TA TALKS BACK: ADVENTURES IN VOLTERRA NEW MOON MOVIE LOCATION

TA Staff member Destiny Froste shares her images, video and insight on her adventures in Volterra Italy:

As most of you already know, two weekends ago I made my way to Volterra. Aside from transportation issues (Volterra is not easy to reach, especially on a Sunday), I found the town incredible and an absolutely perfect choice for the home town of the Volturri. Whereas many towns change and evolve through time, Volterra still maintains a very medieval feel all throughout it.

I left early on a train from Pisa to Pontedera. From Pontedera you have to take a bus to Volterra. The station is not clear on where the buses are, but if you head out the front of the station and go strait forward and across the little plaza, you will see the bus station. The bus you take is actually more like a van, with nice seats an everything.

From the outskirts of Volterra, one can see the hills of Tuscany below, stretching out unto the horizon. All but a few of the streets are narrow alleyways, most of them twisted, shadowed, and topped by stone archways.

While I spent a good couple hours allowing myself to become lost in Volterra, the famous Piazza dei Priori is not too difficult to find from where the bus lets you off. You simply go strait into the city, turn left, and you are there. The square is confusing though if you do not know previously, that there is in fact, no fountain as was depicted in New Moon. I was not the only person confused by this though, as I heard another young Twilight fan tell her mother that “There was a fountain, so this can’t be it.” Why Stephanie Meyer decided to alter the landscape of the Piazza, I do not know, but she did. I thought perhaps instead of a fountain, she could have had Bella stand on a small ledge attached to the Palazzo dei Priori, which would have allowed a view of any of the alleys Edward might have been in. If they chose Volterra as the filming location, it will be interesting to see if they modify the Piazza to fit Stephanie’s description, or alter the scene to accommidate the true setting.

It is also interesting to note, on the subject of the fountain, that there happens to be only one fountain that I saw in the entire city. This is odd, because as a Medieval city, inhabitants would have been dependent on this one water source and yet, the only way to reach it from the city is by going down a very long stone stairway. Once you reach it, the fountain is nothing at all as people imagine the fountains of Italy, but rather a little hole flowing out of a wall, and into a covered corner with arched openings.

Click here for complete article.