italian travel movie

27 Best Movies Set In Italy That Will Transport You There

Looking for the best movies set in Italy   to add to your watch list?  From drama, and romance, to comedy, this article has all the best movies filmed in Italy you’ll enjoy!

Blessed with picturesque towns, charming cities, breathtaking landscapes, and rich history, it’s a no-brainer why Italy is a favorite backdrop amongst filmmakers.

There have been many amazing movies set in Italy over the years, whether amidst the narrow, winding streets of Venice or against the stunning landscapes of Tuscany.

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If you’re looking for a list of the best movies filmed in Italy whether to get a glimpse of Italy before your trip or to quench your wanderlust soul, I’ve got you covered.

From classic romances to gripping thrillers and lighthearted comedies, here are 27 of the best films set in Italy! I’ve also thrown in a highly-rated animation set in a fictional town inspired by the Italian Riviera that I believe you’ll enjoy!

Best Movies Set in Italy

Whether you’re into romance, drama, or even thrillers, you’ll find a film that suits you on this list of the best movies about Italy.

1. Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Genre: Drama/Romance

IMDB rating: 6.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 62%

Frequently ranked high on lists of classic movies set in Italy, Under the Tuscan Sun is a romantic comedy-drama based on a true story adapted from Frances Mayes’ memoir of the same name.

While the movie’s main setting is a beautiful villa in the quaint hillside town of Cortona in Tuscany which the American protagonist, Diane Lane bought after leaving her home country following a divorce that left her homeless, you’ll also get to follow her on her adventures to Rome, Florence, and Positano.

The movie provides a dreamy and romanticized view of life in Italy and is known to have inspired many people to travel to Tuscany or embark on adventures in the beautiful Italian countryside.

If you’re looking for a heartwarming movie that explores the themes of self-discovery, personal growth, love, and friendship, you will enjoy this one immensely.

2. A Room with a View (1985)

IMDB rating: 7.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 100%

Adapted from a British novel, A Room with a View is set in a historical period and depicts the journey of Lucy, a young lady who travels to Florence with her cousin.

Lucy falls in love with a charming, free-spirited man while on vacation, and has to decide whether to proceed with a marriage back in England or acknowledge and accept her change of heart.

A Room with a View was filmed on location in Italy and England with the settings in Italy in particular adding to the film’s romantic allure.

If you’re familiar with the country, you’ll recognize the scenic landscapes of Florence as well as the clear blue waters and charming villages of the Amalfi Coast.

The film is highly rated as one of the best romantic movies set in Italy and praised for its aesthetic appeal, quality filmmaking, and well-crafted storytelling.

It even won 3 Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design, and 5 British Academy Film awards.

3. Roman Holiday (1953)

Genre: Romance/Comedy

IMDB rating: 8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Roman Holiday is another popular film when it comes to romantic movies set in Rome .

Starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, the film’s plot revolves around Ann, a princess who embarks on a diplomatic tour and escapes her royal duties for an unauthorized personal adventure.

Princess Ann meets an American reporter, Joe, during her secret trip. Joe takes the princess around as a tour guide, allowing her to enjoy the simple joys of ordinary life while showing her some of the famous places in Rome like the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain, etc, and develops a special connection with her along the way.

The movie is a well-celebrated classic, and a heartwarming, enjoyable watch. Audrey Hepburn even earned an Academy Award for Best Actress through her portrayal of Princess Ann which was a very significant stepping stone towards her Hollywood fame!

4. La Dolce Vita (1960)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

You can’t miss out on this one when it comes to famous movies filmed in Italy. La Dolce Vita (which translates to “The Sweet Life”) is a classic Italian film released in 1960.

The movie follows the life of Marcello, a journalist who spends his time working and socializing within the upper-class, high-society circle yet is troubled with his lack of happiness and life fulfillment.

Plenty of iconic Roman landmarks are featured in the film, including the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Via Veneto, and charming Roman neighborhood backdrops that provide an authentic representation of the city’s vibe and history post-World War II.

5. The Great Beauty (2013)

IMDB rating: 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza) is a 2013 Italian film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014 on top of a Golden Globe and a BAFTA in the same category!

Often compared to La Dolce Vita, The Great Beauty shares some similarities with the former, though each follows their own unique stories.

This particular movie explores the lives of the social elite through the eyes of Jep Gambardella, a writer and journalist. Having reached his 65th birthday, Jep begins self-reflection on his life and the society he has become a part of.

Like La Dolce Vita, The Great Beauty was also filmed in Rome. The striking setting of the movie is an aesthetic treat for viewers and will appeal to those who appreciate beautiful settings and Italian filmmaking.

It explores themes of beauty, love, art, and life meaning, and will be appreciated by those who like thought-provoking films with cinematic storytelling, complex characters, and deep meaning.

6. Life is Beautiful (1997)

Genre: Drama/War/Comedy

IMDB rating: 8.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 81%

Award-winning Life is Beautiful is an Italian film set against the backdrop of World War II.

The movie won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film back in 1999 and is regarded as one of the best movies that take place in Italy.

The film plot follows the story of Guido, a Jewish-Italian bookshop owner played by Roberto Benigni.

Guido and his son were forced into a Nazi concentration camp and he tries his best to protect his son against the horrors of their grim situation with love, resilience, and the power of imagination amid adversity.

Many parts of the movie were filmed across various towns and cities in Italy, including picturesque Arezzo and Cortona in Tuscany, Umbria, and more.

The captivating backdrop contributed to the movie’s heartwarming, poignant, and hopeful vibe despite being set in such a dark era of history. 

7. Call Me By Your Name (2017)

IMDB rating: 7.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

Here’s a more recent movie for your list! Call Me By Your Name is a coming-of-age romance film set in a small Italian town in the early 1980s.

The film follows the attraction between Elio (Timothee Chalamet), a 17-year-old boy, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old graduate student who has come to spend his summer at Elio’s family home at the invitation of Elio’s father!

The movie explores their subtle, complex, yet passionate relationship while being set against the idyllic landscape of Northern Italy.

If a somewhat bittersweet and melancholy summer romance film sounds like your cup of tea, give this one a go! It’s definitely one of the best movies set in Italy on Netflix.

8. Letters to Juliet (2010)

Genre: Romance/Melodrama

IMDB rating: 6.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 42%

Next up on my list of movies based in Italy is Letters to Juliet , a romance film starring Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, and Christopher Egan.

The movie follows the pre-wedding Italy trip of Sophie and her fiance Victor to Verona!

During the trip, Sophie hears about Romeo and Juliet’s courtyard where thousands of women send letters to Juliet!

Since her fiancé is turning the trip into a research trip, Sophie decides to occupy herself by joining the committee that replies to the letters written to Juliet.

While there, she finds a particular letter written 50 years ago by a woman seeking guidance about her lost love.

Sophie responds to the letter out of curiosity and compassion, and it leads to an unexpected pivotal journey of self-discovery and romance as she connects with the woman who wrote the letter and embarks on a quest to find her long-lost love.

It is through this journey that Sophie is prompted to reevaluate her own love life!

