(CNN) — With lavish Baroque villas, unique gardens, dramatic landscapes, historical artwork and a seductive vibe, Sicily appears to be the proper location for season two of darkish comedy sequence “The White Lotus.”
The award-winning present charts the tangled, erotic and generally harmful adventures of super-rich vacationers staying on the stunning clifftop San Domenico Palace, a five-star resort operated by 4 Seasons within the city of Taormina.
A former 14th-century monastery with distinctive views of the Etna volcano and shoreline, the lodge is as a lot a star of the present as its forged of Hollywood and Italian A-listers. And, says its real-life supervisor, Lorenzo Maraviglia, it is a match for its fictional counterpart.
“The resort’s actual vibe could be very a lot just like what you see and really feel within the sequence,” he tells CNN Journey. “It is vibrant, it is about Sicily — each romantic and horny –and about our unimaginable friends who this 12 months included Madonna and Sharon Stone.”
Made for HBO (which, like CNN, is a part of Warner Bros. Discovery), the sequence is filmed round Taormina, Noto, Cefalù and Palermo, however the San Domenico Palace is on the coronary heart of the intrigue and steamy liaisons that develop over the course of the seven-episode season.
And whereas friends on the lookout for their very own White Lotus escape may not get fairly the identical racy experiences, Maraviglia insists his lodge will no less than ship the identical degree of service loved by the present’s characters.
“The success of the sequence is predicated on the truth of what happens in a luxurious lodge; the interactions between employees and purchasers, and amongst purchasers, are very actual,” he says.
However the “excessive conditions like the 2 native escorts coming and going to entertain friends are a part of the drama and theatrics that add a layer of spiciness,” he provides, insisting that issues typically occur at a extra sedate tempo — so far as he is conscious.
“We could discover if there are bizarre actions if a scenario turns into apparent, however Taormina and our resort are locations the place such issues often do not occur. It is for households and {couples} on their honeymoon. Even when somebody could have a weekend journey, it isn’t perceivable by us.”
Guests to the San Domenico Palace will discover it precisely as portrayed in “The White Lotus.” These connecting doorways between suites actually exist. There are lush gardens for sundown drinks, fairly cloisters, a panoramic pool and a terrace overlooking the bay the place friends have breakfast and a Michelin-starred restaurant the place the present’s characters usually argue.
Not that Sicily is any stranger to frisson. The island has an historical Greek heritage of sexual freedoms — a previous mirrored within the sequence, with pagan statues and spiritual frescoes silently witnessing the rich friends’ extravagant actions.
Saints and prostitutes
“The White Lotus” season 2 is filmed within the San Domenico Palace lodge in Sicily.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Taormina is seen in all its glamor: the imposing historical Greek theater, the panoramic piazzetta, the pastel-colored dwellings, elegant alleys with cafés and shiny boutiques, the stylish eating places like Baronessa the place one bickering couple’s dinner scene is filmed.
The very best suites within the lodge, the place a lot of the present’s intercourse scenes happen, have plunge swimming pools and work of saints made by the monks who as soon as lived there.
“The decor, the rooms, it is all authentic, what you see is actual, even the employees uniforms,” says Maraviglia.
Whereas Maraviglia could not have needed to discipline a number of the extra outlandish visitor requests that crop up in “White Lotus,” he says he is needed to take care of extravagant requests for the reason that San Domenico opened final 12 months as a part of the 4 Seasons chain.
“Some friends needed to go to the Aeolian isles with a personal helicopter and hire a yacht to Syracuse which is barely an hour’s drive away,” he says.
Bodily, there are solely two actual deviations from actuality — the seaside scenes and pictures depicting the friends arriving by boat. The resort, perched 400-meters atop Taormina’s excessive rocky plateau, has no sea entry. The personal deck of a close-by fish restaurant, La Cambusa at Giardini Naxos, was used to movie sea-arrival scenes.
And for the reason that lodge has no personal shoreline, the close by Unahotels Capotaormina resort is the place friends can take pleasure in solar loungers and umbrellas at a seaside membership carved right into a reddish cliff flanked by rock arches and sea stacks, overlooking the small island of Isolabella.
The islet, which additionally options in “White Lotus,” is related to the shore by a slender strip of sand and is certainly one of Sicily’s most stunning and fashionable snorkeling spots because of its emerald-green, nonetheless waters. It is a part of an archeological park and has a villa surrounded by unique vegetation that hosts a botanical museum.
Most bathing and underwater scenes have been shot on the public seaside of the picturesque fishermen village of Cefalú, between Taormina and Palermo.
Taormina’s bay witnessed real-life intrigue again in 1955, when a Polish heiress was allegedly drowned by her husband underneath mysterious circumstances mentioned to be linked to an inheritance.
Spats between {couples} in “The White Lotus” are additionally true to life. In 1967 a livid Elizabeth Taylor apparently smashed a mandolin over Richard Burton’s head on the terrace of their suite.
Plant pots and phalluses
The lodge constructing is a 14th century former monastery.
San Domenico Palace, 4 Seasons
There’s lots of Sicilian lore in “The White Lotus,” alongside references to the island’s mafia connections.
