By Silvia Marchetti, CNN
When Frances Ford Coppola cast Enza Trimarchi as an extra in “The Godfather” in 1971, the 22-year-old seamstress had no idea she was taking part in something that would change her hometown and define it for decades.
Trimarchi appeared in a key Sicilian sequence: the wedding of mafia-boss-in-waiting Michael Corleone and Apollonia Vitelli, filmed in the hilltop village of Savoca. For her, the arrival of Coppola and the film’s star Al Pacino, marked the end of adolescence in a place where life had changed little for centuries.
“I was approached by one of Coppola’s crewmen who asked if I wanted to work,” Trimarchi, now 76, tells CNN. “So many people from all over the province had come to be selected. I was enthusiastic, so young. There was nothing in Savoca, we had no running water and drank the cistern’s rainwater. We didn’t even have a television.”
More than 50 years later, Savoca — where fewer than 100 people live — remains closely tied to the film. Of the Sicilian locations used for Michael Corleone’s exile, it is the most visited.
The village has embraced that association, even though the tourism it brings has transformed daily life and contributed to the romanticization of mafia stereotypes.
Surrounded by citrus and olive groves, Savoca now receives large numbers of daytrippers between April and October. Cruise passengers arriving in the Sicilian port of Messina often join guided “Il Padrino” — “The Godfather” in Italian — tours that include the tiny settlement as well as the nearby Castello Degli Schiavi, a 19-century villa in nearby Fiumefreddo, where Pacino’s character stayed.
Trimarchi says she is sometimes asked by tour operators to meet visitors, sign autographs, and speak about the film.
“It can be exhausting, and I do it for free while so many other people, also in this village, have made tons of money thanks to ‘The Godfather,’” she said.
Honking horns, angry tourists
In the village itself, change has come gradually. A small number of bars, B&Bs — including one called Il Padrino — and souvenir shops now operate alongside older buildings that remain largely unchanged in their medieval layout.
In the low season, Savoca remains quiet. Its narrow stone streets and arched passageways connect homes built into the hillside.
The film’s legacy is most visible along the route from the church to the main square, where visitors take photos recreating scenes from the wedding sequence, and Bar Vitelli, where Michael Corleone asks to marry Apollonia.
Locals note that Savoca had some limited tourism even before the film, largely from nearby coastal areas, but say it was not economically significant.
“Since the cruisers arrived some 20 years ago the tourists are overwhelming,” says Vincenzo Pasquale, 72, who was cast as an extra at age 18 to play one of the sons of signor Vitelli, the owner of Bar Vitelli. “On some days they cram the streets and I need to honk the horn to drive through. Some get angry.”
Pasquale said interest in the film has increased over time rather than faded.
Bar Vitelli, located in a 15th-century building, has become the village’s main tourist stop and serves visitors throughout the day. During peak season, access is sometimes restricted due to crowding. The bar’s owners have opened a boutique hotel upstairs.
Filming in Savoca lasted only a few weeks in the summer of 1971, but remains a defining memory for those involved.
Trimarchi recalls Coppola displaying a sweet tooth, eating up to 10 granita, a Sicilian dessert made from crushed ice, alongside a sugar-coated zuccarata cookie. “He loved them, I guess he had never tasted one before or maybe it gave him solace from the heat,” she said.
The granita, she recalls, were made with water from the same well which supplied