9. To Rome with Love (2012)

IMDB rating: 6.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 47%

Set in Rome (of course), To Rome with Love is a romantic comedy written and directed by Woody Allen.

The movie has multiple storylines and interesting characters, each of whom undergoes unique adventures of their own — whether it’s an architect (Alec Baldwin) navigating a complicated love triangle, an alluring prostitut* (Penelope Cruz) whose life becomes intertwined with a newlywed couple, or a Roman man (Roberto Benigni) who has suddenly risen to fame.

If you like lighthearted, feel-good romances with a tinge of humor, you’ll enjoy this watch.

The movie’s beautiful depiction of Rome adds brownie points to its aesthetic, which is why it’s almost always featured on lists of best movies set in Italy.

10. The Godfather (1972)

Genre: Drama/Crime

IMDB rating: 9.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 97%

Consistently highly rated and an absolute classic, The Godfather is a 1972 crime film with parts that are famously known to be filmed in Italy.

The movie stars iconic actors such as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and James Caan, and is centered around a fictional New York Mafia family and their struggles to safeguard their empire against rivals.

Some memorable scenes in the movie were set in Italy, particularly in small villages around Sicily, Palermo, as well as Rome.

The director wanted to ensure the authenticity of the film’s portrayal and insisted that filming was done in Italy.

So if you’re looking to catch up on the best movies that take place in Italy, The Godfather shouldn’t be missed.

11. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Genre: Drama/Thriller

IMDB rating: 7.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

If you like mystery, suspense, and Matt Damon, this movie’s for you!

The Talented Mr. Ripley explores some pretty complex characters and dark themes, including obsession, desire, deception, and moral ambiguity!

It’s a gripping psychological thriller that will appeal to you if you appreciate being kept on the edge of your seat.

Similar to The Godfather, The Talented Mr. Ripley was also filmed in both New York City and Italy.

You’ll be able to spot idyllic sceneries of Venice, Rome, Sicily, Naples, Positano, and more throughout the film.

Besides psychological drama, you can expect visual appeal with the movie’s great cinematography and exotic settings.

12. Enchanted April (1991)

IMDB rating: 7.3/10

Enchanted April is a heartwarming British-Italian film released in 1991. The movie follows the adventures of four English women who decided to go on a month-long escape to Italy.

Each of the four women was undergoing personal struggles and sought to get away from their unhappy lives by embarking on a foreign adventure.

As the movie progresses, they open up to each other and develop precious friendships, while also undergoing personal transformation and growth.

The natural beauty of Italy serves as a key element of Enchanted April’s mood and narrative.

Some notable filming locations of the movie include the coastal town of Portofino, Castello Brown (a historic castle that served as the villa the women lived in), and the tranquil Lake Maggiore.

13. Bread and Tulips (2000)

Rotten Tomatoes: 71%

Also one of the best films set in Italy, Bread and Tulips is an Italian production released in 2000.

This romantic comedy-drama is centered around the life of Rosalba, a middle-aged woman who lives in a small town near Naples.

Rosalba’s life is mundane and very normal, but it takes an unforeseen turn when she goes on a family trip and is accidentally left behind by her husband and son.

While trying to find her way back home, she makes a choice to go to Venice instead.

Fuelled by courage and a yearning for adventure, Rosalba decides to begin her solo exploration.

Her ordinary life transforms as she chooses to pursue her dreams, befriending kind-hearted people along the way, exploring old passions and new talents, and even developing a newfound romance.

The movie is an Italian classic that is loved by romantic comedy enthusiasts. If you’re looking for a feel-good movie that will make you smile, here’s one to consider!

14. The Trip to Italy (2014)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

IMDB rating: 6.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

The Trip to Italy is a British comedy-drama film that stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

In the movie, Coogan and Brydon embark on a gastronomic adventure in Italy. The duo travels through many regions of Italy, tasting exquisite Italian cuisine at numerous restaurants while developing a friendship, experiencing challenges, and undergoing personal growth along the way.

The movie is well-loved for showcasing the beauty of Italy and its food delightfully.

It’s a lighthearted, entertaining watch, especially for people who enjoy food, travel, and humor, as well as fans who enjoy the comedic nature of Coogan and Brydon!

15. Journey to Italy (1954)

Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

If you enjoy contemplative thought-provoking films, this Italian classic may be your cup of tea.

Released in 1954, Journey to Italy stars the iconic Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. The two play a married couple in the film and travel to Naples to sell a villa they’ve inherited.

Unfortunately, the couple’s married life is far from perfect, and spending time together during their travels forces them to confront the problems of their marriage, including complex feelings of detachment and dissatisfaction.

Despite being a black-and-white film, the beauty of filming locations such as Naples, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast still manages to seep through.

It’s no wonder the movie is considered a timeless classic that has inspired many filmmakers over the years.

16. House of Gucci (2021)

Rotten Tomatoes: 61%

If you like crime films, you’ll likely enjoy House of Gucci . This 2021 biographical crime drama film is based on the real-life tumultuous history and dramatic events surrounding the rise and fall of the Gucci family dynasty.

The movie centers around Maurizio Gucci, the grandson of Guccio Gucci, who founded the luxury fashion brand. Maurizio marries Patrizia Reggiani, and for a while, things seem great.

However, as Maurizio gains more power within the Gucci company, their marriage starts to crumble.

Maurizio leaves Patrizia for another woman, which sets off a chain of events leading to betrayal, family feuds, and ultimately, Maurizio’s murder, orchestrated by Patrizia herself.

It’s an interesting mix of crime, drama, and dark comedy and features popular stars including Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, and Jared Leto.

House of Gucci was filmed across various locations in Italy such as Rome, Milan, Tuscany, and the picturesque Lake Como.

The vibrant cities and stunning landscapes add to the essence of the film and are meant to showcase the sophisticated and elegant world of high fashion.

17. Only You (1994)

Rotten Tomatoes: 53%

Starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr., Only You is a romantic comedy movie set in Italy.

The film follows the journey of Faith, a young woman who travels to Italy in search of a man whom a fortune-teller told her is supposed to be the man of her dreams.

While in Italy, Faith encounters Peter, a charming man who offers to help her in her search. As they both travel together, they develop a deep connection that makes Faith question whether he’s the man of her destiny.

Only You is a lighthearted, fun, and heartwarming watch, and the picturesque Italian locations featured in the movie add to its romantic atmosphere.

Unlike many movies on this list with sets concentrated in one or two Italian cities, Only You was filmed across many different Italian cities and regions, including Venice, Rome, Tuscany, and Positano.

18. Shadows in the Sun (2005)

Rotten Tomatoes: 43%

Here’s another feel-good, inspiring movie to add to your watchlist of romantic films set in Italy.

Set and filmed in Italy, Shadows in the Sun is a 2005 romantic film that stars Harvey Keitel, Joshua Jackson, and Claire Forlani.

The movie plot centers around an aspiring writer who travels to rural Italy in hopes of tracking down his literary idol, a reclusive author who suffers from writer’s block.

The writer begins his life in the beautiful Italian countryside, forming friendships and experiencing personal transformation along the way.