A ceramic sculpture of a bearded Moor’s head is incessantly proven within the present as a logo of betrayal, a nod to a neighborhood legend relationship again to medieval occasions. It is mentioned certainly one of Sicily’s Arabic occupiers had his head chopped off and used as a plant pot by a girl he had an affair with.
“This story embodies the Sicilian essence of affection, ardour and vengeance that are all represented within the ‘The White Lotus,'” says Sonia Bonamassa, San Domenico’s public relations coordinator. “She beheads the Moor as a result of she loves him however he has betrayed her.”
These testa di moro ceramic heads are at present utilized by Sicilians as vases, lamp holders, citrus bowls and flower pots or simply to brighten rooms.
The mori are emblematic of Sicily’s Arabic heritage. Different native mementoes embody colourful pigne pine nut-shaped ceramics which can be believed by Sicilians to convey good luck.
“Director Mike White was extraordinarily receptive of those native issues, we might joke about them and he included a lot of our solutions within the season, like Italian songs, adapting his strategy to actuality,” says Maraviglia.
One tip that didn’t make the reduce, most likely as a result of it was too excessive even for such an erotically charged present, was a neighborhood watering gap that the actors nicknamed “the penis bar.”
Bar Turrisi, within the picturesque medieval village of Castelmola close to Taormina, is crammed with objects formed like phalluses. “Bottles, watches, cups, all the things,” says Maraviglia. Even staircases and ground tiles have penises.
Waitress Giorgia Ponturo says the (actual) lodge employees and crew usually visited after a troublesome day of taking pictures and hopes the sequence will draw vacationers to quieter, lesser-known locations round Taormina like Castelmola.
“This bar dates again to 1947, it was once a brothel and homosexual hotspot,” says Ponturo. “Then the proprietor determined to undertake the phallus motif, which was an historical Greek image of sexual efficiency and fertility, to reaffirm the virility of Sicilian males. It additionally brings good luck.”
Wild events and lavish mansions
The lodge’s supervisor says real-life friends can anticipate the identical degree of luxurious seen within the present.
San Domenico Palace, 4 Seasons
Some scenes have been filmed at a renaissance palace referred to as Villa Tasca, which is definitely positioned within the city of Monreale, close to Palermo. Set inside a lush park it has luxurious frescoes and statues, king-sized rooms and an unique pool-pond with recent spring water. Rented for weddings and personal occasions, it’s mentioned German composer Richard Wagner stayed right here whereas creating certainly one of his masterpieces.
One other extravagant mansion featured in “The White Lotus” because the scene of an orgy is Villa Elena, which sits amongst olive groves close to Noto. It is embellished with outdated tapestries and marble items and has an enormous pool jutting out of a temple.
“The White Lotus” pays homage to “The Godfather” mafia films, that includes the situation of a basic scene — Castello degli Schiavi in Fiumefreddo, a chic citadel with a cloister. It is a personal property open to guided excursions and occasions bookings.
The very best of Sicilian meals is showcased within the sequence, too. Visitors gulp down ricotta-filled cannoli, cassata muffins, gelato and arancini rice-balls. Characters usually quaff native rosé and Martini. Two {couples} spend a wine-tasting day on the Planeta canteen on Mount Etna’s flanks, the place the volcano’s fertile black soil produces high bottles corresponding to Eruzione (“eruption.”)
For the reason that 1800s Taormina has been a VIP worldwide hotspot famend for its wild events and sexual freedom that harked again to the pagan Greek days when homosexuality was the norm. Anglo-Irish playwright Oscar Wilde was one frequent customer.
It’s mentioned Taormina might need been the birthplace of D.H. Lawrence’s novel “Girl Chatterley’s Lover.” The creator and his spouse have been friends at San Domenico Palace within the early Twenties and the e book was apparently impressed by an affair between Mrs. Lawrence and a neighborhood donkey rider.
International highlight
Not like within the present, friends cannot actually arrive on the lodge by boat.
Fabio Lovino/HBO
Locals hope the worldwide promotion of Taormina in “White Lotus” will additional draw vacationers to Sicily and increase its attraction as a Hollywood stage.
Giacomo Chillé of Uncover Messina journey company plans to arrange guided excursions to the sequence’ places. “There’s monumental potential in cine-turismo (tourism linked to films), we already take People to ‘The Godfather’s’ spots with tailor-made journeys,” he mentioned.
Not everyone seems to be pleased. Enzo Anastasi, proprietor of lodge La Canna, on the offbeat Filicudi isle within the Aeolian archipelago, is anxious about “dumbing down Sicily to a wealthy man’s Disneyland.”
He mentioned: “These American sequence promote and painting the standard super-rich individuals and their glamorous spots, which aren’t the true, genuine soul of Sicily the place traditions and easy existence survive.”
Taormina native Giuseppe Quattrocchi, proprietor of Le Bistrot du Monde restaurant, thinks the sequence will probably be a godsend for Taormina’s tourism however says he did not admire how Sicily was at occasions portrayed.
“When three friends go looking for their ancestors in a distant village and get kicked out by their alleged family, that is the other from our inbred hospitality,” he says. “Additionally, the escorts and the reference to native prison organizations depict a unfavorable picture.”
