moresueandstevestravels: 16-23 MAY 2016: SICILY: MONTALBANO

'Sicilians build things like they will last forever and eat like they will die tomorrow.' (Plato)

'To have seen Italy without seeing Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.' (Goethe)

Inspector Montalbano:

One of the main reasons for visiting Sicily was the stunning scenery shown on BBC4 over the past few years in the Italian series 'Inspector Montalbano' and 'The Young Montalbano', both based on Andrea Camilleri's novels. Much of the action in both series is set in the fictional town of Vigata which is, in fact, an amalgam of the actual towns of Scicli (where we were staying) and Ragusa; while Montalbano's home is filmed in the small sea side village of Punta Secca.

It never crossed our minds that we would see any of the filming but amazingly, on our first morning stroll around Scicli, as we walked past the Municipio, which doubles as the fictional police station, there were the production lorries......

.......and the production crew,

all of which drew an increasingly large crowd of onlookers as word spread.

It wasn't always easy to tell who was an actual policeman and who an actor.

But there was no doubt about Agente Catarella (Angelo Russo) .......

....... though whether Catarella would have been able to master a mobile is open to question.

There wasn't any actual filming going on that we could see, and Luca Zingaretti (Montalbano) never appeared, but the actors were obviously happy to join their fans for photos .......

.... and 'Mimi Augello' (Cesare Bocci) was soon surrounded by adoring, female, fans.

Inside the Town Hall we visited the Mayor's office, the film set of the Commissioner of Montelusa's office .....

......with its spectacular view onto the square below and beyond

Catarella's reception area...

Of course we had to visit Montalbano's spectacular seafront home in Punta Secca (the fictional Marinella).

It is now a bed and breakfast and is situated just off the main square.

We had arrived on a sunny Sunday afternoon and there were plenty of visitors and cars. Just like everyone else, we got a cool drink in the cafe in the square before setting off to stroll along the beach to get the best views of the famous balcony (where Montalbano invariably settles himself to eat just before his phone rings and he has to leave his delicious pasta), the sea from which he emerges after his daily swim, and the lighthouse.

This all took quite a while and we never noticed any activity in the square UNTIL we got back to find a film crew set up, all the cars except ours gone and a parking ticket on our windscreen.