Pazzi | Florence | Thomas Harris | Hotel Lungarno

"We filmed inside the Palazzo Vecchio - very grand, very big, very oppressive. As Lecter, I killed two people inside the Palazzo Vecchio. I sliced a cop named Pazzi's throat out, disemboweled him, and threw him out the window into the Palazzo Vecchio, which was very nice. I enjoyed that. Thomas Harris [author of Hannibal] visited while we were shooting. He'd lived with these characters so long, that to see the sequence of Lecter throwing Pazzi to his death was something he relished. We were on the balcony of the Palazzo Vecchio where a member of the original Pazzi family, Francesco, was executed during the uprising, the rebellions. There was a lot of butchery back in the 15th, 16th centuries. Terrible things happened there. How did I feel? Kind of depressed, because a lot of people were burned at the stake in Florence in the 16th century. We were standing at a place where Savonarola [the 15th-century religious leader] was burned at the stake. They just roasted these people alive and the mobs cheered. It was a pretty brutal time. Florence is a beautiful city to walk around. But it's pretty haunted, built on a huge mountain of bloodshed and horror. But it's still an interesting, beautiful city."

ANTHONY HOPKINS' FLORENCE ESSENTIALS

LODGING
Grand Hotel Villa Cora, $160-$1,100;
011-39-055-2298451
Hotel Lungarno, $170-$505;
011-39-055-27261
Westin Excelsior Hotel, $275-$900;
011-39-055-264201

DINING
Gelateria Vivoli, gelato shop;
$2-$3; 011-39-055-292334
Caffè Rivoire, Italian; $19-$46;
011-39-055-214412
Coco Lezzone, Italian; $20-$45;
011-39-055-287178
Gelateria Ermini, gelato shop; $2-$3;
011-39-055-244464
Gilli, Italian; $14-$42; 011-39-055-213896
Mamma Gina, Italian; $45-$75;
011-39-055-2396009
Osteria de' Benci, Italian; $19-$30;