Where to Stay in Italy for a Chance of a Celebrity Sighting
Lake Como; Portofino; that one stretch of the Lido during festival week. Certain addresses in Italy just keep pulling the same crowd back, and honestly, 2026 hasn’t broken the pattern one bit. Below is a working map of where it’s actually happened this year. Consider it a cheat sheet for anyone whose own Italian trip could use a bit of overlap.
Lake Como
Villa Oleandra is still George Clooney’s own corner of the shore, full stop. This year the Clooneys also turned up further along at Villa Passalacqua, for a social event that added yet another Como address to the family’s growing list. As if they needed one.
For the rest of us, The Lake Como EDITION in Cadenabbia has quietly been having a very good year. Thai actress Dew Arisara and her partner Woody Lamsam checked in there during their own trip to Cadenabbia.
But Como’s pull goes well beyond who’s booked which suite. Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi were pictured out on the water for a date night in late August. Katie Holmes and her partner Jason Bard Yarmosky spent early September on the lake, too, their holiday told through boat trips and long, unhurried swims rather than any single hotel name.
Portofino
Splendido, A Belmond Hotel, is the harbour’s most dependable draw, and it isn’t hard to work out why once you’ve seen the terrace. Nicole Kidman picked it for a holiday with her sister Antonia. The Beckhams came back to that same terrace for their own August visit. Two entirely different families. One address that keeps winning.
Venice, During Festival Season
For a fortnight each September, the Lido becomes the most photographed stretch of pavement in the country, and the Hotel Excelsior sits right in the thick of it. Its pier turns into an arrival stage every morning, cast and press and fashion guests moving through in a fairly relentless procession.
This year’s opening alone read like a festival unto itself. George and Amal Clooney took the red carpet. Maggie Gyllenhaal presided over the jury. Kate and Rooney Mara arrived together for the premiere of Bucking Fastard, and Laura Dern, Claire Foy, Kendall Jenner and Sydney Sweeney each worked their way through the arrival circuit over the following days. Alessandra Ambrosio, Bianca Balti, J Balvin and Georgina Rodríguez were all photographed at the Excelsior’s pier at various points across the week. Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Phoebe Bridgers rounded things out, and Noel and Liam Gallagher were expected for the premiere of Oasis, Don’t Look Back in Anger.
Away from the Lido, Venice’s grander names still carry their old glamour, festival or otherwise. Hotel Cipriani on Giudecca. The Gritti Palace on the Grand Canal. Aman Venice, where the Clooneys married years ago. The St Regis Venice, also on the canal. None of these four need a red carpet outside the door to fill a booking calendar.
Sicily and a Honeymoon That Covered Half the Country
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner set the bar for ambition this year. Their honeymoon opened at Villa Igiea in Palermo, moved to the San Domenico Palace in Taormina, then on again to Villa Paola in Tropea, Palazzo Margherita in Bernalda and Villa TreVille in Positano. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the route swung through Rome, taking in Hotel Locarno and La Posta Vecchia in Ladispoli, before finishing on the Tuscan coast at Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole. Six regions. One trip. Most of us plan that over a decade, not a fortnight.
Jennifer Lopez made her own way to Sicily this year as well, her presence tied to the Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda circuit and the island’s continuing pull on the fashion set.
Tuscany
Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco marked Gomez’s thirty fourth birthday at Il Borro Relais & Châteaux in Valdarno, settling into the Ferragamo family’s own estate for the occasion. Low key, by celebrity standards. Still unmistakably grand, mind you.
Sicily’s mix of historic grandeur and remote retreats makes it a favourite among celebrities who want privacy but aren’t quite ready to disappear entirely.
Sardinia
Julianne Hough spent her holiday at Hotel Capo d’Orso, tucked near Costa Smeralda in the island’s north. Ester Expósito and Kylian Mbappé stayed at a luxury property of their own further along the coast.
The Yacht Set
Some holidays are simply built to stay off the record. Sofía Vergara‘s Italian trip this year played out largely at sea, and Jessica Alba‘s holiday with Danny Ramirez, traced along the Argentario and Tuscan coast, kept a similarly low profile throughout. Fair enough, really. Not every celebrity wants their sun lounger geotagged for the world to see.
From honeymooners working their way through six regions to festival regulars filing past the very same Lido pier, Italy’s summer calendar shows no real sign of thinning out. Wherever the stars settle next, the country’s harbours and hotel terraces are unlikely to stay quiet for long.
