A grey-haired man in a dinner jacket and bow tie with a rose in his lapel, holding a cat — Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, publicity photograph, about 1972. NBC Television publicity photograph · Public domain

Al Pacino and James Caan, 1972. Photograph by Bernard Gotfryd. Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain
Al Pacino and James CaanMichael and Sonny · 1972
Mario Puzo, 1972. Photograph by Bernard Gotfryd. Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain
Mario PuzoWrote the novel · 1972
Francis Ford Coppola in 1973, between the two films. Photograph by Bernard Gotfryd. Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain
Francis Ford CoppolaDirected both films · 1973

Sicily · Trieste · New York

The Godfather

Part I · 1972Part II · 1974

One orange in a dark room. Carry it from a fruit stand on Mott Street to a bar in a Sicilian square, and see what is there now.

IThe oranges

One orange.
Carry the orange into the dark.

Dean Tavoularis, the production designer, said the oranges were there for contrast in a film without bright colours, not as a message. Oranges also turn up at Woltz’s dinner table, in the garden where the Don dies, and on a billboard before Sonny’s ambush.

The oranges

Six New York frames, all in the dark. Choose one: the orange rolls to it and lights the place.

The orange is on the edge of the table.

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Godfather and Little Italy tours in New York

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Hotel Edison

The Hotel Edison

Midtown Manhattan

The Times Square hotel where Sollozzo meets Luca Brasi in the bar.

Check rooms

IISicily

New York shadow,
Sicilian sun.

The opening cuts between the Don’s office and the wedding outside, sepia inside and golden outside. Michael hides out in the opposite light.

The light

Shop fronts with signs on Mott Street — Mott Street, 1982. Gerd Eichmann · CC BY-SA 4.0

ShadowSun

Shadow: Mott Street, New York.

Bar Vitelli on Piazza Fossia, Savoca. Pan Peter12 · Public domain
Piazza Fossia 7, Savoca
Bar Vitelli, Savoca
Michael meets Apollonia’s father at the bar.
Visitors can sit at Michael’s table and order a granita; drinks cost €3–4.
An open bar in the centre of Savoca. Sit outside and order a granita.
The sources
The Chiesa di San Nicolò, also called Santa Lucia, Savoca. Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0
Via San Nicolò, Savoca
Chiesa di San Nicolò (Santa Lucia), Savoca
Michael marries Apollonia.
Tour guides call it the Church of St Nicholas, a thirteenth-century Norman church; the doorway where the couple posed draws fans.
A short walk uphill from Bar Vitelli. Churches ask for a donation; dress for a church.
The sources
Forza d’Agrò, August 2025. Jeanne Griffin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Province of Messina
Forza d’Agrò
Michael walks into “Corleone”.
Part II’s Corleone scenes were filmed in Forza d’Agrò, Savoca and Motta Camastra, in the province of Messina, and in Acireale.
A hill village, 420 metres up: park below and walk the lanes.
The sources
Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. Andrej Antipin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Via Marina, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
The car is blown up at the villa where Michael is staying.
Guided visits take in the well, the Flag Room, the dungeons, the chapel and the Farmer’s Room, and you can sit in Coppola’s director’s chair.
By guided visit: the Thursday bus tour from Taormina includes the entry.
The sources

Travel Taormina

Godfather private tour from Taormina

Savoca and Forza d’Agrò · Daily, 9am or 3pm · from €195 per car (up to 8)

Four hours by private car with a driver: Bar Vitelli and the wedding church in Savoca, then Forza d’Agrò. Pick-up in Taormina, Giardini Naxos, Castelmola or Letojanni.

Book the tour

Travel Taormina

The Godfather bus tour: Castello degli Schiavi and Savoca

From Taormina · Thursdays, 8.30am · adults €60, children €40

A guided visit inside the Corleone villa, with Coppola’s director’s chair, then Bar Vitelli and the church of Santa Lucia in Savoca.

Book the tour

IIIThe family line

Six strings.
Pull the string to lift a place.

Part II follows young Vito from Corleone to Little Italy. One family’s line, from a hill village to a Queens cemetery.

Six places hang in the dark. Pull a string.

Pull the third string, the island, for the surprise.

IVChristmas

Christmas on Fifth Avenue,
dinner in the Bronx.

A dark glass tower on Fifth Avenue — Fifth Avenue at 51st Street, 2021: Olympic Tower stands where Best & Co was. Epicgenius · CC BY-SA 4.0

Best & Co.