Shadows in the Sun is a touching movie filled with emotional scenes, and you would enjoy it if you’re an enthusiast of heartfelt romantic stories.

It was filmed in Tuscany, mainly in Val d’Orcia, a wide and breathtaking countryside known for its stunning nature and idyllic landscapes.

19. The Two Popes (2019)

Genre: Biographical drama

IMDB rating: 7.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

If you enjoy thought-provoking films and have an interest in themes of faith and spirituality, you will find The Two Popes an enjoyable watch.

Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, this biographical drama film revolves around the lives of the two Popes they play — Pope Benedict XVI and Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio (who later became Pope Francis) respectively.

The movie dives into the relationship and philosophical conversations between the Popes as they debate their different approaches to faith and leadership within a religious institution.

The Two Popes was filmed in Argentina and Italy, with a pivotal setting in Vatican City, the spiritual and administrative center of the Roman Catholic Church.

The movie provides an insightful glimpse into the Vatican after the Vatican leaks scandal .

20. Luca (2021)

Genre: Fantasy/Coming-of-Age

Here’s something different for those who enjoy animated Disney-Pixar films! Luca is a 2021 animated fantasy film set in a fictional Italian town!

The movie revolves around Luca, a young “sea monster” who lives beneath the sea. Much like The Little Mermaid, Luca is highly curious about the human world.

To his delight and surprise, he finds out that he’s able to take on a human appearance when he ventures to the surface! Luca develops a friendship with a fellow sea monster Alberto, and the duo begins adventures on land.

The animation explores themes of self-discovery and the magic of friendship and is a heartwarming, lighthearted coming-of-age story that many would enjoy.

While it’s based in a fictional town that doesn’t exist in real life, the creative team of Luca drew inspiration from various real-life locations along the Italian Riviera such as the villages of Cinque Terre, Portofino, as well as the Amalfi Coast.

The movie pays homage to the beauty of Italy’s coastal towns, which is why you’ll likely find some of the sceneries delightfully familiar.

21. The Italian Job (2003)

Genre: Drama/Action

IMDB rating: 7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 72%

The Italian Job is a British crime movie filmed primarily in Italy. There’s a 1969 version as well as a 2003 remake, both of which are centered around the planning and execution of an elaborate gold heist.

If you enjoy action films (think car chases, stunt work, and suspense) that will get your adrenaline pumping, you’ll likely enjoy this film.

Both movies were filmed partially in Italy, with the 1969 version concentrated in locations such as the Alps and Turin, while the 2003 remake featured Venice and the Alps.

If you’re familiar with Venice, you’ll notice popular locations like The Grand Canal, The Doge’s Palace, and St. Mark’s Square as picturesque backdrops to important scenes.

22. The American (2010)

Rotten Tomatoes: 64%

Released in 2010, The American is an action thriller film starring George Clooney as Jack.

Jack is a professional, skillful assassin who retreats to a quaint Italian town to lie low after a mishap in his previous assignment.

As Jack forges a new identity and starts a new life in Italy, he forms fresh connections including a blossoming romance with a local prostitut* named Clara.

Unlike the usual action-packed thrillers, the movie is slow-paced and introspective, focusing on themes such as emotional turmoil, redemption, and personal growth.

The movie’s Italian setting adds to its atmosphere and provides the perfect backdrop to some of its emotional and dramatic moments. Most of the film was set in small towns across the Abruzzo region as well as in Rome.

23. Tea with Mussolini (1999)

IMDB rating: 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 65%

Tea with Mussolini cannot be missed when listing films about Italy.

Set in the tumultuous World War II era, this semi-autobiographical war film follows the story of a young Italian boy, Luca who was brought up by a tight-knit community of British and American women.

The film explores themes of culture, family, friendship, and love even amid challenging times. Despite its dramatic historical setting, it’s overall a warm and positive watch with a tinge of humor.

The movie is famed for its beautiful portrayal of Florence, the charming Italian city that serves as the backdrop for the film.

The architectural splendor of Florence adds to the movie’s visual appeal and creates an authentic, stunning backdrop for the story.

If you look closely enough, you’ll be able to identify several iconic locations in Florence such as the Ponte Vecchio, The Boboli Gardens, The Florence Cathedral, and Piazza della Signoria in the film.

24. Eat Pray Love (2010)

Genre: Romance/Drama

IMDB rating: 5.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 35%

Here’s another well-known classic that can’t be missed when it comes to movies made in Italy!

Eat Pray Love stars Julia Roberts as the main character Elizabeth, a writer who embarks on an adventure after going through heartbreaks from her marriage and subsequent failed relationship.

Throughout the film, Elizabeth travels to three countries, including Italy, where she indulges in the vibrant local culture and food.

The movie focuses on themes of self-exploration, empowerment, and healing. It’s an enjoyable and slightly emotional watch that will leave you feeling warm inside.

Several Italian cities were featured in the movie, including Rome, Naples, and Lecce in Apulia, Southern Italy.

Italy’s picturesque landscapes, unique architecture, and delicious cuisine are showcased beautifully in the film, and you’ll likely be inspired to go on your own Eat Pray Love adventure once you’re done with it.

25. Ben-Hur (1959)

Genre: Historical Drama/Adventure

IMDB rating: 8.1/10

Ben-Hur is a classic American historical film set in ancient Rome. The movie is centered around Judah Ben-Hur, an aristocratic Jewish prince who lives in Jerusalem.

Ben-Hur is forced into years of slavery and loses his family after being betrayed by his childhood friend Messala. Upon escaping his sentence, Ben-Hur seeks revenge against Messala.

This movie set the record for the most Academy Award wins (a title it holds with Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), having won a total of 11 Oscars, including the Best Picture and Best Actor awards.

It is also highly praised for its grand setting; most of its elaborate setting was shot in a studio in Rome, and some other on-locations in Italy, including at the coastal town of Anzio.

26. Don’t Look Now (1973)

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

IMDB rating: 7.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

If you like thrillers, you will enjoy Don’t Look Now , a British-Italian supernatural thriller movie.

Don’t Look Now follows the story of a married couple, John and Laura Baxter who travel to Venice while mourning the death of their young daughter.

The couple encounters a pair of strange sisters in Venice, one of whom claims to be able to communicate with their deceased daughter with her psychic powers.

As the movie progresses, Laura becomes obsessed with the possibility of communicating with Christine, while John experiences disturbing supernatural visions and experiences.

The movie has an unsettling atmosphere that’s not suited for the faint-hearted, but those who enjoy supernatural and thrillers will no doubt like it.

Unlike the majority of movies set in Italy on this list where Italian settings provide picturesque, romantic vibes, the labyrinthine layout of Venice in Don’t Look Now creates an eerie, haunting, and atmospheric backdrop.

27. Angels & Demons (2009)

Rotten Tomatoes: 37%

Angels & Demons is a suspenseful American film based on Dan Brown’s famous novel.

The movie is a sequel to “The Da Vinci Code” and stars Tom Hanks as the main character, Robert Langdon.

Robert is a Harvard professor and symbologist who is summoned to the Vatican to participate in an investigation involving a kidnapping by an ancient secret society known as the Illuminati.

