Whether the day-to-day lives of superstars is your usual form of entertainment or not, there are some events that are impossible to escape even with minimal screen time. The latest event set to douse envy-inducing spam of the glitterati across our social media feeds? The wedding of the year, of course.

Pop star Dua Lipa and actor Callum Turner will soon tie the knot in an extravagant ceremony. And according to new reports from The Times, the ceremony could happen in one of Europe’s most opulent hotels: Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel, in Sicily. Between Dua’s world tour and Callum’s acting gigs, the pair managed to squeeze in a sunny escape to the gorgeous Italian island last summer, with their adventures across the island going viral within minutes of them leaving each spot.

Patrick Lanzino, manager of the bar Botteghe Coletti where the couple stopped off on their Sicilian escape, reportedly told The Times: “She drank Campari soda, he drank an Old Fashioned, and they ate olives while playing cards. She was very sweet and they seemed like a normal couple. A few people asked her for a picture. We asked her if it bothered her and she said no. She was used to it—not a problem.”

The Florio dynasty, once one of Sicily’s most influential families, purchased Villa Igiea from English admiral Sir William Domville in 1899, and the property was originally known as Villa Domville. Though Ignazio and Franca Florio had plans to transform the property into a sanatorium as a result of their daughter’s tuberculosis, plans changed and they decided instead to create a luxury property worthy of the most stringent international standards.

Today, a host of spacious bedrooms and plush suites welcome travellers from around the world to sink into billowy beds before morning wake-up calls that see them gazing over the glittering Mediterranean Sea. Restaurants serve authentic Italian fare over similarly spectacularly views of the sea, while guests unwind over transformative treatments in the opulent Irene Forte Spa between dips in the shimmering pool.

All in all, we’ll be keeping a keen eye out for all the incoming wedding content. Bring on the carousels, Dua.

A version of this article originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveller UK.

The ballad of Jake Shane goes something like this: Grow up in Washington Heights, wishing that you lived some dozen blocks south on the Upper West Side instead. Move to Los Angeles and find it an easy place to call home. Find career success posting comedy videos on your Instagram, @passthatpuss, which you initially founded to review octopus dishes. Stay true to your roots and keep that handle intact even as your remit expands to podcasting and socializing. Return to New York when Broadway comes knocking. Realize, after the time away, how much you really do love the Big Apple, and the far-north neighborhood that raised you. Turns out, what his mama told him when he was young—that it was way cooler to be from Washington Heights than the Upper West—was true, then and now.

Shane, whose run in All Out at the Nederlander Theater ends March 8, took some time to show Condé Nast Traveler some of his favorite Manhattan haunts—from a five-star hotel to a tawdry nightclub to the first brow aesthetician that put him at ease.

A view of Washington Heights as framed by the George Washington Bridge

Getty

Tell us about where you grew up in New York.

Washington Heights! I love it there because that’s where I became a person. It’s where I grew up, and where I spent a lot of Covid. The memories are, like, taking my practice ACT at home, eating at the same fucking Indian restaurant [Swagat] over and over again, taking the 1 to [Calhoun] school [on the Upper West Side], walking my dog. Just living there.

At the time, I didn’t appreciate it, because all my school friends were from the Upper West Side. I was so insecure, like, painfully insecure, that I didn’t live there because it was too expensive. I would always get so embarrassed when people would be like, “Is growing up in New York like Gossip Girl?” For me, it wasn’t. And my mom would always tell me how cool it was that I lived in such a vibrant neighborhood. I didn’t get it at the time, but now I do and I wish I had that mindset. I want people to know how cool Washington Heights is—it’s hard in New York to find a real neighborhood where you know neighbors in other buildings, see the same people everyday, and still have your mom-and-pop shops. It’s super Jewish and Dominican. They have the best Dominican food in the city. I love this place called Malecon. Chicken and rice every time. Fire.

Of course, creating an interactive experience such as this one has a lot more spinning plates than a typical theater production. As such, planning began well over six months prior to the party, and included bringing in one of the immersive industry’s heavy hitters, Chris Waters of Constructed Adventures. “He never misses. His ideas are spectacular,” says Waters of Harris, who was the one to come up with the concept of framing the event around a wellness cult. “It’s wild how invested he was, considering he was often in another country doing something for work. It was really cool to see how much he cared.”

And the entire creative team shared that same passion: Apart from Harris and Waters, the group also included Cajou Hospitality (who liaised with all parties to make sure everything ran smoothly), and corporate partner Capital One, whose credit card members were the only guests eligible to purchase entry to the three-night, $10,000 adventure. Underwriting bespoke events such as this one at Little Palm have lately become a hallmark of the company: “Creating these once-in-a-lifetime experiences that card holders can’t go and do on their own is really important [to us],” says Monica Weaver, head of branded card partnerships and experiences at Capital One. Other trips in the works for later this year include golfing in the Scottish Highlands with Colin Montgomerie, and a tour of Rome with design expert Athena Calderone.

