Adam DiMarco’s Guide to Sicily: Where to Eat, Drink, and Party Like The White Lotus Cast

Despite being filled with misogynists, cheaters, and ego maniacs (or at least some really good actors embodying those characteristics), the ensemble cast of season two of The White Lotus has absolutely stolen the hearts of fans who tune into the series every Sunday night. It’s not only Mike White’s brilliant writing and Jennifer Coolidge’s impeccable delivery that has won over audiences—the cast’s chemistry seems to transcend age, language, and geography. (Leo Woodall called The White Lotus “the greatest job” he’ll ever have and F. Murray Abraham recently said he’d be up to shooting the season “all over again.”) Almost every week, with the cadence of a new episode dropping on HBO, the actors post IG carousels of behind-the-scenes images, showing off their day trips to various Italian cities, nights out in Taormina, and a whole lot of bonding.

It’s enough to inspire you to drop everything and book a plane ticket to Sicily. But if you decide to do so, you’ll need to prepare. So I called up Adam DiMarco, who plays Albie on the series; he’s spent quite a lot of time in Italy—four months of filming, as well as various family trips while growing up (though he insists his actual Italian family vacations were a lot less dramatic than the Di Grassos’ adventure: “There was no murder involved.”). The actor provided us with recommendations to make the most of a Sicilian vacation—as well as some behind-the-scenes tales that sound like they could have been written by White himself.

Eat: Médousa and Gambero Rosso

Of course, when in Sicily, one eats...a lot. So, unsurprisingly, the cast dove right into Taormina’s culinary scene, checking out a bunch of nearby establishments before settling on some of their favorites. “Everyone kind of had their own spot they claimed,” DiMarco explains. His was Médousa, a restaurant and hotel just down the street from the San Domenico Palace where the season was shot. “Sometimes, I would just go there alone and have a nice meal,” he says. His go-to? Pasta alla Norma, a classic Sicilian pasta dish made with eggplant. The restaurant even provides gluten free options, which the gluten-intolerant actor greatly appreciated at the time.

There’s also Gambero Rosso, another classic Sicilian spot which DiMarco remembers for its wine list. The actor explains he didn’t drink much before heading to Italy, but it was hard to stay dry once in Taormina. “When [Jennifer] Coolidge orders a bottle of red wine, what am I going to do? Say no?” he says.

Shop: Feliciotto

About a ten minute walk from San Domenico Palace and Médousa is Feliciotto, a boutique that has been in town since 1958 when it first opened as a music store. The shop now sells a curated selection of fashion, home goods, accessories, and beauty products—so it’s the perfect place for a group of actors to blow their paychecks. “A lot of us ended up spending our per diem in there,” DiMarco says with a laugh.

Drink: Casamatta

If you stumbled upon Casamatta—a little wine bar with live music—at some point this summer, you probably ran into The White Lotus cast winding down after a long day of work. The watering hole was right by San Domenica, so it became an obvious spot to enjoy a drink.

It also wasn’t uncommon for the cast to gather at the hotel bar—you know, the one where Albie and Lucia went head to head with Portia and Jack in a make-out contest, or where Mia threw a drink in Giuseppe’s face. Every night saw a new combination of folks hanging out. “I remember pretty late into filming, I went to dinner with Haley Lu [Richardson] and Will Sharpe and it was so novel because we’d never done it before and so much time had passed,” he recalls. “We were excited about it, like, ‘Oh cool. New crew just dropped: us three.’”

Of course, there were times when the cast just had to dance it out—so they’d all head to a club together. Unfortunately, DiMarco can’t recall the names of any of the establishments they frequented (the sign of a good time), but that might be for the best, as they seem fairly exclusive. “I remember they wouldn’t let us in at first,” he says of one club. “I think finally someone dropped Sabrina [Impacciatore’s] name and that helped.” Once inside, Leo Woodall rallied everyone around the bar for Jägerbombs, his drink of choice—and, incidentally, his order in that episode-four-bar-make-out scene.

“I don’t think the bartender knew what a Jägerbomb was, so we just ordered everything separately. But no one was as into it as Leo,” DiMarco says. “I don’t even think I drank mine—I did the old ‘throw it over your shoulder’ trick you see in movies. Jägerbombs are a young man’s game, but Leo tried. He fucking tried.”

Cafés: Bam Bar and Bar Turrisi

When their sweet tooth got the best of them, the cast headed over to Bam Bar, a café in town that sold, among many other things, brioche and granita, a frozen dessert made of fresh fruit.

But if you’re looking for something a little spicier, DiMarco suggests Bar Turrisi, up a high hill in the nearby town of Castelmola. “It’s a penis café,” the actor says matter-of-factly, but I’m sure I’ve misheard him. “Yeah, an entirely penis-themed cafe,” he confirms. “It’s, like, three stories tall and it’s really just a tourist attraction. The food is terrible, but you don’t go to the penis café for the food, you know what I mean?”

Bar Turrisi sounds like it would fit perfectly in Mike White’s script. (I mean, the show already featured a prosthetic for Theo James that could have been taken “off a donkey,” and quotes like F. Murray Abraham’s Bert assessment of his own genitalia: “It’s a penis. It’s not a sunset.”) Fittingly enough, Bar Turrisi was in the script, though the scene didn’t end up making the final cut, according to DiMarco. “Will [Sharpe’s] character jogged up to it at one point,” DiMarco says. As far as what White had planned for Ethan when he entered the establishment, we’ll never know.

Wind Down: Survivor, Love Is Blind, and More

But it wasn’t all Jägerbombs and penis cafés. Sometimes, DiMarco liked to tuck into bed at his hotel room with his neighbor Meghann Fahy or Richardson and enjoy a good TV show. A lot of reality TV was consumed during their four months in Taormina: he watched The Bachelor with Richardson, and Mike White’s season of Survivor with Fahy. (“I highly recommend that one, no offense to The Bachelor,” he says.) He also dove into Love Is Blind and Love on the Spectrum on his own. “I think shitty reality TV is just my preferred way to unwind when I’m working,” he explains. “You can zone out, study your lines, or reply to texts. You don’t have to fully pay attention—except for Love on the Spectrum. That’s a great show.”

Back Home: Friendsgivings and Watch Parties

Though their jaunt in Sicily is over, the cast hasn’t said goodbye to each other just yet. Unfortunately, there’s no cast group chat—a result of the mix of Italian, U.S., and Canadian phone numbers—but that hasn’t caused the bonding to cease. DiMarco’s hotel neighbor became his roommate when he crashed on Fahy’s couch after arriving in Los Angeles around the time of the season’s premiere. And even now, DiMarco sees castmates often. “I stay in touch with everyone from the show,” he says. “I went to Haley’s Friendsgiving.”

And while they didn’t share many scenes together, Sabrina Impacciatore and DiMarco have also remained close, relating over being transplants in Los Angeles (DiMarco is from Vancouver; Impacciatore, from Rome). He even joined the Italian actress—as well as John Gries, who plays Greg—for a watch party of episode five. You know, the one that opens up with a sex scene between DiMarco and Simona Tabasco.

“I wasn’t going to watch it, but Sabrina convinced me to stay,” DiMarco says. “It was such a weird experience, having to watch that in a group of people. I was just hiding behind my hands the whole time.”