Leighton Meester Shares Glimpse Of Romantic Italian Getaway With Adam Brody

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody are soaking up la dolce vita.

The Gossip Girl alum, 40, gave fans a rare look inside her private life on Oct. 8, posting a carousel of photos and videos to Instagram from a romantic Italian vacation with her husband of more than 12 years. Meester kept the caption short and sweet, writing simply, “Ciao 👋🏻.”

The post offered a window into a trip that took the couple from Sardinia’s rugged coastline to the canals of Venice. Among the snapshots was a selfie of Meester and Brody together, which she captioned “My ❤️.” Other images showed the actress sipping an Aperol spritz and enjoying a breezy boat ride, with Meester joking that the wind had given her a “blowout by boat.” In another photo, she posed holding a pink rose in a brown polka-dot dress and black cardigan. She also shared a few shots of the meals the pair enjoyed along the way.

Italian Travel: Sardinia To Venice

Meester tagged two upscale properties in the post. The first was Petra Segreta Resort & Spa, a five-star Relais & Châteaux retreat set in the hills near the village of San Pantaleo on Sardinia’s northeastern coast. The resort has just 27 rooms and suites spread across stone cottages and Mediterranean gardens, and 10 of its accommodations come with heated private pools. One of Meester’s photos shows the view from their suite, complete with a private pool overlooking the landscape. The property also features Il Fuoco Sacro, a Michelin-starred restaurant focused on local Sardinian ingredients.

The Italian island has become a favorite celebrity escape, with Paris Hilton enjoying a yacht vacation there and Heather Graham making waves during her own Sardinia trip.

The couple then headed north to Venice, where Meester tagged Palazzo Venart Luxury Hotel. The restored historic palazzo sits on the Grand Canal in the quieter Santa Croce neighborhood and features a private canal-side garden with its own boat landing. It also houses GLAM, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant from chef Enrico Bartolini. Meester and Brody join a string of stars, including Ali Larter, who have shared glimpses of their Italian getaways this year.

A Famously Private Pair

The vacation post marked a notable departure for the couple, who have long protected their personal lives and rarely walked red carpets together in their early years of marriage. Brody told GQ in 2019 that his wife is “more inherently private” than he is.

The two first crossed paths in Los Angeles around 2007, as Brody’s run on The O.C. was winding down and Meester’s Gossip Girl was about to begin. They later co-starred in the 2011 film The Oranges, but their romance didn’t take off until 2013. They got engaged that November and married in February 2014. They share two children: daughter Arlo, born in August 2015, and a son, born in 2020, whose name they have not made public.

The pair has become a fixture on the awards circuit since Brody’s Netflix hit Nobody Wants This premiered in 2024. Meester joined her husband on the red carpet at the 2025 and 2026 Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards and the 2025 Emmys. When Brody won at the 2025 Critics’ Choice Awards, he dedicated the honor to “my darling, darling, darling wife, Leighton.”

Meester also crossed over into her husband’s show for its second season, which premiered in October 2025, guest-starring as Abby, the childhood nemesis of Kristen Bell‘s character, Joanne. Brody plays Noah, the rabbi at the center of the series’ romance.

Speaking about working alongside his wife at the Season 2 premiere, Brody said sharing a set gave the busy parents a chance to steal some alone time. Judging by Meester’s latest post, they’ve found plenty more of it in Italy.