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| The Gentlemen Season 2: Is Bella’s Palazzo a Real Place? The Stunning Italian Filming Location Explained |
The palazzo in The Gentlemen Season 2 may look like the sort of grand Italian property where aristocrats spend their days drinking wine and quietly judging everyone else, but there is a very real building behind the fictional home of Countess Isabella. Netflix’s second season takes Eddie Horniman out of England and into Italy, and the stunning lakeside estate quickly becomes one of the season’s most recognisable locations.
In the story, the property belongs to Countess Isabella, better known as Bella, whose aristocratic status makes her estate useful to Eddie and the Glass operation. The palazzo becomes a recurring backdrop as business interests, family expectations and romance begin colliding, which is essentially The Gentlemen’s preferred way of saying that nobody is ever allowed to have a quiet afternoon.
The Gentlemen’s Bella Palazzo Is a Real Italian Villa
Although Bella and her palazzo are fictional creations, the location used to portray her home is very real. Villa Rusconi Clerici, situated in Pallanza on the shores of Lake Maggiore, provides the elegant exterior and surroundings seen throughout The Gentlemen Season 2.
The villa is located at 12 Via Vittorio Veneto and dates back to the early 19th century. Today, rather than serving as the headquarters of an aristocratic enterprise, the property is primarily used as an events and wedding venue, with receptions and conventions also taking place there. So while the series gives the building considerably more intrigue, its real-world job is thankfully rather less complicated.
The location has plenty to justify its screen time. Its position beside Lake Maggiore gives the production the sweeping Italian scenery it needs, while the grounds feature an English-style garden filled with flowers and historic statues. The combination of the lake, grand architecture and landscaped gardens makes it almost suspiciously perfect for a Netflix drama about wealthy people making increasingly questionable decisions.
Why Villa Rusconi Clerici Was Chosen
The move from Halstead Manor to Italy meant the production needed a property capable of carrying some of the same visual weight. Production designer Martyn John explained that the search was not simply about finding an attractive Italian villa. The new location needed to feel aristocratic and imposing while still fitting the world already established by the series.
Villa Rusconi Clerici apparently ticked those boxes. Its scale and grandeur gave it the presence required for Bella's home, while its religious imagery and ornate interiors offered a slightly different visual identity from Halstead Manor. The building’s artwork, sculptures and carved details helped give the palazzo its distinctive character without making it feel like a straightforward copy of Eddie’s English estate.
That distinction matters because the palazzo is doing more than providing a pretty backdrop. Like Halstead Manor, it reflects the person at the centre of the property. Bella presents herself as a refined countess with an impressive family estate, but beneath that polished exterior sits someone deeply entangled in Eddie’s increasingly complicated world. The house therefore looks grand and respectable while quietly hosting conversations and decisions that are anything but.
Bella’s Palazzo Becomes Important to Eddie
The location also gains greater significance as Eddie and Bella become closer. What initially represents another valuable property in Eddie’s expanding Italian operation gradually becomes associated with something considerably more personal.
Their relationship eventually leads to marriage, giving the palazzo a second role within the story. It is no longer simply another aristocratic estate that can be folded into the business. For Eddie, it becomes connected to the possibility of a different life, away from some of the pressures that have defined his journey.
That gives the location an interesting parallel with Halstead Manor. Eddie’s relationship with his ancestral home has always been complicated, with the estate representing both family responsibility and the unexpected world he finds himself embracing. Bella’s palazzo carries a similar contradiction. It promises comfort, beauty and romance while remaining surrounded by the same risks that follow Eddie everywhere.
Naturally, The Gentlemen does not allow the scenery to simply be scenery. Every beautiful room seems to come with a conversation that could cause trouble, and every idyllic view of Lake Maggiore feels like it might be hiding the next complication.
Fans Have Mixed Reactions to Bella’s Palazzo
Fans have reacted differently to the palazzo, with many viewers impressed by the location and its distinctly Italian atmosphere. The combination of Lake Maggiore, the historic villa and the lavish gardens gives Season 2 a noticeably different visual flavour from the first season, and Bella’s home quickly became one of the locations viewers wanted to know more about.
Others have been more interested in what the building represents within Eddie’s story than in the architecture itself. As his relationship with Bella develops, the palazzo starts to feel like a possible glimpse at the life Eddie could have if he ever managed to step away from the constant chaos surrounding his family and business.
There is also something amusingly appropriate about the fact that a fictional aristocratic home involved in a complicated criminal enterprise is, in reality, a venue where people celebrate weddings and other events. Netflix gives Villa Rusconi Clerici secrets, schemes and dangerous alliances; the real property gets ceremonies and receptions. Frankly, the latter sounds considerably less stressful.
For viewers wondering whether they can actually visit Bella’s palazzo, the answer is that Villa Rusconi Clerici is a real location, even though Countess Isabella and her story are fictional. The next time the villa appears on screen, it is worth remembering that the dramatic intrigue belongs entirely to The Gentlemen — the spectacular Lake Maggiore setting is very much real. And if you watched Season 2 and had strong opinions about Bella, Eddie or their Italian estate, which part of the palazzo story stood out to you most?