Robert and his investigation partner Vittoria explore various landmarks across Rome to uncover secrets and conspiracies to crack the mystery.

Angels & Demons was filmed on-site mainly in Italy to capture the authenticity of the settings described in the novel.

Many iconic historical and religious landmarks were featured in the movie, including St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, the Pantheon, the Santa Maria della Vittoria church, and the Piazza Navona, a famous piazza in Rome .

Final Thoughts on the Best Movies Filmed in Italy

I hope you enjoyed this list of the best films based in Italy! The varied dreamy settings across Italy have served as stunning backdrops to amazing films of all sorts of genres.

Whether you like fuzzy romances, historical films, or even gripping thrillers, you’re bound to find a movie you like that will transport you to beautiful Italy.

So, which one of these best movies about Italy are you planning to watch next? Let me know in the comments below!

Check out these posts to help you plan your trip to Rome

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• Instagram captions for Italy
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• Famous piazzas in Rome
• Where to get the best views of Rome
• Best museums in Rome
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• Best movies set in Rome
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40 Films That Will Transport You to Italy

By CNT Editors

If you've come to this website, you've done so ostensibly to seek our travel advice. If you're reading our latest of the sort, you might know that we at Condé Nast Traveler recommend traveling to Italy in the off-season —fall, winter, and spring, to be precise. And it won't be lost on you that summer is now very much under way. So, if you are dying to visit that fabulous-heeled boot but are also keen to make the utmost of your time there, you'd better wait. Hope, however, is not lost for taking in some summertime Italian iconography. The country's cinema is one of its greatest exports—Federico Fellini, Monica Vitti, Sophia Loren, and Roberto Rossellini all remain household names, and from the rubble of the Fascist midcentury spills potent art to this day.

Below, editors past and present look back at some of their favorite films set in Italy . We have here classics alongside what we'd call “tourist cinema,” wherein a visitor is forever changed by their time in il bel paese. From Rome 's chaotic recent history to the rolling hills of Tuscany, Lake Como 's scenic vistas and the undersung Aeolian Islands to Venice's alluring, impenetrable depths, these are the movies to watch if you're dreaming of Italy but cannot make it there quite yet.

• The classics
• New Italian cinema
• Tourist cinema
• Erotic Venice

This article has been updated since its original publish date.

THE CLASSICS

Love and Anarchy (1973)

Lina Wertmüller's work is horrendously underrated in world cinema, and her films set in 1970s Italy are many things at once: frenetic and sumptuous, tragic and hilarious. The best cast Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato as the heroes and feature a lot of yelling in Italian, as in Love and Anarchy . Giannini's character, the anarchist Antonio, arrives in Rome just ahead of World War II with plans to assassinate Mussolini. While staying in a brothel and preparing to do so, he falls in love with Melato's Salomè, a prostitute. It's mostly madness in this thriller, wherein the plucky characters engage in high-wire deceptions of Fascist police (the lovely countryside is the setting for one such misadventure.) It's culturally significant, wild, and a wonderful watch. — Charlie Hobbs, associate editor

Watch now: Stream with Kino Film Collection

Swept Away (1974)

Giannini and Melato reunite in Wertmuller's Swept Away , which you might recognize for its being remade in the early aughts by Guy Ritchie and starring Madonna in Melato's role. While that film is infamously botched, this one is electric and was filmed along the Sardinian coast in Nuoro. Melato's Rafaella is a wealthy woman on a yacht vacation in the Med with some friends, treating the ship's crew with belligerent disdain. Giannini's Gennaro, a communist deckhand, puts up with her to keep his job. When he takes her out on a dinghy to meet the rest of their group for an excursion, the motor gives out and the tables turn—Rafaella is incompetent to survive on the island they wash up on, while Gennaro is streetwise. It's a dynamic most recently explored in Triangle of Sadness , made no less entertaining by tons of sex and, as in Love & Anarchy , yelling. — C.H.

La Notte (1961)

On location in Milan —what's more glamorous than that? Not La Notte! Antonioni's midcentury gem is quite stylish, of course, but it's also the film that had Mad Men 's Don Draper enraptured during a drunken matinee during one episode of that series. Italian cinema in the '60s was churning out films that Americans wouldn't be ready to confront en masse until decades later: in this case, a marriage is falling apart due to the rigorously beautiful but cold facades a man and woman put up around themselves, failing therefore to communicate anything in the way of hurt or passion or feeling. All of this in breathtaking black-and-white and set over the course of one wistful night of socializing across the town, with a performance by Monica Vitti no less (as the daughter of a party host to whom the husband is attracted.) — C.H.

Watch now: Stream on Max , The Criterion Channel

L'Avventura (1960)

Vitti apears as well in the erotic suspense film L'Avventura, this time in the lead role of lonely Claudia. The film follows her as she tags along on a fabulous yachting trip through the Mediterranean, starting not far from Rome before sailing voyage to the Aeolian Islands off the coast of Sicily. Claudia's friend Anna is there with her lover Sandro—their relationship is lustful but perhaps not true—until she suddenly isn't. She disappears! As Anna gets wrapped up in the search for Anna, as well as an indulgent and inappropriate affair with Sandro, you'll quickly learn why Jennifer Coolidge-as-Tanya in The White Lotus so wanted to emulate Vitti on her own trip to the boot. She's just plain gorgeous, not to mention compelling, no matter what questionable dramas she's flinging herself into. — C.H.

Mamma Roma (1962)

It would be difficult to argue that any of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films make you want to visit Italy, occupied as they are with the relentlessly grim realities of post-Fascist Roman life for the destitute sub-proletariat (maybe it was Italy's tourism board that murdered him.) But Mamma Roma is rewardingly transportive thanks to the opening wedding banquet tableau and a spirited performance by Anna Magnani in the title role. It's Rome in a new light for many Americans, a filthy shadow of the glamorous city that teems with urchins and pimps and obscenities in harsh dialect. —C.H.

Watch now: Stream on The Criterion Channel

While La Dolce Vita is possibly the most famous in the Fellini canon, 8 ½ is the one the film buffs salivate over—it's surreal and visually arresting, and it's totally okay to feel lost as you watch it; you still won't care. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido, a film director struggling to work on his latest movie amid a complete creative block exacerbated by marital problems. As pressure mounts to begin work on the film, Guido begins to avoid life—his crew, his mistress, his ex—slipping into memories and daydreams where he attempts to wrest back control. Guido's journey in coming to terms with the artistic process and public pressures artists face is fascinating to follow, but the real treat for the viewer is kicking back and soaking up Fellini's flourishing style from start to finish. — Corina Quinn, former editor

Watch now: Streaming on Max , The Criterion Channel

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Vittorio De Sica's Neorealist masterpiece essentially introduced a new genre and has been a reference point for it ever since. The story follows a working class father from a hardscrabble neighborhood, fresh in a new job, whose bike was stolen and who can't work without it. With his small son by his side, he spends the day in Rome , trying to find who took it. The father, Antonio, displays a remarkable amount of dignity and character throughout, but when the situation becomes desperate, he is forced to act beyond his conscience, which surfaces all sorts of moral, conflicting issues that both he and the audience must wrestle with. It is a timeless, human story, which is in part why this classic endures. — Erin Florio, executive editor

