It was once a place that people were too afraid to visit, a stronghold of Sicily’s murderous Cosa Nostra.
Bagheria, on the island’s glittering north coast, was part of the “Triangle of Death”, a cluster of towns where mafia mobsters tortured and killed their rivals in a disused nail factory and then dissolved the bodies in acid.
Now, after decades of bloodshed and retribution, the town has become the place to be seen this summer, as it hosts Dua Lipa and her new husband Callum Turner for a three-day extravaganza of events to celebrate their marriage after they tied the knot in London on Sunday.
Newlyweds Dua Lipa and Callum Turner tied the knot at Old Marylebone Town Hall on Sunday – Ray Collins
The 30-year-old pop diva, who has 87 million Instagram followers and an estimated net worth of £90m, and Turner, 36, who is the bookies’ favourite to become the next James Bond, are this weekend hosting more than 200 friends and family in Villa Valguarnera, one of the many historic villas built by the Sicilian nobility in Bagheria in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The guest list is reputed to include Sir Elton John, Donatella Versace, Mark Ronson, Harry Styles and Charli XCX. There is even talk of Madonna, Adele and Kylie Minogue turning up.
Dua Lipa and Callum Turner were spotted in Palermo on Wednesday before their three-day wedding extravaganza in a historic mafia stronghold – Paul Grover for The Telegraph/Paul Grover for The Telegraph
It will be a far cry from when Bagheria was a byword for mafia brutality.
Not far from where A-listers are gathering for the wedding is an abandoned factory that was used for years as a “mafia extermination camp”, run by the fugitive Cosa Nostra don Bernardo Provenzano. There, dozens of victims were strangled to death, according to former foot soldiers who confessed to investigators.
Expressing an opinion that was “in the least bit” contrary to Provenzano was enough to sign your own death warrant, prosecutors were told.
Wanted posters for Bernardo Provenzano in Bagheria in 2005. The town has moved on from its mafia past in recent years – FABRIZIO VILLA/AFP/Getty Images
Authorities have since clamped down on organised crime.
“This used to be mafia territory, it was a fiefdom of Cosa Nostra,” Filippo Tripoli, the mayor of Bagheria, told The Telegraph in his office in an 18th-century palazzo. Now, he says: “All the big mafia guys are either serving life sentences in prison or they’re dead.”
Far from its association with torture, murder and mafia hits, Bagheria has become known for hosting lavish weddings and as a filming location. Tourism is booming too – in 2007 there were two B&Bs whereas now there are more than 200.
Filippo Tripoli, the mayor of Bagheria, said the town used to be a ‘fiefdom’ of the Cosa Nostra mafia clan – Paul Grover for The Telegraph
Lipa and Turner will find Bagheria to be a place of baroque churches, trickling fountains, orange trees and family businesses, from fishmongers to butchers.
“It’s great that they chose us. The whole world is talking about Bagheria,” said Ivano Molinaro, 40, who owns a bar in the town centre. “Years ago, the mafia clans were strong here. But then ordinary people started standing up to them.”
The villa that the couple have chosen as one of their venues is owned by an Italian princess with a colourful past. Princess Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca, 76, translated Lord of the Rings into Italian and raised camels in the Middle East.
Villa Valguarnera in Bagheria will host more than 200 of the couple’s friends and family
They have reportedly chosen Alessandra Grillo, the leading Italian wedding planner, to organise the events. She is best known in Italy for arranging the nuptials of the country’s most prominent influencer, Chiara Ferragni, and a rapper called Fedez.
Lipa and her new husband flew into Palermo on a private jet late on Wednesday night, and were pictured together – Dua Lipa in a white dress and Mr Turner in a tanned suit – on Friday. They are staying at Villa Igiea, a fabulously opulent waterfront hotel with views of Palermo and its broad bay.
Lipa and Turner fell in love with Sicily on holiday last summer
The Telegraph was given a tour of the hotel, which was once owned by a British admiral.
A seafront terrace boasts a swimming pool and tennis court. Guests sipped Dirty Negronis while a pianist played – appropriately enough – Elton John’s Your Song.
