You can’t spell genitalia without Italia.
That could be the motto of Bar Turrisi, a Sicilian restaurant and watering hole where the focus is the phallus.
Penetrate the multilevel establishment’s interior, mount the stairs, and poke your head in and out (and in and out) of the various rooms. You’ll encounter penises at every turn—not just in wall art and well-endowed statues but also in the forms of phallic liquor bottles, shot glasses, lamps, mirrors, and plumbing fixtures over bathroom sinks. We are confident you don’t need a picture to guess where the water comes out.
The food menu is shaped like a penis. Depictions of winged penises fly across tiled tabletops. Re-creations of famous male nudes appear throughout the space, including a woodwork take on Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, albeit with the title figure markedly enhanced in one telling way, suggesting it must be awfully chilly up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Why is a bar in Sicily filled with phallic decor?
To a visitor, this priapic display might seem incongruous with Bar Turrisi’s setting: a quiet, church-abutted square in the medieval village of Castelmola, situated in the seaside cliffs above Taormina on Sicily’s eastern coast.
But as a Bar Turrisi waiter wearing a penis-emblazoned T-shirt explained to your curious Frommer’s correspondent, the male member has served as a symbol of fertility and good fortune since at least the days of the ancient Greeks.
And that culture certainly had a role in shaping the region, as evidenced by Taormina’s impressive Teatro Antico, an outdoor amphitheater built in the 3rd century B.C. by the Greeks (and later modified by the Romans) against the dramatic backdrop of Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea.
When Bar Turrisi opened in 1947, the owner “decided to adopt the phallus motif,” another server told CNN in 2022, to capitalize on those ancient connections and their reminders of “sexual potency and fertility” as well as “the virility of Sicilian men.”
The server also told CNN the place “used to be a brothel and gay hotspot.”
Many years later, while the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus was being filmed at the Four Seasons’ San Domenico Palace in Taormina, cast members were said to hang out regularly at Bar Turrisi. The “penis bar,” as the actors dubbed it, did not appear onscreen, though. Not that you could ever accuse that series of skimping on male nudity.
What to eat and drink at Sicily's "penis bar"
After eyeballing the décor at Bar Turrisi, try to snag a table out on one of the elevated terraces overlooking the square. The menu provides ample opportunities for sampling tasty Sicilian classics such as swordfish meatballs and pasta alla Norma with eggplant and ricotta.
Make sure to end your meal with some vino alla mandorla, a sweet dessert wine flavored with almonds. The drink is Bar Turrisi’s secondary claim to fame. Yes, of course it’s served in a penis-shaped cordial glass.
The wine pairs nicely with penis-shaped cookies from the bakery case. They’re dipped in chocolate, but just the tip.
Frommer's Italy 2026
Frommer’s books aren’t written by committee, by A.I., or by travel writers who simply pop in briefly to a destination and then consider the job done. We use seasoned, locally-based journalists like Elizabeth Heath, Donald Strachan, and Michelle Schoenung, plus long-time Italy experts Stephen Brewer ...
Get the bookFrommer's Italy 2026
Frommer’s books aren’t written by committee, by A.I., or by travel writers who simply pop in briefly to a destination and then consider the job done. We use seasoned, locally-based journalists like Elizabeth Heath, Donald Strachan, and Michelle Schoenung, plus long-time Italy experts Stephen Brewer ...