where is season 2 of white lotus filmed. The White Lotus: Sicily shared many similarities with The Godfather, including assassination attempts, the mafia, family strife, and gorgeous Italian scenery. Season 2 was shot in Italy, just like Francis Ford Coppola’s classic crime film from 1972. This cliffside hotel is based on the San Domenico Palace in Taormina. White also features the Ionian Sea, the Greek Theater of Teatro Antico di Taormina, and the erupting volcano Mount Etna in the series finale, “Arrivederci.”
It’s fitting that the colonialism themes explored in The White Lotus: Sicily were filmed in a place with a complicated history. Season 2 takes place in a Four Seasons resort that was originally a Dominican convent built in the 14th century and converted into a hotel in 1896. Oscar Wilde, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Sophia Loren are just a few of the celebrities who have stayed at the resort over the years. When the Four Seasons chain bought the hotel, they spent a lot of money renovating it.
Scenes in the Castello degli Schiavi coastal town of Fiumefreddo were shot on location in Sicily, while additional filming took place in Rome’s Lumina Studios. The location where The Godfather was filmed is well-known, as Bert (F. Murray Abraham) points out. The town of Noto, the capital city of Palerm, and the coastal town of Cefal were also used in Season 2 as locations in Sicily.
Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) mentions how she wishes she could spend a day looking like Monica Vitti, the famous classic movie star from Michelangelo Antonionis 1960 masterpiece LAvventura; ironically, LAvventura filmed a portion of its ending sequence in Noro. The recent musical remake of Cyrano, starring Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennet, made use of the baroque architecture of Noto. White was able to keep production costs down by taking advantage of tax credits given to foreign films by shooting on location.
