Set-Jetting in Italy: Where White Lotus, Succession and House of Gucci Were Actually Filmed
Italy is the spiritual capital of set-jetting — the travel trend where the show or film you loved decides where you go next. White Lotus Season 2 in Taormina. Succession's Tuscan wedding episode. House of Gucci's Lake Como. Star Wars. Ripley. The Talented Mr. Ripley. Call Me By Your Name. The list is genuinely absurd.
Here is the honest version of that list — the real Italian hotels and villas where these productions were actually filmed, which ones you can book as a guest, and which ones you can only visit from the outside with a hotel nearby. Nothing invented, nothing guessed.
Properties you can actually book
1.Four Seasons Hotel San Domenico Palace, Taormina (White Lotus Season 2)View on Booking.com ↗
Location: Taormina, Sicily
Price: Ultra-luxury
The main hotel featured in White Lotus Season 2 is the real-life Four Seasons Hotel San Domenico Palace in Taormina, perched on a cliff above the Ionian Sea. The building was originally constructed in the 14th century as a Dominican convent and was converted into a hotel in 1896 — some of the rooms are former monks' cells. Before HBO arrived, guests had already included Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn. Today the hotel has 111 suites, two bars, an outdoor infinity pool, and gardens and courtyards that date back to its monastic period. Important note: the exterior and many scenes were shot on location at the hotel, but most of the interior bedroom scenes were filmed on a sound stage near Rome. You are still staying at the real White Lotus Sicily hotel, but not in the exact rooms the characters slept in.
2.Villa Cetinale, Tuscany (Succession Season 3 wedding episode)View on Booking.com ↗
Location: Sovicille, Val d'Orcia region, Tuscany
Price: Ultra-luxury villa rental
Villa Cetinale is the 17th-century Baroque estate where Succession filmed its famous wedding episode. Originally built by Cardinal Flavio Chigi for Pope Alexander VII and designed in the Roman Baroque style by architect Carlo Fontana in 1680, it sits near Siena with 13 bedrooms, capacity for up to 25 guests, a private pool, tennis court and some of the most celebrated gardens in Tuscany. The property has been available for private rental since 2006, typically as a minimum one-week Friday-to-Friday booking (four-night minimum in winter), with a private chef, waiters, housekeeping, porter service and villa concierge included. HBO's producers worked with luxury travel consultant Emily FitzRoy to secure the villa for a full week of filming.
3.Villa Balbiano, Lake Como (House of Gucci)View on Booking.com ↗
Location: Ossuccio, Lake Como
Price: Ultra-luxury villa rental
Built in the 16th century, Villa Balbiano is one of the largest private residences on Lake Como and served as the on-screen home of Al Pacino's Aldo Gucci in House of Gucci. The grounds were used for Aldo's birthday party scenes. The villa has six spacious suites designed by Jacques Garcia, bathrooms in head-to-toe Italian marble, and extraordinary 17th-century frescoes by the Recchi brothers and Agostino Silva on the walls. It is currently available through luxury villa rental platforms including Edge Retreats and My Private Villas, and can also be hired as a wedding venue (with a minimum two-night stay for ceremonies). Airbnb at one point also listed a one-night stay as a limited "once in a lifetime" offer.
Filming locations you can visit — and where to stay nearby
4.Villa del Balbianello, Lake Como (Star Wars Episode II, Casino Royale)View on Booking.com ↗
Location: Lenno, Lake Como
Status: Not a hotel — visit only
Villa del Balbianello is different from Villa Balbiano (the names are confusing on purpose). It is one of the most photographed villas in Italy and hosted the wedding of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which was filmed on the villa's lake-facing terrace in summer 2000. It later doubled as the hospital where James Bond (Daniel Craig) recovers in Casino Royale, shot in spring 2006. The villa is owned by FAI, Italy's National Trust, and is open as a visitor attraction but is not an overnight property. The best place to base a visit is Bellagio or Varenna on Lake Como — the boat ride across the lake is part of the experience.
5.The Ancient Greek Theatre, Taormina, Sicily (White Lotus Season 2)View on Booking.com ↗
Status: Public archaeological site
The Ancient Greek Theatre of Taormina appears throughout White Lotus Season 2 as the backdrop for many of the town's most dramatic moments. It is a real second-century BC Roman-era theatre built into the Sicilian hillside with a view of Mount Etna, and it remains one of the most visited sites in Taormina. If you are already staying at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace for the White Lotus experience, the theatre is a five-minute walk away and your hotel can arrange private visits outside peak hours.
6.Atrani, Amalfi Coast (Netflix's Ripley, 2024)View on Booking.com ↗
Status: Small town — stay in Amalfi or Positano
Netflix's 2024 Ripley series used Atrani, a small fishing village of around 800 people on the Amalfi Coast, as its primary filming location for the fictional Mongibello. The production landed on Atrani because of the town's main square, beach and the maze of narrow corridors that made ideal backdrops. Note: the "Hotel Miramare" seen in the series was filmed in a private home in Atrani, not at the real Hotel Miramare in Positano. You cannot book the Ripley hotel as such — but you can walk the Atrani streets and look for the specific locations, then stay in Amalfi or Positano nearby.
7.Villa Albergoni, Moscazzano (Call Me By Your Name)View on Booking.com ↗
Status: Private home — visit from Crema
The Perlman family villa in Call Me By Your Name is Villa Albergoni at 3 Via Montodine in the village of Moscazzano, about five miles south of Crema in northern Italy. It is a 17th-century estate that was once a fortress, with sprawling emerald grounds. It is a private home and cannot be booked as a hotel, though it has occasionally appeared on Airbnb in the past. Most fans stay in Crema itself and drive or cycle out to photograph the villa from the nearby roads. Fun fact: the peach trees in the film were added for production, and the plunge pool was built just for the film.
8.Cortona (Under the Tuscan Sun and Succession Season 3 bachelorette)View on Booking.com ↗
Status: Walkable Tuscan hill town
Cortona is the Etruscan hill town in the Arezzo province of Tuscany that served as the main setting for the 2003 Diane Lane film Under the Tuscan Sun, and was also used by Succession for the awkward bachelorette party scene in Season 3. Unlike most entries on this list, Cortona is simply a town you can stay in — the whole walled centre is the setting. Mid-range and boutique hotels are plentiful, and it is easily visited as part of a wider southern Tuscany trip. The combination of two very different productions filming in the same place (a 2003 romantic drama and a 2021 HBO satire) is itself a good reason to go.
A few practical things to know about set-jetting in Italy
Book the hotel versions (San Domenico Palace, Villa Cetinale, Villa Balbiano) as early as possible — they all sit in the top tier of Italian luxury accommodation and fill up months ahead, especially during shoulder season when film tourism spikes. For the visit-only locations, build them into a wider Tuscany or Amalfi Coast itinerary rather than treating them as destinations on their own. And do not be disappointed if a specific interior does not match the filmed version — sound-stage interiors and added props are standard for productions of this scale, and the magic is the exterior and the landscape, not the furniture.
Not sure how to combine these into a trip? Try our AI chatbot on the homepage — tell it which show or film drew you in and we'll help you build a practical itinerary that includes the real locations.
If you are building a wider Italy trip around these filming locations, we also have guides to Taormina in Sicily, the Amalfi Coast on a budget, Lake Como, and Naples.
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