Lipa has reserved two entire floors of the hotel, which appeared in the Sicilian chapter of The White Lotus series.
Lipa reserved two floors of the hotel, which appeared in The White Lotus series – Paul Grover for The Telegraph
Turner was also seen on the balcony of the hotel, which was once owned by a British admiral – Paul Grover for The Telegraph
The festivities began on Friday when Lipa and her beau hosted their guests for a drinks reception in Palazzo Gangi in Palermo.
They were then set to stroll a few paces across the lovely Piazza Croce dei Vespri to the Modern Art Gallery, which is located in a 15th-century Catalan merchant’s house and the adjacent Franciscan monastery.
Elton John will reportedly perform in the gallery, which boasts exquisite bronze statues, marble cherubs, square-jawed portraits of Garibaldi and dreamy landscapes by Sicily’s leading artists.
On Saturday, the focus will move to Villa Valguarnera in Bagheria. Wedding organisers gave nothing away – and when The Telegraph approached the gates of the villa, we were told to leave by officious security staff in black t-shirts and combat trousers.
The couple fell in love with Sicily on holiday last summer. They were photographed sitting on a kerbstone outside a tiny bar called Dal Barone in the maze of winding lanes that makes up Palermo’s ramshackle historic centre.
Salvo Morello, the bar manager, said Lipa and her then boyfriend were happy to squat on the pavement, just like all the other tourists.
“They were here for about three hours. They drank some wine and smoked some cigarettes. She was very normal, very low key. We are delighted that she’s chosen to come back to Palermo.”
Lipa was photographed smoking outside a Palermo bar during the couple’s holiday in Sicily last summer
Some cities might be plunged into a tailspin of resentment by the prospect of being invaded by A-list celebrities and an entourage of designers, caterers, security staff and guests.
Indeed, late on Thursday night, on the eve of the wedding celebrations, protest posters appeared on a wall just a few yards from the palazzo.
“Palermo Is Not for Rent. Our Piazza Is Not Your Living Room,” the posters read.
“Public spaces belong to everyone. We reclaim the right to live them, free from private profit.”
There was no indication as to which organisation or individual was behind the posters, but they echoed similar flyers that appeared in Venice last year during the wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.
But most Palermitani are happy about A-listers descending on their city. This is a place, after all, that has been invaded and occupied by Romans, Arabs, Normans, Bourbon Spanish, Nazis and the Allies – not to mention the mafia’s stranglehold before authorities clamped down.
Asked whether she was worried about disruption, Enrica Medico laughed. She owns a corner bar just a few yards from Piazza Croce dei Vespri, the focus of Friday’s wedding events.
“You’re joking right? It’s not going to be a problem compared with all the usual problems we have to put up with – the traffic, the uncollected rubbish, the pollution, the 14-year-olds who tear around on mopeds and rob people,” said Ms Medico.
“We can handle a celebrity wedding. Dua Lipa is welcome – she’ll bring attention to Sicily. And lots of money.”
The clampdown on the mafia began in earnest in the 1990s after the mob assassinated Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two leading Sicilian prosecutors.
The aftermath of a car bomb that killed anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three policemen in Palermo in May 1992
The murders caused outrage across Italy and triggered a fierce response from the state, leading to the arrests of senior mafia dons and the holding of maxi-trials in which dozens of defendants were put in the dock at the same time.
“That was the turning point. It was the spark which led to the realisation that the mafia was destroying Sicily,” Mr Tripoli, the mayor, told The Telegraph.
Cosa Nostra was weakened across Sicily and Bagheria reaped the benefits, allowing it to become the tourist destination it is today.
“Since then, as soon as mafiosi tried to reestablish themselves, they were immediately arrested,” he added.
But while the heyday of the mafia in Bagheria may have been in the 1980s and 1990s, the violence continued long after that. In 2013, police found the burned bodies of two drug dealers in a rubbish dump outside the town.
They had been shot dead with 30 rounds fired from pistols as part of an internal feud.
Mr Tripoli acknowledges that even now, the threat of the mafia is not over. “The mafia keeps trying to rebuild itself – we always have to be on our guard.”
