In the first novel,
"The Silence of the Lambs", by Thomas Harris, the
city of Florence was already present in Hannibal Lecter’s prison cell
in the Memphis jail in Tennessee as there was a sketch done by Lecter of
the Florence skyline, seen from Forte Belvedere.
The writer then came to the city to attend the court trial of
Pietro Pacciani, the farmer that was accused of being the Monster of Florence. It was then that Harris was the guest of
Count Niccolò Capponi and was able to better explore the city for his film.
Then
there’s the Chianti, one of Harris, Scott, Hopkins and Lecter’s
favorite places. In the trailer of the 160 million euro blockbuster,
Hopkins-Lector says:
“I will eat the liver with fava beans, accompanied by an excellent Chianti.”Hannibal’s
Florence, the city in which the second part of the book and film are
set, is an obscure and grim place. The book describes
Via dei Bardi
as a street “among the palazzos built 600 years ago by the richest
merchants in Renaissance Florence”. Next to Via dei Bardi is
Palazzo Capponi, the home of Hannibal in the film, a building from the 1500s that is frescoed with
Muses by Ghirlandaio. First Thomas Harris and the Ridley Scott: both fell in love with this palazzo.
As Hannibal Lecter admires the manuscripts in the palazzo’s library, police commissioner
Rinaldo de’ Pazzi, played by Giancarlo Giannini,
starts to question Lector’s true intentions. In Palazzo Vecchio he says
to the commissioner: “I will eat your delicious wife”. The
commissioner’s beautiful wife,
Allegra, played by Francesca Neri, succumbs to Lector’s charms in the cloister of Santa Croce, built in the 1300s.
However, Hannibal continues to think of Clarice, the FBI agent, and he buys aromatic products for her at
the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, which
is described as “one of the most beautifully scented places in the
world”, which was first opened as a medicinal plant laboratory by
Dominican monks in circa 1220.
While the goldsmith’s along
Ponte Vecchio were widely depicted in the film, so was
the Porcellino Fountain made by Pietro Tacca in 1612. Then under the
Loggia del Mercato Nuovo, where the gypsy Enrico Loverso is attacked by Hannibal himself. The blood trail left by Hannibal continues to
Via dei Serragli, Piazza Tasso, Via Villani and finally Piazza Bellosguardo: where the cannibal disappears forever.
Hannibal’s Florence
PALAZZO VECCHIOThis is where Hannibal, with the help of Doctor Fell, held conferences on art. He also committed a heinous crime here.
THE CLOISTER OF SANTA CROCEThis
is where a musical concert on Dante’s Inferno is held, and where Lector
meets Allegra de’ Pazzi, the beautiful wife of Rinaldo.
VIA DE SERRAGLI, PIAZZA TASSO, VIA VILLANI, PIAZZA BELLOSGUARDOThese are the streets through which Hannibal runs after his last murder, and where he disappears from Florence forever.
PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIANext
to the Loggia, where Savonarola was burned at the stake, the
commissioner Rinaldo de’ Pazzi decides to give Lecter, after having
revealed his true identity, his American enemy Mason
SANTA MARIA NOVELLA PHARMACYThis is where Lecter makes his perfumed purchases for Clarice: he buys almond soap at the pharmacy.
PALAZZO CAPPONIThe location of the library in which Lecter researches and where he plays for Clarice.
BUILDING OF THE DAILY NEWSPAPER “LA NAZIONE”The
newspaper attacks commissioner de’ Pazzi after Pacciani is absolved of
accusations claiming that he was indeed the Monster of Florence.
SANTA CROCE CHURCHHannibal studies both the Capponi Chapel and the Pazzi Chapel for his research. Here a gypsy sees the devil in Lecter’s eyes.
PONTE VECCHIOThis is where commissioner de’ Pazzi buys a bracelet that he will use to try to retrieve Lecter’s fingerprints.
PORCELLINO FOUNTAINHere, Doctor Lecter stabs the gypsy Enrico Loverso, who tried to snatch his bag. The man’s bloodstains the fountain.
