The HBO show’s producer says the show considered spots in Greece and the south of France before landing at the San Domenico Palace in Taormina.
WhenMike White and the producers ofThe White Lotusbegan casting the show ’s second time of year , they knew they had to keep a few thing in mind . First , they needed to pick a spot where you could shoot early on in the year and have it still expect like summer . They also need a country or venue that offered revenue enhancement rebates for Hollywood productions ( budgets affair , after all ) , a hangout that could shut down for most of the show ’s several month of shooting , and a site that would be big enough to house the whole plaster bandage and crew . ( Not to name a hotel with enough suites to lodge a lead - studded cast . )
With all those stipulations in thinker , the crew focused on a small cluster of countries around the Mediterranean . “ The three places we really zero in on were the Confederacy of France , the southern part of Italy , and Greece , " says David Bernad , the show ’s executive manufacturer , " but then we heardKnives Outwas going to Greece , so that took that out of the running play . ” Though Bernad order he andWhite Lotuscreator Mike White had never thought about shooting in Sicily , once a lookout suggested they visit as a “ ethnic pilgrimage , ” they go and explored , falling in love with the island andits complicated account .
When Bernad and White began to reconnoiter Sicilian hotel as possible locations , their first stop was theSan Domenico Palace in Taormina . A 14th C Dominican convent first transformed into a hotel in 1896 and purchase by Four Seasons in 2021 , the clifftop hideaway has 111 Edgar Albert Guest room , including some that were once monks ’ cellular telephone . It was also once a popular stop on many aristocrats’“grand tour”and has hosted everyone from Oscar Wilde to Elizabeth Taylor .
Aubrey Plaza in Season 2 of ‘The White Lotus’|HBO
“ When we walk into the hotel , it was just obvious immediately that it was the post , ” says Bernad . “ It ’s such a unique space . It was production - favorable , so we could dart there , and it was large enough to house the crew and the cast . ” Bernad enounce that while everyone do work on the first season ofThe White Lotuswas forced to stay in the same hotel to create a sort of COVID bubble , they did n’t technically have to do that this time around . Still , Bernad enunciate , the show encouraged people to prefer in to delay at the Four Seasons for the 2nd time of year , just because White and company care the “ summer encampment ” atmosphere it create the first prison term around .
Interestingly , while the first season ofWhite Lotuswas also shot at a Four Seasons holiday resort , Bernad says it was a “ complete coincidence ” that the production select another prop owned by the luxury hotelier for its second time of year . “ We think it could be a trivial helpful that we ’d shot at one before . It was n’t , really , ” Bernad explains . “ The hotel had only just re - opened [ as a Four Seasons ] in Taormina about six months earlier , and that made them a piddling precious with the blank . ”
If anything , Bernad says , the fact that producers choose for a 2d Four Seasons localisation speaks to the fact that the party seems to have its luxury game on lock . That makes it easy to translate a hangout ’s spirit and vibe to a fictitious entity like the White Lotus , where the exacting guests are always looking for an experience that ’s second to none . They ’re also looking to stay among themselves , Bernad thinks : “ With this kind of travelling finish , with ample people traveling to hotels , they ’re always look in and never look outwards . They ’re more focussed on the immediate than their surroundings . ”
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While the show does step outside the bounds of the refuge in Season 2 more than it did in Season 1 , that ’s a social function of not just White ’s stake in pushing characters out of their comfort zone , but also production trying to work around the limitations of dart inside the literal hotel . “ We owned the hotel for a sure catamenia of time , ” Bernad explicate , “ but at the very end of the shoot , the hotel was open to Guest so there were time we were filming in a corner and veritable multitude were just take the air by . ”
luckily , being thrust to snap outside the hotel led Bernad and White to explore their creative surround . Bernad says the pair was particularly charmed by Taormina ’s liberal past . “ It was theonly city in Sicily that allowed openly gay residents , and so it became this enclave for gay Sicilians , ” Bernad explains . “ It ’s also a very literary town , and a lot of great authors write and socialized in our hotel . ” It ’s enunciate that D.H. Lawrence find out inspiration forLady Chatterly ’s Loverat the hotel in the 1920s after his married woman had a dalliance with a local donkey number one wood . Henry Miller , Truman Capote , and Tennessee Williams all visited the hotel after WWII , and after an L.A. newspaper name Taormina as a “ Disneyland of sin , ” fat Americans like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton began frequenting the hotel in drove chisel . In fact , Taylor and Burton once had such a big blowout at the San Domenico that she allegedly break a mandolin over his head .
