'Hotel Portofino' Season 2 Checks Back In to PBS In October 2023

When Hotel Portofino was initially announced in the spring of 2022 as coming to PBS, it was billed as a sort of Downton Abbey on the Italian coast, with an upper-class British family escaping the dreary post-World War I landscape up north to open a luxury hotel in the series' titular town of Portofino for the upper-class family on holiday. It was also the first original live-action series from Eagle Eye Drama, the outfit behind the English language remakes that stream via PBS Passport under the Walter Presents banner. However, post-Season 1, despite a Season 2 renewal, there was no sign that it would be coming to America.

That omission became more pronounced after Season 2 aired/streamed in the U.K. on Sky in January 2023. So far, the Season 2 adventures of the dysfunctional Ainsworth family and those who have the misfortune to stay at their hotel have aired almost entirely around the globe, debuting around Europe and even as far as Australia's Foxtel over the spring of 2023. However, finally, that has been rectified, as PBS announced that Hotel Portofino will have a return engagement for PBS viewers beginning Sunday, October 15, 2023.

Like many of PBS' period dramas, the show will advance a year per season, with viewers heading back to see how Bella is handling the growing fascist regime in Italy in the summer of 1927. The interwar set series will kick off a night of fan favorites returning for second seasons after time away, debuting the same night as the 1940s-set World on Fire Season 2 and the contemporary mystery-of-the-week series Annika Season 2. The three will air their second seasons as a set with Hotel Portofino at 8 p.m. ET, World on Fire at 9 p.m. ET and Annika at 10 p.m. ET.