Where it was filmed 'The Leopard'

“If we want everything to stay the same, everything must change”
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

In the neighbourhood of the Kalsa, in the centre of Palermo in 1860, the redshirts meet the Bourbon army. After the entrance to piazza Magione, men are shot in piazza di San Giovanni Decollato.

Palazzo Salina, Don Fabrizio’s family home, was inspired by Villa Lampedusa in San Lorenzo Colli, however Visconti chose Villa Boscogrande, an eighteenth-century noble residence on the foothills of Monte Pellegrino, whose façade is embellished with an imposing horseshoe staircase. The recital of the rosary in the drawing room in the first scene is interrupted by the news that a man has been killed. Shortly after, in the octagonal room, the Prince orders Padre Pirrone to accompany him to Palermo.

The Salina summer residence on the estate of Donnafugata (in the novel, inspired by Palma di Montechiaro) was built in Ciminna (PA). To reach it, the princes must cross Piana degli Albanesi, but are stopped at a checkpoint near the Lake of the same name. Their arrival at Donnafugata is greeted with the sound of bells from the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena where, immediately after, the princes attend Holy Mass. The exterior of the palace (adjacent to the Church in the novel) was recreated by raising a sumptuous façade and replacing the flooring of the square. The interiors were shot in the piano nobile of Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia, Castelli Romani: Tancredi meets Angelica in the summer dining room; the bedroom of Agostino Chigi Albani is Don Fabrizio’s room; the Prince’s study is the inimitable “sala delle belle” whose walls are decorated with portraits of the most beautiful women of Roman aristocracy.
The epic scene where Angelica waltzes with Don Fabrizio was shot at Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi in Palermo, mostly in the sala degli specchi. The terrace where the guests remain for dinner is in the same palace and overlooks piazza Sant’Anna, where the church of the same name can be glimpsed in the background.