Throughout the year , it has also been hint by some that the hotel is haunted , a feeling that Bernad believes . The producer cites the property ’s prospicient ecclesiastical history , as well as its use by the Nazis during WWII as potential reasons why the blank would puff ghosts , enunciate “ you feel the ghosts of the past times ” inside the San Domenico . He also claims he live eerie illustration himself during theWhite Lotusshoot . “ I swan , multiple times I was in bottom sleeping at 3 or 4 in the morning and I would hear knocking on my room access . I would get up and open up the doorway , but no one would be there . ”
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Bernad also like the idea of shooting at the San Domenico because it seemed so ego - contained . The hotel and watering hole offers views of nearby vent Mount Etna from its way ’ private terraces , some of which also have dip pools . Those , of class , are in addition to the brand raw clifftop 69 - foot infinity pool with its picturesque scene and shaded lounge chairs . There are three taproom and three restaurants on site , include theMichelin - star Principe Cerami , which serves local Sicilian specialisation like “ Stimpirata trend ” cappelletti with Guinea domestic fowl and grilled pepper and ox impudence braised in local vermouth and served with truffled mashed potatoes and juniper from nearby Mount Etna . The hotel also swash two ancient courtyards , marble baths in all the way , and a museum - quality art collection on property , including muckle of theMoor ’s headsWhite Lotusviewers first glimpse in the Season 2 premiere .
As far as room , invitee of the hotel can stay in traditional singles like Albie , Bert , Dominic , and Portia , slightly prominent and more modern suites like the two couples , or apprehend an even more palatial suite , a la Jennifer Coolidge ’s Tanya McQuoid - Hunt . Full revelation : Even the San Domenico Palace ’s smallest room do n’t number cheap ; even off season , every night rate startat about $ 1,000 and can soar to almost $ 5,000 for a declamatory suite .
Whilesome fans have quibbledover the theme that rich guest on holiday would n’t jeopardize beyond the boundaries of the refuge , Bernad says that at a place like the San Domenico — or the White Lotus — guests really do stay on belongings much of the time , in part because the amenities are so deluxe . “ We scouted two hotels in Rome and there was a hotel in Rome that we really like , ” says Bernad , “ but we decided to [ shoot at the San Domenico ] because if you ’re in Rome , you would leave the hotel . You ’d go out and have dinner party , but if you ’re in Sicily , you ’re principally going to eat at the hotel . ”
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One matter guests would have to venture off attribute for is beach access , which the White Lotus appears to have but the San Domenico Palace very much does not . Bernad says view like the time of year opening chat between Meghann Fahy ’s Daphne and two new hotel visitors were actually charge about three hours aside from Taormina in a Ithiel Town calledCefalù . “ By the hotel on the easterly side of Sicily , we could n’t get hold beaches that were sandy , ” he explain . “ There ’s a beautiful beach by the hotel , but it ’s all little stones , and so when we were doing scenes where we had histrion walk into the water , it seemed savage to make them put up on these really uncomfortable rocks seek to do dialog . ”
Bernad remain at the San Domenico Palace throughout the Season 2 shoot and say it ’s an experience he ’ll remember lovingly for the residual of his sprightliness . “ It was very emotional going away and I cried , ” he says . “ You really build up these bonds with the people that turn there when you ’re there for four or five month , and you become this little family . A mountain of the people who make for at the hotel are really in the show , though , and I look forward to going back someday and reconnecting with everyone . ” And just like we see on the show , Bernad say that , in his impression , the hotel ’s bar is one of the best knack in all of Taormina .
Interest inThe White Lotusappears to have been good for both the San Domenico Palace and for Sicily , as well . TMZ reportedthat visits to the hotel ’s web site have increased by 70 pct since the show started air and Bernad say he ’s heard from other nearby hotel possessor that interest in the island in world-wide has “ skyrocketed ” since the season started publicize . “ Say what you will about the show and whether you like it or not , but Sicily is a poor island and touristry is its primary industriousness , ” he tell . “ If the show can have some sort of long-lasting impact and bring more money , more jobs , and more opportunities to Sicily , that would be an amazing byproduct . ”
