Last July, Dua Lipa shared a series of photos on Instagram while on holiday in Palermo with Callum Turner, the British actor she had turn out to be engaged to weeks earlier. In these photographs, the pair appeared radiantly in love with one another – and the Sicilian capital.
There have been footage of the couple strolling by way of the town’s vibrant baroque alleys, admiring the ceiling frescoes in its hanging cathedral and having fun with sundown boat journeys. In one other, a smiling Turner is holding a pair of ricotta-filled cannoli, the Sicilian dessert. One picture even captured the phrase ‘“amore” scrawled on a wall.
Now, rumours percolate that the couple might marry in Palermo this summer – possibly in June – and it’s unlikely anybody is extra excited than Alessandro Minnone, the proprietor of Colletti, a bar in the town centre from the place Dua Lipa posted footage of herself shuffling playing cards and holding a Campari soda when the couple visited for an aperitivo.
“I was honoured to welcome her to my venue,” Minnone instructed the Guardian, describing Dua Lipa as “a very down-to-earth and warm person”.
“When I heard the news of her [possible] wedding here in Palermo, it was wonderful. I hope she comes back to my place. If she does not, that is fine too. As somebody from Palermo, I can only feel proud that an international star like her has decided to return – and even to get married here.”
Speculation over the pair’s nuptials has been rife because the newspaper Giornale di Sicilia claimed {that a} marriage ceremony planner had been employed to arrange the celebrations in Palermo, together with reserving an entire floor of suites at Villa Igiea, the five-star artwork nouveau lodge owned by the Rocco Forte Hotels group.
A supply at Villa Igiea stated that whereas rooms for the marriage friends had been reserved, the ceremony itself wouldn’t happen on the venue. The supply additionally stated that the rooms had been booked for June, contradicting reviews that the marriage can be held 5-7 September.
A spokesperson for Dua Lipa didn’t reply to a request for remark and neither did Alessandra Grillo, the rumoured marriage ceremony planner who organised the 2018 celebrations in Sicily between Chiara Ferragni, an Italian influencer, and the rapper Fedez, her now ex-husband.
Even in the absence of an official affirmation, there has not been this quantity of anticipation over a marriage in Italy because the star-studded shindig between the billionaire Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sánchez in Venice final June, an occasion that both enthralled and appalled.
But if the Bezos’ nuptials have been referred to as “wedding of the century” by the Italian press owing to the massive value and domination of the town, this occasion one has merely been predicted because the “wedding of the year”.
La Repubblica steered the bride might have chosen the interior courtyard of GAM, Palermo’s gallery for contemporary artwork, to change vows. The newspaper additionally cited the church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo, higher recognized merely because the Spasimo and not too long ago restored, as a attainable venue, whereas native media steered that Piazza Croce dei Vespri will play a central position, requiring the sq. to be utterly cordoned off. The couple might quickly return to the town to scout areas, based on reviews.
Lipa, 30, first met Turner, 36, an actor broadly tipped to be the frontrunner to play the subsequent James Bond, in 2023, after being launched on the River Cafe in west London. But the pair didn’t get collectively till a yr later when their paths crossed at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
The singer’s love affair with Palermo, a city that has undergone a radical transformation over the past decade or so, additionally seems to have begun in 2023. That was the yr Foot Locker Europe launched a collection of photos of her wearing the pink shirt of Palermo football club to advertise the “Puma Palermo” trainers. The footage have been shared by the Sicilian membership’s social media accounts with the caption: “Dua Lipa knows what’s up! The Puma pink Palermo is the way to go.”
Needless to say, rumours that Lipa will wed in Palermo have been greeted by a lot pleasure from native followers, with many hoping to satisfy her or catch a glimpse of her in a marriage gown.
“I can already imagine her in a white dress walking through the streets of Palermo,” stated Iole, 13, including that the town would “welcome her again with open arms”. “We can’t wait. The excitement is sky high: an international star chooses your city to celebrate one of the most important events of her life. How could we not feel honoured?”
