No fantasy-fulfillment lunch at a palazzo in Tuscany is complete without a bottle of Sassicaia, a full couture outfit, and a local princess sitting across the table, serving you a plate of gnocchi. That is, unless you stay at the Rocco Forte in Florence afterward, and then fly home on a private plane.
But while the wine, the jet, and the luxury hotel are obtainable, provided you have the money, the castle and the princess are usually not for sale. For Tanya McQuoid, the ill-fated American heiress on the White Lotus TV series, a suite at the five-star San Domenico Palace hotel paled in comparison with a weekend at a palace in Palermo with her fabulous newfound friends (“the gays,” to the initiated). Any of her rich acquaintances could go to Europe and book a room at the San Domenico, but it’s likely that none had stayed at a palazzo before.