Rome, Open City (1945)

Shot among the ruins of Rome by Roberto Rossellini (father of Isabella) just months after the end of World War II, this was the first cinematic portrayal of the war experience in Italy and the first widely seen example of Italian Neorealism, perhaps the country's greatest contribution to 20th-century cinema. Beyond its profound influence on auteurs from Jean-Luc Godard to Satyajit Ray to Martin Scorsese, it is a timeless investigation of ordinary life under extraordinary circumstances, on par with novels by Zola and Dickens. — Jesse Ashlock, deputy global director and US editor

Watch now: Stream on Max

La Dolce Vita (1960)

At the heart of every university cinema survey, Fellini's iconic film gave us so many cultural gifts: the origins of the term “paparazzi,” costumes that wow even today, Anita Ekberg splashing around the Trevi Fountain in a ballgown. A comedy-drama, Marcello Mastroianni stars as a gossip writer flouncing through Rome in the pursuit of love and happiness, struggling to lead a more meaningful life—yet continually distracted and hindered by his own vices. It's Fellini, so in lieu of a standard story arc it's episodic in its telling, and a lot of the symbolism about post-war Italy could get lost in a casual viewing. But no matter: visually, it's stunning, and so entertaining; there's a reason the greats like Roger Ebert consider it an all-time favorite. —C.Q.

Watch now: Stream on Plex

The Godfather (1972)

Is there any meet-cute more memorable than the one between Michael Corleone and Apollonia Vitelli? The two characters of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece, The Godfather , meet in the middle of a flower-studded field in Sicily , where Corleone has fled after igniting a mafia war in New York . The lovestruck Corleone, says a friend, acts like he’s been hit with a “thunderbolt”—but he’s just as likely to be moved by the beauty of his environs as he is by Apollonia. Filmed in and around Sicily, in particular, the crumbling town of Forza d’Agro and the small village of Savoca, The Godfather ’s occasionally bucolic backdrop belies the film’s innate violence. Apollonia, of course, goes on to meet a sad fate, but the image of the two finding one another amid Sicily’s dusty, unspoiled landscapes endures. — Betsy Blumenthal, former editor

Watch now: Streaming on Apple TV

Suspiria (1977)

It stars an American actress and it's set in a German ballet school, but nonetheless it's one of the defining cornerstones of Italian cinema, so much so that acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino ( I Am Love, Call Me By Your Name ) loosely remade it in 2018 , albeit set in Berlin . The original, shot in 1977 and directed by Dario Argento, Italy's greatest master of kitschy thrills and chills, is a sordid supernatural tale of dancers and demons, maggots, and murder. Of particular note is the lurid color palette and epic prog-rock score by the band Goblin. Basically, this is about as much fun as a horror movie can be. — J.A.

Watch now: Stream on Kanopy

The Voice of the Moon (1990)

Two Italian masters, Fellini and Roberto Benigni of Life Is Beautiful , teamed up in this dramatic comedy about soul searching and lunacy. In part a social commentary on consumption, greed, and media power, The Voice of the Moon is irreverent and absurd. Its reception was never strong outside of Italy, but for anyone curious to see more from Fellini's canon, this is a great place to start. —E.F.

Watch now: Rent from $3 on Amazon

Amarcord (1973)

This Fellini Oscar winner can feel at times like the lines between reality and a dreamier, nearly-surrealist state are blurred beyond distinction. Set in a seaside town like Rimini , where the director grew up, during the peak Fascist era of the 1930s, it vaguely chronicles life through the eyes of a teenager, his friends, and his family, through a series of vignettes that often leave viewers wondering what is and is not part of the plot. But the point here is that there is no conventional plot. Rather, Amarcord is a humorous and cheeky series of micro-stories that follow a loose structure whose characters and locations start to feel more and more familiar as you go, much like a dream itself. Though artsy, it is not an arthouse film. The key to enjoying it is to not overthink it, and just roll with it, scene-by-scene. In its own way, it's a masterpiece and essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in film or Italian cinema. —E.F.

It Started in Naples (1960)

Sophia Loren, Clark Gable, Naples, Capri. What more do you need? It Started in Naples is zany and farcical, and so much of it wouldn't fly in modern-day storytelling. After his brother dies, Gable travels to Naples to settle the estate—and learns he has a nephew from his brother's long-term affair. The boy now is living with his showgirl aunt, played by Loren to the hilt. While Gable's character tries to take the boy to Rome for school, Loren gets custody—and a romance develops between the two adults as they fight over how to best raise the child. Shot on location in Rome, Naples, and Capri, it won an Oscar for art direction. The crowds, the noise, the hustle—it will all make you feel as if you're right in the action, which doesn't seem to have changed much since the movie was shot. —C.Q.

Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon

Umberto D (1952)

A '50s classic with a fantastic score, Umberto D is reportedly director Vittorio De Sica’s favorite of his films (and yet another shining example of Italian Neorealism). It’s set in post-war Rome , and follows the story of an elderly man (and his beloved dog) trying to make ends meet when his landlord raises his rent. Truthfully, not a whole lot happens throughout the movie, but you still find yourself rooting for Umberto until the last minute—and wanting to dress half as well as he does, top hat and all. — Madison Flager, senior commerce editor

Cinema Paradiso (1990)

Even after years of repeat viewings, the final scene of Cinema Paradiso turns me into a complete puddle. Giuseppe Tornatore's love letter to the art of cinema takes form in the tale of Salvatore (Toto), whom we meet as a famous film director in Rome. When he learns his childhood mentor Alfredo has died, the film flashes back to his youth, when he was the smart, mischievous son of a war widow in a small village in Sicily. The film follows the beginnings of Toto's friendship with Alfredo, who runs the local movie house, then grows as Alfredo teaches Toto how to operate the projector, while also dispensing life and love advice. It moves through Toto's first romance and his military service, and how Alfredo encourages Toto to leave Sicily to achieve his dreams. Ultimately, Salvatore returns to Sicily to attend Alfredo's funeral, and his reckoning with where his life has taken him because of that friendship and love of cinema, comes to its fruition in the final scene. Which I'm not going to describe here, because I wouldn't deprive you of seeing it for yourself. —C.Q.

Watch now: Stream on Amazon Prime

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

There are more celebrated films by Italy's greatest auteur ( 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita ), but in its way, this 1965 classic, starring the director's wife Giulietta Masina as a middle-aged woman seeking a psychic exit from a loveless marriage to an unfaithful husband, is uniquely representative of Fellini's oeuvre. It's his first film in color, which he utilizes to the max to explore his favorite subject—the porous boundary between dreams and reality. It was also was shot both in the real-world locations that defined his earlier work (the village of Fregene, on the mouth of the Tiber) and on the cavernous sound stages of his beloved Cinecittà Studios in Rome, where he would retreat for most of his later films. — J.A.

