreale, plus the museum.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The town’s main square, open to all. The Town Hall, the fountain and two churches stand round it.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public street. The cinema was a set and is gone; the photograph shows the octagonal fountain in the square it overlooked.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working church on the square. Respect services; the steps are public.
Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A church on the square, opposite the Assunta. Open for services.
Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano, August 2014. Epifania Lo Presti · CC BY-SA 3.0 Palazzo Adriano · Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano, province of Palermo
Piazza Umberto I
Visit Sicily calls Umberto Square one of the main film sets for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
The town’s main square, open to all. The Town Hall, the fountain and two churches stand round it.
Sources
The octagonal fountain in Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano. Donat66 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Palazzo Adriano · Via Nino Bixio, Palazzo Adriano
Via Nino Bixio
Wikipedia says the Paradiso Cinema was fictional, built as a set on Via Nino Bixio, overlooking an octagonal Baroque fountain dating from 1608.
A public street. The cinema was a set and is gone; the photograph shows the octagonal fountain in the square it overlooked.
Sources
Chiesa di Maria Santissima Assunta, Palazzo Adriano, September 2023. Giacomo Palermo · CC BY-SA 4.0 Palazzo Adriano · Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano
Chiesa di Maria Santissima Assunta
The movie-locations.com list says local women dry tomato paste on wooden boards outside this church, and the teenage Toto later sits on its steps deciding whether to leave for Rome.
A working church on the square. Respect services; the steps are public.
Sources
Chiesa di Maria Santissima del Lume, Palazzo Adriano, October 2013. Epifania Lo Presti · CC BY-SA 3.0 Palazzo Adriano · Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano
Chiesa di Santa Maria del Lume
The movie-locations.com list says the adult Toto attends Alfredo’s funeral here, near the end of the film. It describes a church with a clock tower opposite the Assunta.
A church on the square, opposite the Assunta. Open for services.
Sources
Stay
A room by the sea.
A hotel in Cefalù, in the same town as the old pier, with its own cove.
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Hotel Kalura
Hotel Kalura
Cefalù, Sicily
A sea-view hotel on Via V. Cavallaro in Cefalù, with a rock-cut path from its terrace down to Caldura Bay. Pictured: the old pier at Cefalù, 2007.
Check roomsGo there
Find your way.
The tourism guide to the town, and tours of the film’s Sicilian locations.
Visit Sicily
Palazzo Adriano, the tourism guide
Palazzo Adriano, Sicily
The tourism authority’s page on the town: the square, the fountain, the churches and the Museum of Cinema. Pictured: Piazza Umberto I, 2014.
Read the guideViator · Ad / affiliate
Cinema Paradiso location tours
Palermo and Palazzo Adriano
Live marketplace results for tours of the film’s Sicilian locations. Check which stops each one covers.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursViator · Ad / affiliate
Cefalù walking tours
Cefalù, Sicily
Live marketplace results for walks in Cefalù, where the old pier and sea gate are. Check each route.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
No dates yet.
Nothing dated for the film is listed at these places now.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The archive
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
8 of 8 places · 8 of 8 stories
Piazza Umberto I
Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano, province of Palermo
Giancaldo’s square
Palazzo Adriano’s main square plays the square of the invented village of Giancaldo.
Via Nino Bixio
Via Nino Bixio, Palazzo Adriano
The Paradiso, built
The cinema is a set built on Via Nino Bixio; it does not survive.
Chiesa di Maria Santissima Assunta
Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano
Tomato paste on the boards
Women dry tomato paste outside the church, and Toto sits on its steps deciding whether to leave.
Chiesa di Santa Maria del Lume
Piazza Umberto I, Palazzo Adriano
Alfredo’s funeral
The adult Toto attends Alfredo’s funeral at the church opposite the Assunta.
Museum of Cinema
Municipal Museum, Palazzo Adriano
The museum
The Municipal Museum keeps a section for the film, with items and photographs.
Cefalù old pier
Porta Marina and Molo Vecchio, Cefalù
Rain at the open-air screening
A showing of Ulysses on the old pier is broken up by a summer storm.
Castello dei Ventimiglia
Piazza Castello, Castelbuono
Toto’s school
A fourteenth-century castle in Castelbuono plays Toto’s school.
Old Poggioreale
Poggioreale Vecchia, province of Trapani
The walk in the ruins
Toto and his mother walk through war-damaged streets that are really an earthquake ruin.