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Original poster

To think it’s not sad to go for dinner at a fancy hotel used for filming?

173 replies

tarregone · 28/08/2025 11:00

We are on holiday in Sicily and near a hotel used for filming of a famous tv show. It has a very well rated restaurant located in said fancy hotel.

I thought it might be fun to go for a nice dinner at the hotel. DP says it’s sad to only want to go somewhere because it was used for filming. He thinks it’s a bit sad really, especially because we couldn’t afford to stay at the hotel. He thinks it’s wannabe to go and snoop around a posh place where we could only afford dinner

OP posts:
Ilovelblue · 29/08/2025 10:40

PiggieWig · 29/08/2025 00:51

I don’t really do reality TV but I’ve always loved First Dates. My XH never took me to the restaurant but I’d fall in love with any man that did.

A friend of mine went into that restaurant last weeķ when on holiday in the area. She's a massive fan of the TV programme.

MissAmbrosia · 29/08/2025 10:31

StupidRules · 28/08/2025 16:51

I bet 80% of the people who go up that tower are making jokes about cats and alcoves and saying 'You're an inanimate fucking object.'

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We stayed in the hotel where the cast stayed. I slept in Colin Farrell's bed once before - at the Four Seasons in Dublin. Sadly he'd checked out that morning.

whatsit84 · 29/08/2025 08:27

stayathomegardener · 28/08/2025 19:05

Same!
plus had a manicure so we could use the Spa.

Was fantastic.

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Wish I’d known about this as I’d have done the same 😂 next time 😁

PiggieWig · 29/08/2025 00:51

I don’t really do reality TV but I’ve always loved First Dates. My XH never took me to the restaurant but I’d fall in love with any man that did.

bloodymary2025 · 29/08/2025 00:45

Dose he put down your ideas regularly?? Is he being dismissive as a form of subtle rejection? Bc it sounds really fun and like a good memory

Hadalifeonce · 28/08/2025 21:28

Which hotel is it OP? We are off to Sicily soon, and might be somewhere to check out.

JudgeJ · 28/08/2025 21:23

diddl · 28/08/2025 16:56

I'd like to stay in the place used as his house.

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It was a B and B a few years back, BC, Before Covid, not sure now. I found the beach very disappointing though, must have been cleaned up for the TV programme.

JudgeJ · 28/08/2025 21:21

RaddledOldSandal · 28/08/2025 14:40

Your DH is a total party pooper! It’s great seeing filming locations. When we were in Cambridge my DH happily allowed me to drag him to Grantchester for lunch, even though he knows I mostly liked the show because James Norton was dressed as a vicar! 😍

Edited

If you go to Grantchester again, carry on past the Church to The Orchard Tea Rooms, especially if it's lovely weather. Many many literary connections there.

stayathomegardener · 28/08/2025 19:05

whatsit84 · 28/08/2025 12:16

sounds fun to me! Went for afternoon tea in fancy hotel in Barbados we couldn’t afford (sandy lane) and had a great time!

Same!
plus had a manicure so we could use the Spa.

Was fantastic.

WorthyBlueHare · 28/08/2025 18:11

Surely you liked the look of it and that’s why you want to go? It’s not quite the same as just wanting to see a street because it was in a film. Dining in a hotel you’re not staying in because the restaurant is nice is totally normal. Maybe just remind him that while it seems to not really be of huge interest to him, he gets to make you happy whilst having some decent food.

FormidableMizzP · 28/08/2025 18:08

Go! Have some fun!

People have afternoon tea at the Ritz; Carlton; Savoy; Peninsula; etc, hotels, but can't afford to stay, so what's the difference?

CremeBruhlee · 28/08/2025 17:20

He is being miserable and ‘too cool’. Coolness is so dull as you get older…. just leave him to it and you go. Or do drinks and meet him later. Taormina is stunning. I would totally go

diddl · 28/08/2025 16:56

jscbni · 28/08/2025 15:49

I booked a flight to Sicily, as a tonic, in February 2017 at 2 o'clock in the morning while catching up on the bits of Montalbano through which I'd dozed. Second best holiday ever, and even chanced upon some filming and met yer man and Catarella.