The Italian Job (1969)

The 1969 Italian Job ( remade in 2003 with Ed Norton and Charlize Theron) stars the always smart and savvy Michael Caine and is as much a fast-paced bank heist flick as it is an ode to the swinging '60s. The mini dresses on the coiffed and shellac-haired women, the turtleneck sweaters on the men, the adorable red, white, and blue Mini Cooper getaway cars are all set to a groovy, dissonant soundtrack by Quincy Jones. It may not be as slick as the remake, but it’s so much fun. – Rebecca Misner, senior features editor

Watch now: Stream on Pluto

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Indiana Jones is no stranger to traveling the globe, all in the name of fighting Nazis and protecting artifacts, and The Last Crusade has some of the best action sequences in the entire franchise—many of which take place in Venice. Watch as Indy finds clues in the  San Barnaba church , climbs through some rat-filled catacombs, and engages in a boat chase in the waters surrounding the city. In the words of Mr. Jones himself: " Ah, Venice. " – Caitlin Mortin, freelance contributor

Watch now: Stream on Disney+

NEW ITALIAN CINEMA

La chimera (2024)

Romantic and fantastical, Alice Rohrwacher's 2023 film La chimera stars Josh O'Connor as a bedraggled vagabond with a knack for locating sealed tombs in the Italian countryside—a far cry from his turn as Prince Charles on The Crown . It's an aesthetic throwback to Wertmüller's crime films of the '70s, with lots of great outfits and a colorful supporting cast that includes Isabella Rosselini and the filmmaker's sister, Alba, who will soon play Elena on My Brilliant Friend . Come for the promise of some zany, meandering antics—lots of fernet is drunken midday, in the middle of a field, for example—and find yourself steadily hypnotized by the art and the magic. Who owns art? The dead? The living? I'm no longer sure. — C.H.

Watch now: Rent from $6 on Amazon

Like Crazy (2017)

Italy by no means has the starring role of this film (no, not the Felicity Jones one), but in the moments that it does appear, it shines, whether Beatrice and Donatella are driving along the coast, swiping a vintage car from a film set Thelma and Louise -style, or crashing a family party at a gorgeous Tuscan mansion. The movie follows the two aforementioned women as they break out of the psychiatric clinic they’re staying in (it also seemingly critiques the idea of institutions themselves), and is ultimately about the bond they forge in and out of treatment. It’s also in Italian, and the dialogue is wildly fast, so be prepared to keep up with the subtitles. — M.F.

Gomorrah (2008)

Years before it became a wildly successful international TV series , Gomorrah  was a gritty, cinema vérité–style look at modern-day organized crime in Naples . Based on a book by investigative journalist Roberto Saviano (who drew death threats while reporting it), this couldn't be further from the warm, honeyed portrayals of Italy common to so many other films. But as a welcome corrective to the too-frequent romanticization of the mafia, an honest analysis of the hard choices forced on members of the Italian underclass, and a visceral piece of storytelling, it is one of the most important Italian movies to come out this century. — J.A.

Watch now: Stream with Amazon Prime

A Bigger Splash (2015)

No one captures Italy—or at least the Italy that lives in my head—better than Luca Guadagnino. Tilda Swinton plays a rock star called Marianne Lane holed up in an isolated villa with her boyfriend (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), whose retreat from public life is quickly disrupted by the arrival of an ex-boyfriend (played by Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter (played by Dakota Johnson). It's a thriller that's supposed to warn you of the perils of wealth, beauty, and excess (which it does successfully), but most of the time it makes me want to pour myself a negroni, eat some branzino, and jump in a swimming pool. Plus, the soundtrack is great. —Lale Arikoglu, articles director

Malena (2000)

Giuseppe Tornatore revisits World War II-era Italy in this film, telling the tragic story of Malena, the local beauty of a small Sicilian town. While her husband is at war, the men in town lust after her, and young Renato, the narrator, becomes transfixed by her and vows to be her protector. Malena's solitary state makes her an object of scorn for the town women, and a flat-out object to the men, and as Malena's circumstances worsen, she becomes a sex worker to survive. Things get much worse before they get better, but ultimately the semi-coming-of-age drama explores the dangers of objectification—whether well-intentioned or not—and how it's the target itself, the one who never asked for the attention, who ends up suffering the most. — C.Q.

The Great Beauty (2013)

This is Rome operating on a gear you didn't realize it had: even more frenetic, surreal, and disorienting than you've already seen it (but in a good way). The story centers on Jeb, a journalist who has lived large on the city's nightlife for decades following the success of his first—and only—novel. Things uproot this aging playboy when his 65th birthday coincides with several casual but significant run-ins, shifting his experience of Rome from the decadent and composed to the natural beauty that lies at the heart of the city. A commentary on the superficiality of the Berlusconi era, it nevertheless captures all of Rome's best angles. — C.Q.

I Am Love (2009)

I haven't been to Milan since I was a child, but Luca Guadagnino's depiction of the city makes me feel like I know it intimately—from the grand and beautiful homes that occupy it to the dinners and parties that make it feel alive. Tilda Swinton, who stars as a Russian woman marrying into an Italian family, is also dressed impeccably . So much so that watching her makes me want to swan around in big sunglasses and shift dresses until further notice. — L.A.

Watch now: Stream on Hulu , Tubi

Stealing Beauty (1996)

I was in high school when Bernardo Bertolucci released what I consider his modern-day finest. Liv Tyler is superb as Lucy, who travels to Tuscany to visit family friends after her mother dies by suicide. She arrives at a lush villa owned by an English artist and his wife; also staying there are an extended group of quirky friends and family—all taken with Lucy, a virgin, who's hoping to reconnect with a boy she fell in love with during her last visit four years ago. Little do they know that Lucy is here for more than the rekindling of a romance—she's discovered clues from her mother's diary as to who her real father is, and Lucy suspects it's one of the men at the villa. Against the backdrop of a phenomenal soundtrack (Liz Phair, Portishead, Mazzy Star, Nina Simone) and the rolling Italian countryside, Lucy's personal journey unspools in dreamy, emotionally poignant fashion. It's the transformative Italian summer experience you wish you had when you were 18. —C.Q.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

For me, there’s almost no movie more evocative of a place than Luca Guadagnino ’s 2017 masterpiece Call Me By Your Name, based on the André Aciman book by the same name. Starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, the movie traces the sweet but fraught relationship between two men, who become romantically involved over the course of one summer in the early 1980s. But perhaps a third unnamed star of the movie is its location: Filmed around northern Italy , amid golden fields and worn stone piazzas, you can nearly smell the breeze that wafts by during the al fresco dinner, and feel the weight of the midday heat that bears down while the characters laze by the pool. If I suspend my disbelief for long enough, I’m very nearly there, too. — B.B.

Watch now: Stream on Amazon

TOURIST CINEMA

** Summertime **(1954)

Katharine Hepburn goes on vacation in this 1955 classic, arriving in Venice by train during the opening sequence. As with many of Hepburn's heroines, her spinster Jane Hudson is on the surface quick-witted and full of moxy. It quickly becomes clear, however, that she's an extremely lonely woman putting up a front, and that she's more than a little embarrassed to be traveling solo. One of the first British films to be shot entirely on location, during high tourist season no less, Summertime spends a great deal of time giving its audience a tour of the city through Jane's eyes—the Piazzo San Marco and its myriad cafés get extensive screentime in exquisite Technicolor. When Jane stumbles into an antique shop—as one must when visiting—she's drawn not just to a piece of red glassware but also the proprietor. Romance ensues, as does life and all of the great feeling that comes with it. — C.H.

