If, like us, watching The White Lotus series two gets you in the mood for a round of poolside Spritz in the dazzling Italian sun (though without the slightly threatening frenemy college mate and his annoying wife making thinly-veiled barbs) then you’ll be pleased to hear that this dream can be made a reality.
Just like Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge) and her Italian fantasy of being Monica Vitti for the day, you can live out your own Italophile desires inspired by the second season of Mike White’s social satire, which has jumped on a plane from Hawaii over to Sicily.
While the elite, five-star resorts of The White Lotus are obviously fictional, there is indeed an actual resort in Sicily that the series was filmed in. In Taormina, an upscale hillside area of the island, with Mount Etna in the backdrop, sits the popular five-star resort of the San Domenico Palace, a former convent with origins dating back to 1374.
Like the hotel used in The White Lotus in Hawaii, it’s part of the Four Seasons chain, and the website boasts: “Perched on a rocky promontory high above the Ionian Sea, the iconic San Domenico Palace welcomes you to a 14th-century convent with panoramic views of Mount Etna and the ancient Greek theatre.” Then there’s the cliff top infinity pool – as enjoyed by the crying hotel-room-hostage assistant Portia, who just wants to get “some dick” – a luxury botanical spa, three gourmet restaurants (and in-room dining for Portia) and their own private beach club too. Though on second thought, you might want to give that last one a miss given the opening scene of the second series…
Previous guests of the palace over the years include Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Taylor, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren, so it’s got bonafide cultural heritage. In an interview with The Observer, the San Domenico Palace manager, Lorenzo Maraviglia, said: “Here, in the high season, a customer spends an average of €3,000 to €5,000 per night. And a billionaire customer understands the value of what he is paying for. So the expectations are very high.”
He added that he was there during the series filming from February to April 2021: “It’s impressive how Mike White managed to get into the details of the life of a large hotel. The life they depict inside a luxury hotel is very real – obviously, in some cases very extreme, because they have to create the drama. But in this second season, certain dynamics between the personnel and the client are totally true. I repeat, these excesses do not reflect reality, fortunately, but many things are true.”
Anyway, all this high-living comes at a finance-bro Cam-level costs: a superior room starts at €648 a night, while a night in the Teatro suite – with views of the ancient Greek theatre – starts at €4,812. As for the royal suite, as King Edward VIII has previously laid his head down here, that’s price on request, and as we all know, if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it. Or make like Lucia and Mia: charge it to Dominic in room 148. Grazie!
The White Lotus series two is on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV now.
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