Google Maps is an amazing device. Take this, for example. In 1963, the great Italian film director Luchino Visconti used an obscure Sicilian village called Cimmina as the location for his film Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). He built a false front across an apartment block to represent the facade of the palace belonging to the Sicilian prince played by Burt Lancaster in the film, which was set in 1860. That is the large yellow building looming on the left of the screen grab I made today from the film. The rest of the street scene as used in the film was the authentic location. Now, switch to Google Maps in the year 2014. Note the church (and the building to the left of it) remains the same but the street is now paved and the little saplings along the crook of the wall in Viscontis film are now mature trees. That Google Maps is now so extensive that it will allow you to roam even the streets of obscure Sicilian villages and find things like this is really nothing short of astonishing.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 08:01:23 +0000
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