Journey to Italy (1954)

This film is also known more aptly as Voyage in Italy , for its contents are concerned not at all with the getting to Italy and entirely with what happens once there. Ingrid Bergman—scandalously married to the director Roberto Rosselini by this point—and George Sanders play a couple on the brink of divorce who've arrived outside of Naples to sell a villa inherited from the man's uncle. Their desired itineraries for this Italy trip are quite different, highlighting their incompatibility: Bergman's Katherine wants to go to every museum she can, while Sanders's Alex would rather socialize with the locals. Not only is it a devastating piece of poetic cinema that laid the way for the French New Wave a decade later (an Italian being ahead of the times, who would've thought!), but it also has some lovely touristing sequences, in particular a bitter fight that starts in the ruins of Pompeii (wherein plaster casts are made and unearthed of a doomed couple preserved forever entwined beneath the ground) and ends stuck in traffic caused by the procession for San Gennaro. – C.H.

Roman Holiday (1953)

I'd argue that no Hollywood movie better encapsulates the romance and allure of Rome better than Roman Holiday . The film stars Audrey Hepburn as a European princess who escapes her palace (and royal duties) for 24 hours and Gregory Peck as a newspaper reporter who shows her around Rome, hoping to catch an exclusive story. The two ride a moped through the streets, eat ice cream on the Spanish Steps, and eventually fall in love to the backdrop of one of the world's most beautiful cities . (Full disclosure: This is the only movie that makes me cry every single time I watch it.) — C.M.

Watch now: Rent from $5 on Amazon

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Look, some may scoff at this 2003 rom-com starring Diane Lane, but if it's good enough for Jenny Slate , then it's good enough for the rest of us. Yes, it's cheesy, and yes, the story of a woman leaving her husband to find herself in Italy has been done to death, but who hasn't fantasized about moving someplace new and starting over ? Who hasn't fantasized about living in Italy, period? I'd pretty much give anything to be renovating the fictional Villa Bramasole or drinking limoncello in Positano right now—cliches included. —L.A.

Watch now: Stream on Hulu

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

Piggybacking off one of the Disney Channel's greatest original shows, The Lizzie McGuire Movie follows the eponymous teen (played by Hilary Duff) as she and her junior high school class take a graduation trip to Rome. Lizzie's life is pretty incredible already, so you can imagine the antics she and her friends find themselves in while galavanting around Italy's capital: We're talking chance encounters with Italian pop stars by the Trevi Fountain , rooftop makeout sessions, and impromptu performances at the Italian Music Awards. — C.M.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

I have watched  The Talented Mr. Ripley more times than I count. A large part of the draw is the gripping plot, of course—a social climber named Tom Ripley (played by Matt Damon) insinuates himself into the lives of wealthy couple Dickie Greenleaf (played by Jude Law) and Marge Sherwood (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) and high drama ensues—but it's equally the Amalfi Coast location. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be right now than eating al fresco in the garden of some beautiful Italian villa , or soaking up the sun on one of the region's umbrella-dotted beaches . — L.A.

A Room With A View (1985)

Helena Bonham Carter makes her film debut in this gorgeously shot, painstakingly produced movie based on E.M. Forster’s novel of the same name . Set during the Edwardian era, Bonham Carter plays Lucy, a young woman choosing between the priggish, safe bet Cecil (played almost too convincingly by Daniel Day Lewis) or the free-spirited, passionate George (a floppy-haired, chiseled Julian Sands) who she meets in Florence while touring the continent with her spinster cousin and chaperone (played by Maggie Smith). Of course the story and character development are fantastic, but it’s the costumes and the landscapes—the beautifully framed shots of Florence through an open window and the idyllic English countryside—that bring another, tangible layer of romance to this film. – R.M. Watch now: Stream on Max

Certified Copy (2010)

An Iranian director, French actress, and British baritone-turned-amateur movie star wanted an excuse to hang around in Tuscany—and now we have Certified Copy . While this is not actually the origin story for the film's setting—it's more concerned with how the past is ever-present, with Italy's long history and ongoing anthropological excavations a mirror for that truth—it's a believable one because the surroundings are just so dang gorgeous. The plot is abstract, almost indecipherable, following a woman and a man (the radiant Juliette Binoche and William Shemell, respectively) whose relationship is unclear. Are they perfect strangers? On a first date? Have they known each other for quite some time? Is their history, perhaps, being played out before our very eyes? Each of these interpretations makes sense at a certain point in the film, but the perplexed can take refuge in the gold-dappled scenery—ancient buildings and rolling hills reflected in the couple's windshield, a comedic wedding party popping up at the awkwardest of moments as they move through their own day, and advice from a café proprietress on life and love, it's all you can hope for out of a beautiful trip to Italy. — C.H.

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)

In a movie filled with standout scenes (the Stonehenge snafu, the misunderstanding in Germany), the part set in Rome is what always leaps first to my mind when I think of this seriously great, never out of fashion, family travel film. The Griswolds land in Italy and do a typically terrible job of fitting in, from their messy car rental to their fashion choices (side note: this is a great chance to ogle the OTT style of 1980s Italy), to a leaked video tape of Beverly D'Angelo's character singing in the shower that becomes an overnight nationwide hit. And yet, despite these cringe-worthy plot lines, you find yourself still desperately wishing you could be there, too, in little moments, eating scoops of rainbow-colored gelato in the piazza to sitting on the Spanish Steps as the Griswolds debut their new Italian looks. —E.F.

Only You (1994)

Is the set-up for this rom-com unbelievable and a little bit lame? Yes. (A woman gets stuck on who she’s destined to marry based on the name, Damon Bradley, that was spelled out while playing with an ouija board as a kid) Does this matter? Of course not! A young Marisa Tomei bails on her wedding after one of her fiancé’s friends calls to cancel because he’s going traveling through Italy. His name is, you guessed it, Damon Bradley. Tomei heads to a refreshingly uncrowded Venice where she meets a baby-faced Robert Downey Jr. (whose name is not Damon Bradley) and they fall in love. It’s sweet and silly and the shots of Venice are stunning.  –R.M.

Watch now: Stream on Starz

EROTIC VENICE

** The Comfort of Strangers **(1991)

Natasha Richardson's wild, hay-tangled curls. Rupert Everett in the glory of his youth, donning a skimpy little robe. Helen Mirren and Christopher Walken lurking in the shadows as a perverted wealthy couple whose generosity is rather clearly veiling something more sinister. Venice just lends itself to the genre of erotic thriller— Eyes Wide Shut uses Venetian masks to excellent effect, albeit in Westhester—as the ancient city of indifferent canals hides sick tensions and desires just below the surface. I can't really say much more about this film than that it's totally beautiful and utterly unpredictable. A very fun one to watch with a group. — C.H.