I'd like to stay in the place used as his house.

StupidRules · 28/08/2025 16:51

PsychoHotSauce · 28/08/2025 12:36

I watched In Bruges last night. I have been to Bruges before but now want to go again and go up the tower. Guess I'm sad too!

I bet 80% of the people who go up that tower are making jokes about cats and alcoves and saying 'You're an inanimate fucking object.'

OutingHobbyWife · 28/08/2025 16:43

Has he always been a fun sponge?

Go by yourself if he doesn't want to!

Hankunamatata · 28/08/2025 16:12

Its how I got my kids to alnwick castle - transformers filmed scenes there (they arnt into harry Potter), they throughly enjoyed it and no whinging

Floundering66 · 28/08/2025 16:10

Nothing sad about it. Lots of people go for afternoon tea at The Ritz or Claridges but can’t stay in the hotel. When I was in Rome, I dragged my boyfriend to a fancy 5 star hotel that would have been my choice of accommodation has money been no object - we just had a cocktail in the courtyard but it was lovely to pretend to be wealthy for an hour!

ColinOfficeTrolley · 28/08/2025 16:09

He sounds pathetic.

HappiestSleeping · 28/08/2025 16:07

Personally, I'd go and sit in pig shit if it meant spending time with my wife, so going to the restaurant of her choosing is a no brainer.

morbidd · 28/08/2025 15:52

What a wet lettuce. Take yourself out there and spoil yourself.

5foot5 · 28/08/2025 15:51

OhHellolittleone · 28/08/2025 13:06

I think it’s pretty normal. Who stays at raffles in Singapore… not many! But everyone goes for a drink!

Yup!!!

DH and I went there for Singapore Slings in March this year. I think it worked out about £27 each, but totally worth it.

Couldn't ever afford to stay there though.

jscbni · 28/08/2025 15:49

I booked a flight to Sicily, as a tonic, in February 2017 at 2 o'clock in the morning while catching up on the bits of Montalbano through which I'd dozed. Second best holiday ever, and even chanced upon some filming and met yer man and Catarella.

Poppyfun1 · 28/08/2025 15:48

He’s entitled to his opinion. I would go on my own. Enjoy the lovely dinner and give him a big 2 fingered salute on my way in

saltinesandcoffeecups · 28/08/2025 15:41

I once booked a trip just for a restaurant 😁

DH and I were a bit tipsy and decided we wanted to go to Ireland as I was looking up airfare (and having another cocktail) I remembered being a broke student with my little nose pressed up against the glass window of the Witchery in Edinburgh and said “Hey, there’s a restaurant I always wanted to go to! But it’s in Scotland… what do you think?” I’m pretty sure he thought I was nuts at the time, but since he had had another cocktail as well he said “sure, why not”

So I booked or flights from the US to Scotland then made dinner reservations. Thank goodness the airline didn’t have an “Are you sober” button 🥃 🍸

Generaltwat · 28/08/2025 15:40

CheeseDanish · 28/08/2025 13:14

Surely it depends on whether it also has a reputation for good food? Otherwise just walk past, or go in and have a look, or a drink or something?

I'll admit that I was in Marseille having a very average meal at a restaurant on the port (not of my choosing, it was DH's work thing) and was baffled by people taking photographs from outside, or coming in and taking photos of the upstairs mezzanine level, until someone pointed out that it was the restaurant where Colin Firth proposes to his Portuguese cleaner, because he fancied her when she took all her clothes off, despite the fact that, despite them both living in France, neither of them apparently speaks French.

Hah! I was in Marseille earlier this year and had only just realised that 'restaurant' was based there.

Me and DH have a lovely photograph of me up on the mezzanine and him looking up at me! The barman offered to take it for us..

I love to visit places that have been in movies I have watched.

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