The Godfather and The White Lotus: Where They Were Filmed in Sicily

The White Lotus: Sicily, the show's second season, was filmed mainly at the San Domenico Palace in Taormina, with scenes in Cefalù, Noto, Palermo, Catania and Fiumefreddo di Sicilia. The Sicilian scenes of The Godfather were shot in Savoca and Forza d'Agrò, two hill villages north of Taormina, and at Castello degli Schiavi, a villa near Fiumefreddo; none were filmed in Corleone. The Godfather villages and the villa are all within about 20 kilometers of Taormina, where the White Lotus hotel stands, so the town is the natural base for both.

Where is The White Lotus filmed in Sicily?

HBO began filming the Sicilian season in Taormina in February 2022 and was still shooting in Cefalù at the end of May. The season aired at the end of that year. Here are the places, from the hotel outward.

San Domenico Palace, Taormina

The fictional White Lotus hotel is the San Domenico Palace. It was the main setting for all seven episodes, and the cast and crew stayed there during production. The building began as a Dominican convent in 1374. In 1896 a new wing was added and it became one of the first grand hotels in Europe. During World War II it was used as a German headquarters and was bombed by the Allies in 1943. It reopened as a Four Seasons hotel in 2021, with 111 rooms, some of them former monks' cells.

The series also filmed in the town itself: in the ancient theater, along Corso Umberto and its stairs, and on the coast looking toward Isola Bella.

Cefalù

The scenes on the hotel's beach were shot about 200 kilometers from Taormina by road, on the long beach of Cefalù, on the north coast of Sicily, with the town's Norman cathedral behind.

Noto and Palermo, swapped

In the third episode, Daphne takes Harper to Noto, the baroque town in the southeast, and they spend the night in a palazzo there. That palazzo is actually Villa Tasca, in Palermo, first built in 1565 as a summer hunting lodge. Two episodes later, Quentin brings Tanya to the palazzo he inherited in Palermo; those scenes were filmed at Villa Elena, a seventeenth-century former monastery near Noto. In the story, Quentin also takes Tanya to see Madama Butterfly at the opera in Palermo; the scenes inside the opera house were filmed at the Teatro Massimo Bellini, in Catania. For Noto itself, see our guide to Ortigia, Noto and Modica.

Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia

In the third episode, Albie, his father Dominic and his grandfather Bert take Portia to Castello degli Schiavi, the villa where The Godfather was filmed. The visit links the two stories.

Can you visit The White Lotus hotel in Sicily?

As a guest, yes. The San Domenico Palace is a working hotel, and what it opens to people who are not staying there is the hotel's decision. Much of what the series shows around it is public, though: the ancient theater, Corso Umberto and the view over Isola Bella are all in the same small town. Our guide to things to do in Taormina covers them, with opening hours.

Where is White Lotus 4 going to be filmed?

On the French Riviera. HBO announced on April 15, 2026, that the fourth season had begun filming in Cannes, St. Tropez and Monaco, with some filming in Paris, while the story stays on the Côte d'Azur during the Cannes Film Festival. Two hotels play the White Lotus this time: the Airelles Château de la Messardière as the White Lotus du Cap, and the Hôtel Martinez as the White Lotus Cannes.

The Godfather filming locations in Sicily

In the films, the boy Vito Andolini from Corleone becomes Vito Corleone at Ellis Island. Corleone is a real town in the hills south of Palermo, but it had been modernized, so the Sicilian village on screen was pieced together from Forza d'Agrò and Savoca, north of Taormina.

Savoca

Coppola filmed in Savoca for a few weeks in the summer of 1971. This is where Michael, hiding in Sicily, meets Apollonia and marries her. Bar Vitelli, where he asks to marry her, is in Palazzo Trimarchi, and it still works as a bar. Scenes of the wedding were filmed outside the church of San Nicolò, a thirteenth-century church on a spur of rock above the village. In 2022 Savoca made Coppola an honorary citizen.

The village has more than the film. The crypt of the Capuchin monastery, founded in 1574, keeps the mummified bodies of local notables still dressed in early nineteenth-century clothes, and the mother church dates from the twelfth century. Savoca is on the list of I Borghi più belli d'Italia, the association of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Forza d'Agrò

Forza d'Agrò appears in all three films. In the first one, the church Michael sees as he walks into "Corleone" is here, and Coppola came back for The Godfather Part III. The village has a Norman castle traditionally attributed to Count Roger in the eleventh century, a mother church in early eighteenth-century baroque, and the Arco Durazzesco, a Catalan Gothic arch from the late 1400s reached by a sandstone staircase. It is about 15 kilometers from Taormina and, like Savoca, one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia.

Castello degli Schiavi, Fiumefreddo di Sicilia

About 14 kilometers south of Taormina, Castello degli Schiavi is an eighteenth-century country villa in the rural baroque style of the area. In The Godfather it is the villa of Don Tommasino, where Michael stays in Sicily and where Apollonia is killed when his car is blown up. In The Godfather Part III, it is where Michael dies.

Taormina and Palermo in Part III

The Godfather Part III also used Taormina's railroad station, standing in for Bagheria, for the scene in which Michael meets Kay. The film's climax takes place on the steps of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; the opera scenes inside were filmed at Cinecittà, because the theater was under renovation.

Can you visit The Godfather house in Sicily?

Castello degli Schiavi is private property, used today for events and weddings, so seeing it means a visit arranged with the owners. Savoca and Forza d'Agrò are public villages: you can walk the lanes, the squares and the church steps of the films at any hour.

Is The Godfather tour worth it?

The usual route from Taormina covers Castello degli Schiavi, Forza d'Agrò and Savoca, about 14, 15 and 20 kilometers from town: a half day by car, with time to walk. It is worth it if you love the films, and it holds up if you do not, because the two villages would be worth the drive without them.

What separates one Godfather tour in Sicily from another is access and timing. Castello degli Schiavi is private, so a tour can take you inside only if the visit has been arranged with the owners. Savoca receives large numbers of day-trippers from April to October, many of them cruise passengers landing in Messina, while in the low season it is quiet; plan to arrive early or late in the day.

Is Corleone, Sicily, worth visiting?

Not for the films: none of their Corleone scenes were shot there. The town is about 60 kilometers by road south of Palermo and about 290 kilometers from Taormina, more than three and a half hours by car. If your trip is based in eastern Sicily, the film locations are 14 to 20 kilometers from Taormina, and Corleone makes sense only as part of a stay around Palermo.

Why is Taormina so famous?

For its setting first. The ancient theater, the second largest in Sicily, looks across the sea to Etna, and Goethe wrote about that view in 1787. The San Domenico Palace became one of the first grand hotels in Europe in 1896, and writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Truman Capote spent time in the town. A film festival founded in 1955 holds its screenings in the ancient theater. In May 2017, Taormina hosted the G7 summit. Cinema has kept the name in circulation: Antonioni shot the final scene of L'Avventura (1960) on a terrace of the San Domenico, and The White Lotus brought the same hotel to a new audience in 2022.

Our Amber Sicily and Sicily, the Magic of Jasmine journeys each have a Cinema & Sea day. Both journeys last eight days, are based in Taormina, take up to eight guests and are always accompanied. For the rest of the island, start from our Sicily page.