Rome
On a heat Saturday evening within the coronary heart of Sicily’s capital, a whole bunch of visitors piled into the Villa Valguarnera to rejoice the wedding of pop star Dua Lipa and actor Callum Turner.
The monumental gardens of the 18th century palace in Palermo had been dotted with chairs draped in satin bows, sugary Sicilian almonds and hand embroidered “stay mad with me forever” handkerchiefs in a nod to the island’s numerous traditions. Each chair was additionally adorned with a hand-crafted fan to beat back the late afternoon warmth, in line with Italian media. Among these in attendance had been Charli XCX and Donatella Versace.
After a ceremonial change of vows, Elton John serenaded the couple with a particular rendition of “Your Song.” Guests had been then handled to a dinner by Michelin cooks, Italian media reported, earlier than partying to the music of DJs Carl Cox, Martin Garrix, David Guetta and Peggy Gou, who had been allowed to play past the villa’s commonplace midnight curfew. The grand finale was a large fireworks show seen throughout town.
Not all that long in the past, the palace — now owned by writer-princess Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca, the Italian translator of The Lord of the Rings, whose inside circle famously contains Mick Jagger (and, in earlier instances, the late Salvador Dali) — served as a mafia hideout for many years till it was introduced out of wreck in 2020 as a part of an city renewal plan.
More just lately, the Villa Valguarnera was represented within the opening credit of season two of “The White Lotus,” which was filmed in Sicily. The lavish €6,000 ($6,900) an evening Villa Igiea — a Rocco Forte property the place the newlyweds and a number of visitors stayed — was a movie set for the HBO collection. (HBO, like NCS, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery).
The days-long wedding celebrations kicked into excessive gear on Friday, when 30-year-old Dua Lipa, draped in a white leather-based woven Bottega Veneta gown with ostrich feathers, and Turner, the 36-year-old British actor, threw a avenue social gathering within the metropolis middle alongside a number of hundred of their closest pals, reworking the 18th century Croce dei Vespri sq. right into a classic bookstore in a nod to how they met whereas reading the same novel.
Guests had been serenaded by an enormous brass marching band and given gold bracelets with microchips that allowed them into numerous venues, together with a non-public tour of town’s spectacular Galleria d’Arte Moderna, which the couple rented out for a reported €10,000 ($11,500) for the night, NCS affiliate Sky24 and native media reported. They then headed to the Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi, the place they dined and danced to a swing band in the identical ballroom depicted in Luchino Visconti’s 1963 movie “The Leopard.”
The festivities got here every week after the couple officially tied the knot in a civil ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall in London on May 31. A consultant for Lipa didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Local Sicilian media has been reveling within the celebrations, describing the occasions as a very powerful wedding since Michael Corleone (performed by Al Pacino) acquired married on the island within the 1972 traditional “The Godfather.” And it could nicely rewrite the island metropolis’s historical past.
The couple’s Palermo celebrations left an estimated €268 million ($307.7 million) financial affect on town’s metro space, in line with a report by JFC analysis institute cited by ANSA, the Italian information company.
Several protesters demonstrated forward of the social gathering with indicators studying “Palermo is not for the rich” and “Palermo is not for rent.” Many of them had been a part of the identical group that protested the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice final summer season.
Palermo Mayor Roberto Lagalla, who reportedly led the Saturday evening ceremony, celebrated the three-day social gathering, nonetheless. “There is a clear return that leaves a lasting impression,” he told La Repubblica newspaper. “I understand the inconvenience caused by events of this magnitude, and I’m sorry if anyone will have to face temporary restrictions,” he mentioned. “We must not forget the image boost Palermo receives from occasions like this. The international visibility generated by events of this magnitude helps strengthen the city’s attractiveness and generate widespread economic benefits.”
The couple had been noticed within the metropolis in 2025 across the time of their engagement, and the singer posted on Instagram about her love of town, alongside selfies with Turner, on the time.
The solely misstep through the extravaganza, was the reported lack of a pair of footwear belonging to Dua Lipa’s mom Anesa Rexha, which stay unaccounted for.