Fifth Avenue at 51st Street · Gone

Michael and Kay go Christmas shopping outside Best & Co.; the store had closed about a year before filming.

The building was torn down soon after for Aristotle Onassis’s Olympic Tower.

The sources

Radio City Music Hall

1260 Avenue of the Americas at 50th Street

Michael and Kay are watching The Bells of St Mary’s at Radio City when news of the shooting breaks.

The 2026 Christmas Spectacular runs from 4 November 2026 to 4 January 2027: 230 performances, the most since the show began in 1933.

The sources

An elevated subway station over White Plains Road — White Plains Road under the elevated line at Gun Hill Road, the Bronx, 2015. Adam Moss · CC BY-SA 2.0

Louis’ Restaurant

3531 White Plains Road, the Bronx

The Luna Restaurant played Louis’ Restaurant, where Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey over the veal; it is now a fabric shop.

Tin ceilings survive inside, with the old tiles under the carpet.

A shop now: look from White Plains Road.

The sources

The plain stone front of the old cathedral on Mulberry Street — St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, Mulberry Street. Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0

The church

VThe baptism

A christening,
cut with killings.

Michael stands godfather at a christening while his enemies are killed across the city. The christening itself was filmed inside. Sofia Coppola played the baby.

The church exterior in the sequence was filmed at Mount Loretto on Staten Island; that church burned soon after filming and was rebuilt behind its saved façade.

In the church, Mulberry Street.

The sources

Take A Walk, via Go City

Catacombs by Candlelight

Mulberry Street, Manhattan · Mon, Thu–Sun, 10am–4pm

Ninety minutes under St Patrick’s Old Cathedral, where the baptism was filmed. Not wheelchair accessible.

See the tour

Rows of headstones with the Manhattan skyline beyond — Calvary Cemetery, Queens, with Manhattan behind, 2025. Antony-22 · CC BY-SA 4.0

VIQueens

Calvary,
with Manhattan behind.

Don Corleone’s funeral was filmed at First Calvary Cemetery; the place where the Corleone monument stood can still be found. A location scout found the spot by a grave marked Daly.

An active cemetery: visit quietly, in opening hours.

The sources

Where it is now

15 places you can visit. The Corleone compound on Longfellow Avenue, Staten Island, is private homes: it is named here and not pinned.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An open bar in the centre of Savoca. Sit outside and order a granita.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A short walk uphill from Bar Vitelli. Churches ask for a donation; dress for a church.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A hill village, 420 metres up: park below and walk the lanes.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. By guided visit: the Thursday bus tour from Taormina includes the entry.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open when an exhibition is on; the waterfront front is always there to see.

Bar Vitelli on Piazza Fossia, Savoca. Pan Peter12 · Public domain
Piazza Fossia 7, Savoca
1 · Bar Vitelli, Savoca
At Bar Vitelli in Savoca, Michael meets Apollonia, the innkeeper’s daughter.
An open bar in the centre of Savoca. Sit outside and order a granita.
The sources
The Chiesa di San Nicolò, also called Santa Lucia, Savoca. Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0
Via San Nicolò, Savoca
2 · Chiesa di San Nicolò (Santa Lucia), Savoca
Michael marries Apollonia at the church of Santa Lucia in Savoca, within walking distance of Bar Vitelli.
A short walk uphill from Bar Vitelli. Churches ask for a donation; dress for a church.
The sources
Forza d’Agrò, August 2025. Jeanne Griffin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Province of Messina
3 · Forza d’Agrò
The church seen as Michael first walks into “Corleone” is in Forza d’Agrò.
A hill village, 420 metres up: park below and walk the lanes.
The sources
Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. Andrej Antipin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Via Marina, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
4 · Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia
The villa where Michael is staying when his car is blown up is the Castello degli Schiavi, an eighteenth-century castle about six miles south of Taormina.
By guided visit: the Thursday bus tour from Taormina includes the entry.
The sources
The Salone degli Incanti and its clock tower, the old fish market, Trieste, 2017. Fred Romero · CC BY 2.0
Riva Nazario Sauro 1, Trieste
5 · Salone degli Incanti, Trieste
Part II’s interiors of young Vito arriving in New York were filmed in the Salone degli Incanti, a former fish market on the Riva Nazario Sauro.
Open when an exhibition is on; the waterfront front is always there to see.
The sources

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