The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Sicily’s secret celebrity stomping ground
Mick Jagger is among the stars snapping up property in a tucked-away region of the Italian island better known for its tomato fields than its glamour. Sally Howard reveals all
A‘There is no selfie culture here. It’s very private and locals are not bothered about famous people’
t the southern tip of Sicily, where the Mediterranean flows into the crystal blues of the Ionian Sea, you will find Portopalo di Capo Passero. The commune was once best known for its sprawling fields of tomatoes (the aromatic pachino datterini being the queen of these fruits), its wild coves, its baroque architecture and a certain sleepy ambience.
“Few locals would rouse themselves before the lunchtime Sicilian riposa (siesta),” says Jane Sheen, who has owned a villa in the region since the 1980s. These days, though, you are as likely to see a 78-year-old British rock legend sprinting along Portopalo’s wild-olive fringed coastal paths as a Sicilian snoozing in the maquis shrubland.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger spent the 2020 Covid lockdowns in this little-known Sicilian region, staying with his 34-year-old American ballerina partner Melanie Hamrick – and their five-year-old child Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger – at the sprawling residences of friends: an 18th-century villa owned by Sicilian aristocrat
Prince Lucio Bonaccorsi and renovated by his Milanese stylist wife Luisa Beccaria, and a plush villa converted from a 17th-century monastery in baroque Noto, owned by French architect Jacques Garcia (the designer behind opulent hotels including the Peninsula in Paris and NoMad in New York).
Hearing that Jagger had fallen in love with the island, the council of Mussomeli, a town in Sicily’s hilly interior, tried to entice the singer north with an offer of a “doer-upper” villa for €1, but he reportedly declined the offer. Instead, Jagger sealed his love for southern Sicily with the purchase, in August 2021, of a seaside property in Portopalo featuring a generous swath of beachfront land – perfect for a lithe septuagenarian who enjoys daily eight-mile runs.
Jagger isn’t the first celebrity to be attracted to the Italian island, where ruins of
Greek temples jostle with handsome Roman amphitheatres and the cuisine is a melee of African and Italian influences – including the famous rice ball street snack arancini, iced granita and fish dishes such as nasello alla palermitana (hake with anchovies, breadcrumbs and lemon juice).
“Mick Hucknall has had a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Etna since 2014,” says James Davies, a Briton who runs a property search business in Sicily and is married to a Sicilian. “And the baroque town Noto, near to where Jagger has bought, has a growing but discreet community of famous artists and gay power couples.”
Davies notes that celebrity attention turned to the island in 2014, when technology giant Google began hosting its ultra-exclusive annual conference Google Camp at the glitzy Verdura Resort in Sciacca on Sicily’s southwest coast, featuring lavish after-parties at the Valle di Tiepolo, an ancient Greek archaeological site. The events brought film stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and business magnates such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates to Sicily in their private jets. The 2021 arrival of celeb-favourite hotel brand Four Seasons – with a multi-million renovation of a former 14th-century monastery at Taormina – may have sealed Sicily’s status as the new Ibiza.
“Sicily is attractive to superstars as there is no ‘selfie’ culture here,”
Davies believes. “It’s very private and locals are not bothered about famous people in their midst.”
So what is on offer for a superannuated rock star who has put down roots at this far reach of southern Europe?
Samantha Vukmirovic, founder of luxury villa specialist the Sicilian Villa Company, notes that Jagger has been spotted eating tagliolini with Sicilian red prawns at Taverna La Cialoma in Marzamemi, a charming old fishing village where colourful boats bob in the harbour and stone fishing cottages have been transformed into fish restaurants. He has also been clocked at the small fishing village of Brucoli and exploring Riserva Naturale Oasi Faunistica di Vendicari, a nature reserve on salt flats that bristles with Mediterranean maquis and wild thyme and where shocking pink flamingos wade.
Though she doesn’t guarantee a paparazzo’s view of Jagger’s very private villa (its location is too tucked away, happily for him), Vukmirovic thinks that the best way to follow his lead and explore Portopalo is by picking up a daily boat rental from Marzememi from £8.50 per person for a half day.
“You will see the full beauty of this unspoiled coastal area by boat, passing by the Isola di Capo Passero – a fort island that strong swimmers can swim to from the beach – and the ruins of an old tuna-canning factory that falls picturesquely into bluegreen seas,” she says. “I would recommend packing a bottle of organic grillo from the nearby Feudo Ramaddini winery and fresh peaches. Locals wash them in sea water for a beautifully salty-sweet flavour.”
Rolling stones hoping to follow in Jagger’s wake should bed down at Noto, where a pedestrianised boulevard is lined with golden baroque palazzi or at unique stays, such as the converted lighthouse in Brucoli. Keep an eye out for a man in dark shades with a white cap pulled low over his tub of lemon granita (watch those sticky fingers).