From The White Lotus to Master of None — the shows that are sending millions to Italy.
Plan your Italy trip →The White Lotus Season 2 (2022, HBO): Set at the San Domenico Palace in Taormina (now a Four Seasons). Sicily — Noto, Cefalù, Palermo — suddenly became the world's most desired destination. The show's mix of dark comedy and Sicilian beauty created a tourism wave that hasn't subsided.
Master of None Season 2 (2017, Netflix): Aziz Ansari's love letter to Italy, specifically Modena (where he studies pasta-making) and the food culture of Emilia-Romagna. The "Le Nozze" episode filmed in a Modenese church is beautiful. Made Americans discover that Italy has food beyond pizza and pasta.
My Brilliant Friend (2018-present, HBO): Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels adapted with devastating accuracy. The Rione Luzzatti neighborhood in 1950s Naples, the beach scenes at Ischia, the class dynamics of post-war Italy. Drives literary tourism to Naples.
Gomorra — La Serie (2014-2021): The Neapolitan crime saga. Dark, violent, and the most internationally successful Italian TV show ever. Filming locations in Scampia, Secondigliano, and across Campania. Not a travel show — but it makes you understand Naples at a level no guidebook can.
L'Amica Geniale (My Brilliant Friend, Italian version): The same HBO series but in Italian. Watching it in the original language while in Naples is a transformative experience.
Don Matteo: Italy's longest-running show. A bicycle-riding priest solves crimes in Gubbio (later Spoleto). Light, charming, and an accurate portrait of small-town Umbria that no travel show captures. Available with subtitles on various platforms.
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