`New Moon` rising: `Twilight` fans swarm Volterra, Italy

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To capitalize on New
Moon's popularity, the
Volterra tourism board
sponsors Twilight-themed
weekends that include a
reception with "blood."
By Don Faust,
www.DonFaustPhoto, for
USA TODAY
'New Moon' rising: 'Twilight' fans swarm
Volterra, Italy
Updated | Comment
| Recommend
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By Chris Gray Faust, USA TODAY
VOLTERRA, Italy — On a college break, American teenager
Kiersten Kunke and her friend, Canadian Stephanie Regier,
plot their version of an Italian Grand Tour. On their must-see
list: Florence, Venice, Rome — and Volterra?
This small Tuscan city with an ancient Etruscan history has
become a cult destination among traveling teenagers and
people in their 20s (not to mention some vampire-loving
mothers), thanks to the phenomenon Twilight. In the series'
second book, author Stephenie Meyer set a crucial scene
between heroine Bella and her undead soul mate Edward in
Volterra — and, as The Twilight Saga: New Moon prepares to
open as a movie Nov. 20, fans are dying to retrace the
tormented couple's steps.
PHOTO GALLERY: A 'New Moon' tour of Volterra
READ MORE: It's 'Twilight' time in the Pacific Northwest
Enlarge
By Don Faust,
www.DonFaustPhoto, for USA
TODAY
Universal draw: New Moon fans come from around
the world to Volterra.
IF YOU GO
Backpackers carrying battered copies of New Moon duck
through the narrow alleyways of the walled city, which has
about 12,000 residents. Souvenir shops hawk calendars,
mugs and T-shirts bearing the tousled likeness of actor
Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward in the films.
And whether fans are Team Edward or Team Jacob (Bella's
two love interests in New Moon), all want to visit the Piazza dei
Priori, the town's square anchored by a clock tower where the
Volturi — a coven of elite vampires that plays a pivotal role in
the upcoming movie — reside.
Weather
Getting there: Volterra is 2 1/2 hours by bus
from Florence. Montepulciano has a train
station, but it's a bus ride or steep walk to the
city center. To get to both, rent a car.
Where to stay: Hotel La Locanda in Volterra
has $132 doubles (hotel-lalocanda.com).
Outside the city gates, Ostello della Gioventu
offers a 5% discount on a two-night stay if you
arrive with a Twilight book. Dorms, $22-$25;
rooms, $59-$74 (youthhostelvolterra.com).
Albergo Duomo was a staging area during
filming in Montepulciano. Doubles, $133-$163.
(albergoduomomontepulciano.it). La Locanda di
San Francesco is a boutique hotel with
countryside views and a wine bar where cast
members ate. Rooms, $290
(locandasanfrancesco.com).
Where to eat: Splurge on Volterran specialties
such as wild boar at Del Duca (entrees $13$28). In Montepulciano, cheerful Osteria dell
Aquacheta serves fresh pasta and meat from
local farms (entrees $7-$21).
What to do: New Moon walking tours are held
twice weekly for $37 (weekly in winter),
reservations required. Monthly three-day, twonight packages with fan activities start at $399
(www.volterratur.it).
Information: volterratur.it; montepulciano.com
Kunke, 19, found Volterra on a map as soon as she read New
Moon. "I was like, I have to go there," says the native of
Portland, Ore. "It was just one of those things I had to do."
Long overshadowed by its more touristy Tuscan neighbor, San
Gimignano, Volterra is capitalizing on the interest. The tourism
office has created a themed map of the city, encouraged fan
meet-ups, and this spring introduced a New Moon weekend
package that includes a walking tour called "Hot on the Trail of
Edward and Bella," Twilight merchandise and even a dramatic
re-enactment of one of the book's scenes.
"It was a real surprise for us. We didn't expect it," says Paolo
Paterni, head of the Volterra Tourism Board. "Volterra is a slow
city. You have to live in it in a slow way. Our main aim is to
direct (visitors) in the city without overrunning it."
Montepulciano: Ready for its close-up
Volterra officials lobbied to have New Moon filmed there. But
elation turned to embarrassment when the film producers
picked Montepulciano, another walled Tuscan town about 70
miles southeast of Volterra, for the five-day shoot in May.
Known for its wine, Montepulciano is a medieval town straight
out of central casting, with steep streets and stunning hillside
views. While little English is heard in Volterra, Montepulciano
has long drawn day trippers from Florence and Siena. Parts of
Under the Tuscan Sun were filmed here.
With its own clock tower, Montepulciano's city hall bears a startling resemblance to Volterra's Palazzo dei Priori.
The filmmakers built a fake fountain in the Piazza Grande to accommodate Meyer's story line. (There isn't one in
Volterra's square, either.)
The New Moon shoot elevated Montepulciano from guidebooks to tabloids as media descended upon the town,
hoping for candids of the young cast enjoying la dolce vita, particularly Pattinson and his co-star Kristen Stewart.
La Locanda di San Francesco, a boutique hotel, has an expansive wine bar that owner Cinzia Caporali closed
so Pattinson and his bodyguard could enjoy a private lunch. A few days later, director Chris Weitz and his family
stopped in.
"It's crazy," Caporali said at the time, noting that fans booked hotel rooms for miles around the city. "Thousands
of teenagers everywhere."
Now the furor has died down, Caporali says. While visitors know that New Moon was shot there, they aren't
picking Montepulciano because of it, she says.
'Part of a dark tradition'
Perhaps that's because Volterra is doing everything possible to make sure that New Moon is synonymous with
their city — even if it isn't the one on screen. The town sent a team of colorfully dressed flag throwers to the
Rome Film Festival last month, where they walked the red carpet behind the movie's actors.
Not all cities would embrace vampires, particularly one with as proud a history. One of the 12 Etruscan power
centers from the sixth to fourth century B.C. built on an economy of alabaster, iron and salt, Volterra boasts one
of the largest collections of that civilization's artifacts at the Guarnacci Etruscan Museum. A Roman amphitheater
outside the town walls dates to the first century, and its medieval center remains one of the best preserved in
Italy.
On his twice-weekly New Moon walking tours, guide Vincenzo Riolo sandwiches history between the fiction. "We
try to connect the vampires to the Etruscans," he says just outside Porta all' Arco, a city gate built in the fourth
century B.C. "It's part of the dark tradition of the city."
But of course, it's the fanged ones that the teenagers want to see. The only English speakers in a group of
Italian Twilight fans, Kunke and Regier, of Vancouver, giggle and snap photos in Volterra's narrow alleys, trying
to scare each other. "Omigod, is that a bat?" Kunke says.
Riolo leads the tour into a dark building, where they walk down a clammy staircase.
Waiting at the bottom: two cloaked men and a small woman, all deathly pale. "The Volturi!" Regier gasps.
The vampires walk silently among the tourists, pulling "victims" up on a stone table. The girls huddle closer
together. "This is creepy," Kunke whispers — before a vampire grabs Regier. As he attempts to bite her, she
dissolves into laughter.
After the tableau, the tour-goers relive their New Moon moments over drinks. Turns out that the actors who
played the Volturi are members of Compagnia della Fortezza — a theater troupe of convicts named after
Volterra's Medici-era fortress-turned-prison.
For once, Kunke and Regier are speechless. Guide Riolo laughs at their shocked expressions.
"Nothing is strange here," he says later. "It's part of our DNA."
Follow Chris Gray Faust at twitter.com/CAroundTheWorld
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