Italy on Screen: Venetian Palazzos, a Sicilian Convent and the Room With a View

Italian hotels have a head start on film sets: many of them were palaces, convents or noble villas long before they took guests. A Venetian doge's palace, a 14th-century Dominican monastery and a Renaissance cardinal's lakeside retreat all appear below, and all of them now have room service.

San Domenico Palace, Taormina: The White Lotus (Season 2), L'Avventura (1960)

The San Domenico Palace began life in 1374 as a Dominican convent and became a hotel in 1896. Its cloisters, terraces and infinity pool above the Ionian Sea are the White Lotus Sicily in Season 2 of HBO's series. Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya McQuoid drifts through the hotel in search of romance, Aubrey Plaza and Will Sharpe's couple fall apart by the pool, and Beatrice Grannò's Mia takes over the piano in the bar. Coolidge won her second Emmy for the role.

The hotel has an older film credit that cinephiles treasure. In Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960), Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti end their aimless search for a missing friend at the San Domenico, and the film's final scenes play out in its corridors, bar and terrace. L'Avventura was booed at its Cannes premiere and then won the festival's Jury Prize; it later ranked among the greatest films ever made in Sight & Sound critics' polls. Luc Besson's The Big Blue (1988), starring Jean Reno, also filmed here.

Venice

Hotel Danieli: Moonraker (1979), The Tourist (2010), Emily in Paris (Season 5)

The Danieli occupies the 14th-century Palazzo Dandolo on the Riva degli Schiavoni, a few steps from St Mark's Square, and both James Bond and Johnny Depp have checked in. In Moonraker, Roger Moore's Bond arrives in Venice and the Danieli provides some of the film's most opulent interiors before the gondola chase down the canals.

In The Tourist, Johnny Depp plays an American maths teacher swept into intrigue by Angelina Jolie's mysterious Elise, and the pair stay at the Danieli. Both stars were nominated for Golden Globes. In Season 5 of Emily in Paris, Marcello's fashion show after-party is held on the hotel's terrace.

Hotel Cipriani: Casino Royale (2006)

In the final act of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's Bond and Eva Green's Vesper Lynd sail into Venice and moor their yacht at the Cipriani on Giudecca island, the brief idyll before everything collapses. The Cipriani is famous for something almost unheard of in Venice, a large outdoor swimming pool, and its private launch runs guests across to St Mark's in a few minutes.

The Gritti Palace: Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Woody Allen's musical comedy, starring Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, Goldie Hawn and Allen himself, sends its characters to Venice, and Allen filmed at the Gritti Palace, the former residence of the 16th-century Doge Andrea Gritti on the Grand Canal. Hemingway was a regular.

Hotel Excelsior Venice Lido: Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

The Moorish-style Excelsior on the Lido opened in 1908 and has been the social headquarters of the Venice Film Festival for as long as there has been one. It also appears in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America, starring Robert De Niro.

The St. Regis Venice: Emily in Paris (Season 5)

In the Season 5 finale of Emily in Paris, Emily and Marcello check into The St. Regis Venice on the Grand Canal before his fashion show.

Rome: Hotel Eden, Emily in Paris (Season 4)

When Emily in Paris moves to Rome at the end of Season 4, Emily checks into the Hotel Eden moments before Marcello whisks her away. The Eden sits between the Spanish Steps and the Villa Borghese, and its rooftop restaurant has one of the best views in the city.

Florence: Hotel degli Orafi, A Room with a View (1985)

Merchant Ivory's adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel begins with Helena Bonham Carter's Lucy Honeychurch and Maggie Smith's Charlotte complaining that their Florence rooms have no view. The room with the view, Room 414, is at the Hotel degli Orafi on the Arno, near the Ponte Vecchio. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and Smith and Denholm Elliott were both Oscar-nominated.

Lake Como: Villa d'Este, The Pleasure Garden (1925)

Alfred Hitchcock's first completed feature as director, The Pleasure Garden, filmed on Lake Como at Villa d'Este, the 16th-century cardinal's villa in Cernobbio that has been a hotel since 1873. Hitchcock was 25.

Sardinia: Hotel Cala di Volpe, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

When Roger Moore's Bond and Barbara Bach's Soviet agent Anya Amasova arrive in Sardinia, they check into the Cala di Volpe, the fishing-village fantasy designed by Jacques Couëlle on the Costa Smeralda. It's the Sardinia of the white Lotus Esprit that turns into a submarine. The hotel opens seasonally, and its Presidential Suite is among the most expensive hotel rooms in the Mediterranean.

The Dolomites: Miramonti Majestic, For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Bond goes to Cortina d'Ampezzo in For Your Eyes Only, and the 105-room Miramonti Majestic Grand Hotel, open since the early 1900s, provides the Alpine grandeur for Roger Moore's skiing sequences. Cortina co-hosted the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Matera: Palazzo Viceconte, No Time to Die (2021)

The opening of Daniel Craig's final Bond film is set in Matera, the ancient cave city in Basilicata, where Bond and Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann are briefly happy. The entrance where Bond arrives belongs to Palazzo Viceconte, a historic hotel on Via San Potito. No Time to Die won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell's theme.