The staff at Little Palm Island Resort & Spa prepare the luau-style welcome reception for guests.

Colin Peck and Adahlia Cole Photography

And even I, an admittedly jaded travel writer, one who has been spoiled from years of butler service and custom check-in amenities, found myself surprised at the attention to detail during the party. I say this without hyperbole: I have never been on a trip as curated, personalized, and fun as this one. In the mornings, we were free to use the hotel’s pool, spa, and beach, as one would on any regular Florida vacation. But our afternoons were tied to the murder mystery party through opportunities to go on “gambits”—carefully planned excursions with characters that not only introduced us to different areas of the hotel like the yoga platform or its boats, but a chance to pump the Circles members for information on secret allegiances, motives, and more. And before dinner every night, all of the guests gathered at the bar, where those of us who met as strangers soon became fast friends as we excitedly traded tips on which Circles members we’d met and what we’d managed to squeeze out of them.

By the last meal, when we’d collectively solved the mystery and the actors emerged to dine as their real selves, the scene at the beach dinner was more akin to a family reunion. Everyone was popping up to chat at different tables or take group photos. “When we ended the [event] and we were all sitting at random 12-top tables that weren’t chosen by us—that we each just picked—I’m not joking when I say I have never seen 50 people all talking so simultaneously and enthusiastically,” Harris tells me when we catch up after dinner. “Everyone was co-existing like family. That I was not expecting.”

The good news is that there are plans to schedule more of these wacky, multi-day murder mystery adventures in the future. (This was actually the second; the first, held last year, was a shorter affair in the Berkshires, also sponsored by Capital One.) “I want to keep expanding it,” Harris says. “I think the third iteration deserves to be more global. There’s something kind of intoxicating about that.”

In February 1997, at a match in the United Kingdom, a young footballer for Manchester United was introduced to a just-as-young member of what would become the biggest girl band in Britain (and then, the world). Of course, he already knew who she was. She, on the other hand, would admit years later in an interview that she didn’t: “I was never into football.”

Fate intervened, and just a week later she attended another game, where he asked for her number—she wrote it down on, what else, a plane ticket.

Lo, Posh and Becks emerged, into the primordial celebrity whorl of the ’90s. While they’re still going strong nearly 30 years into their decorated careers—sports for David, and pop music and fashion (and now fragrances) for Victoria—I along with many others was struck by more than just their enduring romance, or their robust professional lives, while watching their mini-docuseries Beckham, which began streaming this month on Netflix.

For me, it was the airport outfits.

The images unearthed throughout the documentary are a cacophony of ’90s and early 2000s style: Victoria and David arriving in some far-flung destination, she in a little Gucci dress, he in a white tank top and khakis. At another departures terminal, both of them carrying matching Louis Vuitton bags up to the check-in counter. Even when they traveled solo, they were at their chicest post-baggage claim: David with flaxen curtain bangs and a cream jumper, flanked by a wall of luggage; Victoria in signature Posh Spice leathers strutting across an airport’s carpeted floors.

The Beckhams had an outsize impact on the celebrity style game. According to the photographers Eamonn and James Clarke, both interviewed in Beckham, the effect Posh and Becks had on the workings of the media industry was so significant that even the Clarkes and their fellow paparazzi had to learn more about fashion—which handbag Victoria was carrying, which shoes and glasses David was wearing. Wherever they went became their runway, and everyone paid close attention. As Anna Wintour, global editorial director of Vogue and chief content officer of Condé Nast (which owns and publishes Traveler), says in the documentary’s first episode, “When you have two equally charismatic people, it doubles the volume. It puts the heat factor way up.”

SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; accordingly, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This interview was conducted prior to the strike.

“I grew up in London, and I first came to know the Cayman Islands in 2015 through a youth-exchange program. I was there for about two weeks, and we all stayed in Rum Point on Grand Cayman, in this amazing modernist house called Olympus. Our group participated in volunteer projects, like putting on mini concerts for the local community. Quite often we’d host them at the Cayman Cabana, a lovely little restaurant on the water in George Town owned by this man named Luigi Moxam. He’s a big inspiration to many people and businesses there. When I met Mr. Luigi, I knew we’d be lifelong pals. He’s always the first person I connect with as soon as I get off the plane. He also knows how to throw down in his restaurant. There’s jerk chicken, rice, and plantains, this banging coconut ceviche—it made no sense what he did with it, but it had lots of onions and this delicious sauce on top, and it came with these chips that you dip. But my favorite dish was the conch fritters. They’re one-of-a-kind, and I haven’t been able to find them back home. 

There’s something quite monumental about the Cayman Islands. A lot of people go there to get engaged or married—to take these big life steps. It gives you that kind of seclusion, when you need to just be with yourself, and this sense of tranquility, with its beaches, the ocean, the blue skies. It automatically does something to you and puts you in a more relaxed state. It’s just very healing, especially if you’re in a hectic job or have a busy family life. Island time goes slower.”

John Boyega stars in They Cloned Tyrone, now streaming on Netflix. This article appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.