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The White Lotus Cast & Crew Had The Gayest Hangout Spot Ever
They reportedly spent their after-hours at this “penis bar”.
The White Lotus may have wrapped its second season (giving us one last iconic line: “These gays. They’re trying to murder me.”) but it’s still giving, this time with some after-hours tea, that is, ahem, hard not to stan.
The second season took place in Italy, and the lucky cast and crew shot on location in Taormina at the five-star resort San Domenico Palace. While the grounds are palatial, when the cameras went down the cast and crew had a very different, and queer, hang spot.
CNN reports that they spent plenty of time at the former brothel and gay hotspot Bar Turrisi, located in the medieval villa Castelmola, which was just minutes away from their filming location.
Nicknamed by the cast as “the penis bar” it’s filled and covered with decorations in the form of, you guessed it, penises. “Bottles, watches, cups, everything,” Lorenzo Maraviglia, San Domenico manager told CNN. “Even staircases and floor tiles have penises.”
“This bar dates back to 1947, it used to be a brothel and gay hotspot,” server Giorgia Ponturo Ponturo said. “Then the owner decided to adopt the phallus motif, which was an ancient Greek symbol of sexual potency and fertility, to reaffirm the virility of Sicilian men. It also brings good luck.” Ponturo added that she hopes the show will encourage more tourists to visit the areas around Taormina like Castlemola.
The White Lotus director Mike White was reportedly very open to including local culture and locations in the series. Sadly, however, Bar Turrisi didn’t make the cut, as it was deemed too extreme, which having seen season two of the hit show, is really saying a lot.
White Lotus has been renewed for a third season.
Season one was shot in Maui, Hawaii. Season two was shot in Taormina, Sicily.
White Lotus is streaming on Hulu and HBO Max.
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Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq, and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq, and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
