Montalbano literary and cinematographic places

The writer Andrea Camilleri

Il commissario Montalbano is an Italian television series produced since 1999 and broadcast by Rai. Based on the novels of Andrea Camilleri, it tells the story of Salvo Montalbano, police commissioner in the imaginary Sicilian town of Vigata. As of 2016, the TV series has seen 10 seasons and 28 episodes made.

150px-Luca_Zingaretti_2010
Luca Zingaretti interpreter of Salvo Montalbano

Much of the series is shot in the province of Ragusa, despite the places described by Andrea Camilleri in his novels are the transposition of localities in the Grigentino territory (Vigata is Porto Empedocle, the capital Montelusa is Agrigento); the exteriors of some episodes, such as that of la Mànnara (the Fornace Penna), were shot in Sampieri, the Vigata police station building is the town hall of Scicli. Some scenes of the first and fifth season were also shot in the province of Trapani (Custonaci and the Egadi islands).

Other sequences were filmed in the squares of Ragusa Ibla, Modica, Donnafugata castle, at the port of Donnalucata, in the countryside of Ragusa (Chiaramonte Gulfi) and Syracuse, a Marina di Ragusa, Comiso, Santa Croce Camerina, Vittoria, Scoglitti, Brucoli, and in other sites of south-eastern Sicily.

Salvo Montalbano's house in the fictitious Marinella, actually located in Punta Secca, a hamlet of Santa Croce Camerina.

The seaside hotel where Montalbano is hosted on the island of I raise, in the episode The sense of touch, is actually the trap of Scopello, located on the edge of the Zingaro reserve, in the north-western extremity of the Sicilian region.

The literary and cinematographic places of Montalbano were included on 16/10/2014 in the regional map of the places of identity and memory of Sicily (Book: Symbolic Spaces). The territory involved in the recognition is that of the former Province of Ragusa, in reality, as we have seen, the places concerned cover a much larger territory. Therefore this card also reports other places that are also of particular tourist interest

Some of the places of tourist interest in the former Province of Ragusa

Municipality of Santa Croce Camerina

"The House of Montalbano "(Dry Point)

Municipality of Ragusa

"The Church of Vigata "(Cathedral of San Giorgio in Ibla)
Episode: The Terracotta Dog (Grotta delle Trabacche)
Episode The smell of the night - Rag. Gargano (Ragusa Ibla Conversation Circle
Episode: The shape of water - "House of the Engineer Luparello" (Villa Criscione)
Episode: The shape of the water (Eremo della Giubiliana)
Episode: The arancini of Montalbano (Palazzo La Rocca - Ragusa)
Episode: The arancini of Montalbano (Church of S. Maria delle Scale - Ragusa)
"Vigata "(Ibla)
Episode: The trip to Tindari - "The House of Don Balduccio Sinagra "(Donnafugata Castle)
Episode: Cat and goldfinch (Lungomare Mediterraneo - Marina di Ragusa)

Municipality of Scicli

"Vigata Police Station "(Town Hall of Scicli)
Episode: The shape of the water (Lungomare Donnalucata)
La Mannara "(Fornace Penna - Sampieri)

Municipality of Modica

Episode The terracotta dog (Palazzo Polara - Modica)
Episode: Trip to Tindari (Cathedral of San Giorgio Modica)
Episode: Artist's Touch - (Villa De Naro Papa) (place in the georeferencing phase)
Episode The patience of the spider - (Larderia - Cava d'Ispica)

Municipality of Comiso

Episode: The arancini of Montalbano (Piazza Diana - Comiso)
Episode: The Young Montalbano (Churchyard Basilica Maria SS. Annunziata - Comiso)

Municipality of Vittoria

Episode: The terracotta dog (Piazza Matteotti - Vittoria)

Municipality of Chiaramonte Gulfi

Various episodes (Villa Fegotto - Chiaramonte Gulfi)

