CULTURE "In the film,
Hannibal is curator of the Capponi
Library and lives in the grand Palazzo Capponi. It's still there, a
great big library, full of manuscripts that go back to the 12th,
13th centuries. Fascinating place. It's a big house, full of books
and manuscripts. The owners have letters from Dante to Henry XIII
and popes from centuries past. All kinds of letters preserved from
ancient kings of England and
France when the wars and the great
troubles were going on. Some of the descendents of the Capponi
family still live there to this day. Hannibal Lecter becomes the
curator of that museum. So in the story, that's where I live."
SHOPPING "In the film, I'm seen walking around marketplaces
at night, stalking people. Tourists flock to
Florence all year long
to admire the monuments and art treasures, but they also come to
taste the
everyday life and buy the goods unique to Florence. Leather goods,
sold in fine shops or in the street markets of Il Mercato Nuovo or
in the Piazza
San Lorenzo or along the Ponte Vecchio, are the best
to be found. With the value of the dollar so strong, everything
seems to be a bargain. Tuscany also has fine linens and the
centuries-handed-down art
of
ricami or embroidery. The finest store in all of
Italy is
that of Loretta Caponi, whose family has done linens for the
tables, boudoirs, and palaces of the kings and queens of
Europe for
the past centuries."
LUNCH "The production had organized a location as the
permanent site for our catered lunch inside the 500-year-old Villa
Corsini. Imagine sitting amongst cavernous frescoed walls,
water-damaged from years of the flooding waters of the Arno, and
where one of the most important Florentine families held court. An
exclusive 'Hannibal' trattoria with never a bad meal, of course. We
were also entertained at an 18th-century, fully restored villa
between town and the Piazzale Michelangelo, rented by the producers
Dino and Martha De Laurentiis. The De Laurentiis' favorite
restaurants include Osteria de' Benci, Caffè Rivoire in the Piazza
Signoria, and Gilli in the Piazza della Repubblica, as well as the
famous
gelaterias, Gelateria Vivoli and Gelateria
Ermini."