Other places of tourist interest outside the former Province of Ragusa

Episode: The sense of touch (Tonnara di Scopello - Trapani)
Episode: The sense of touch - Levanza Island (Rabbit Beach - Lampedusa)
Episode: The sense of touch Isola di Levanza (Favignana)
Episode the Thief of Snacks (Grotta Mangiapane di Custonaci)
Episode: The turn of the buoy - (Tonnara del Secco - San Vito Lo Capo)
Episode: The turning point - (Chapel of Santa Crescenzia - San Vito Lo Capo)
Episode: The Trip to Tindari (Sanctuary of the Black Madonna - Tindari)
Episode: The turn of the buoy (Piazza Duomo - Syracuse)
Episode: The turn of the buoy (Brucoli - Syracuse)
Vigata Prison (Convent of San Tommaso - Noto)
Episode: A delicate matter (Palazzo Nicolaci - Noto)
Episode: A delicate matter (Cathedral of San Nicolò - Noto)
Episode: A delicate matter (Palazzo Ducezio - Noto)
Episode: The smell of the night (Tonnara di Capo Passero)
Episode: The smell of the night ("Castello di Portopalo" - Villa Bruno di Belmonte)
Episode: The shape of water (Marzamemi)

Card insertion: Heritage Sicily

Note : The population of the cards of the Heritage database proceeds in incremental phases: cataloging, georeferencing, insertion of information and images. In order to enrich the informative contents, further contributions are welcome, if you wish you can contribute by providing information and / or images also through the facebook group "Heritage Sicily"

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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library

N. Prog. 201

Bene: Literary and cinematographic places of Montalbano

Approval date: 16-10-2014

Location: Provincial territory

Description

The film adaptations dedicated to the investigations of Commissioner Montalbano, taken from the stories of Andrea Camilleri, have disseminated and exported important aspects of Sicilian culture, making known places in Sicily, for various aspects of considerable beauty and cultural interest, today a destination for visitors.

Displayed and documented through a skilful direction, these places, together with typical aspects of Sicilian identity and culture, have become a memory present in the imagination of Italians: real symbolic spaces in which material and immaterial events and values come into play. , which pertain to Sicily and being Sicilian. The author of Commissioner Montalbano, Andrea Camilleri, has staged his stories in an imaginary world, the result of the union of the most important corners of places such as Porte Empedocle, Sciacca, Menfi and other cities of the Agrigento area. The places of the literary work (Vigata, Marinella, Montelusa, la Mannara, have been recreated by the director Alberto Sironi and by the set designer Luciano Ricceri mostly in the province of Ragusa. Other scenes were also shot in San Vito Lo Capo (TP) , Tindari (ME), Favignana and Syracuse.

Ragusa, Scicli, Modica, Comiso, Vittoria, Ispica and Santa Croce are the municipalities that, together with many private residences, have enriched, with their indisputable architectural beauty, the scenography of the episodes of the successful television series, which is a concentration of colors , flavors and traditions typical of Sicily.

Footnotes

Andrea Camilleri was born in 1925 in Porto Empedocle, Sicily. He is universally considered one of the best Italian crime writers. His debut in fiction is in 1978, when his first book, entitled The course of things, is published for a fee: it is a failure, which in any case does not discourage Camilleri's literary ambitions. In 1980 he published with Garzanti A thread of smoke, the first of a series of novels set in Sicily between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thanks to which he won his first literary prize, in Gela. In 1992, after a hiatus of 12 years, he resumes writing, publishing The hunting season, for Sellerio Editore. This is the Sicilian author's first real success, later confirmed with The Shape of Water, a detective novel starring Inspector Montalbano, certainly the luckiest character to come out of Camilleri's pen. From 1995 to 2003 the works of the narrator from Porto Empedocle became a phenomenon of custom, thanks to the great success of titles such as Preston's Brewer and La mossa del Cavallo. The television series of Commissario Montalbano consecrates him to the great public, opening the doors to the vast audience of the small screen. In recent years, Camilleri's prolific writer activity has continued, with other novels centered on the figure of Inspector Montalbano (among others, La vampa d'agosto and The sand track) and other popular works such as Il tailleur grigio and Il casellante.

Author Profile: Laura Mattaliano

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44 Corso Aldo Moro The House of Montalbano" (dry tip), Santa Croce Camerina, RG 97017, Sicily

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