Don't Look Now (1973)

The '70s slasher Don't Look Now stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a pair of Americans who travel to Venice to get far from the site of their daughter's tragic death—Sutherland's character has accepted a commission to restore an ancient church, which allows them to make such a move. Deserted palazzos, misty evenings one false step from rippling black waters, and near-death brushes ensue, all making the most of the city's terrible beauty and atmosphere. As magical and charming as Venice certainly is, it is so, so old. All you need is a little imagination to conjure up some awful hanger-on lurking in the shadows, ready to send you forever into the water with a soft kerplunk. — C.H.

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22 Amazing Films set in Italy to Inspire you to Visit

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the disclaimer here .

Italy is such a popular, well-travelled destination and is surely on every keen traveller’s bucket list. Do you even really need any recommendations for amazing films set in Italy to inspire you to visit? I mean, you probably already know it’s a fantastic country! But I have a list anyway, just in case you need some extra encouragement.

The first thing you might think after reading through the films set in Italy I’ve picked for this list is ‘where the eff are all the Italian language films?! ‘ and you’d be absolutely right. There are so  many brilliant Italian films I could have included. However, since the majority of my audience is from the UK and USA I’m going to assume most of you do not speak Italian and it’s more likely that you’re going to watch films in your language, featuring actors you know. So that’s the reason for the very Hollywood/British-heavy selection! But there are still one or two Italian language films, too.

You might also notice that there are no films set in Rome , films set in Sicily or Venice on this list. And that’s quite simply because I have other blog posts specifically on those destinations (Venice coming soon)! So if you’re planning a big trip to Italy (you lucky thing!) and are visiting all of these places, then you have quite a lot of film recommendations, my friend.

But if you’re visiting any other region/city in Italy (Milan in Lombardy, Florence in Tuscany, etc.) then this general list of amazing films set in Italy is for you! Let’s dive in!

Top Films set in Italy

1. Purple Noon (1960) dir. René Clément

Languages: French, Italian Run time: 115m 97% Rotten Tomatoes

Purple Noon  should definitely be high on my ‘to watch’ list because I absolutely love the film  The Talented Mr. Ripley  (1999) and this film is based on the same book. Working-class American Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to persuade Phillipe Greenleaf to return to the US and take over his father’s business. Instead, Tom becomes enraptured by Phillipe’s lavish and luxury lifestyle. Even when Phillipe becomes mean and hurtful towards him, Tom is unwilling to give up this new life.

I love it! What’s better than a thriller set in Italy?  Purple Noon  shot in Naples and Rome and Ischia Island stood in for the fictional town of Mongibello. Maronti Beach on Ischia Island is where Tom sunbathes in the very last scene. Apparently, Ischia is seen as the ‘hidden gem’ alternative to the popular Italian island of Capri.

2. Rocco and His Brothers (1960) dir. Luchino Visconti

Language:  Italian  Run time: 177m 89% Rotten Tomatoes

Highlighting the Italian North-South divide,  Rocco and His Brothers  is about four brothers (and yes, one is called Rocco) who uproot from Lucania in the south to Milan with their widowed mother to live nearer their older brother, Vincenzo. The film follows each brother’s new life separately, intertwining the narrative at different points. But the main force guiding the plot is a prostitute called Nadia who comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.

It might be a bit grittier than you’d expect from a travel-inspiring film, but  Rocco and His Brothers  filmed all over Milan and Lombardy region. Filming locations include the Duomo , Bellagio on Lake Como , Milan Central Station , Piazzale Lugano and more! All of the Turin scenes were shot in Rome , however, so you won’t be finding any filming locations in Turin.

3. La Notte (1961) dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

Language:  Italian  Run time: 122m 83% Rotten Tomatoes

I’ve already mentioned Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy in a couple of blog posts previously.  L’Avventura  (1960) is the first film and set in Sicily and  L’Eclisse  (1961) is the final film and set in Rome . Well, La Notte  is the middle film and it’s set over just one day and night (hence the film’s title) in Milan.

A couple in a strained marriage hop from place to place, with each new event and interaction highlighting more cracks in their relationship.   La Notte  and the rest of Antonioni’s trilogy is a perfect example of Italian neo-realism and filmed at locations in the Sesto San Giovanni commune of Milan .

4. Come September (1961) dir. Robert Mulligan

Languages: English, Italian  Run time: 112m 80% Rotten Tomatoes

After watching  Roman Holiday  (1953) and  Three Coins in the Fountain  (1954), it seems really refreshing to watch an American film set in Italy outside  the capital city! Come September  follows a rich businessman who has a standing agreement with his Italian mistress to meet at his villa in Liguria every September. One year, he moves their meeting up to July only to discover his villa is now a hotel and the guests are a group of teenage girls. To make matters worse, a group of teenage boys become infatuated with the girls and have set up camp outside.

I love watching films set in Italy, particularly when they feature places I’ve actually been!  Come September  shot in Portofino (popular with the rich and famous around the time Come September was shot) and Cinque Terre which I visited last year. Some scenes were also filmed in Rome, Milan and of course in Universal Studios, California.

Genoa to Portofino: Guide to the Perfect 3 Village Day Trip

The Complete Guide Cinque Terre Guide: Five Villages, One Day Itinerary

5. Romeo and Juliet  (1968) dir. Franco Zefferelli

Language:  English Run time: 138m 94% Rotten Tomatoes

There have been  so  many film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, especially Romeo and Juliet, but Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet is probably one of the most successful and critically acclaimed. I’m sure you know the plot, but if not: young teenagers Juliet Capulet and Romeo Montague both belong to families who have a longstanding feud but fall in love despite their family tensions. Due to a few incidents and misunderstandings, the lovers are banished from their home city of Verona and tragically kill themselves due to, again, a huge misunderstanding.

Romeo and Juliet was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning two, and is possibly one of the best and most authentic Romeo and Juliet adaptations in existence. However, the film did not shoot scenes in fair Verona , where the play/film is set, but in Rome, Pienza in Siena and Gubbio in Perugia. The beautiful Palazzo Borghese in Rome was used for some interior scenes.

6. The Italian Job  (1969) dir. Peter Collinson

Language:  English  Run time: 99m 83% Rotten Tomatoes

Regularly charting on ‘the greatest British films of all time’ lists, I don’t know any self-respecting British film fan who hasn’t watched  The Italian Job  (1969) at least once. Starring Michael Caine as a newly-released convict, he puts together a team to rob a case of gold bullion bars from a security truck in Turin, Italy by causing a traffic jam. It’s a clever, laugh-out-loud film that is both a typical 1960s British comedy and a timeless classic.

Some scenes took place in London while the gang were planning their robbery, but the scenes in Italy were filmed primarily in Turin . Specific filming locations include Torino Palavela , 8 Gallery Lingotto Torino and Chiesa Della Gran Madre di Dio .

7. Avanti!  (1972) dir. Billy Wilder

Language: English  Run time: 140m 88% Rotten Tomatoes

Purple Noon  isn’t the only movie on my list of films set in Italy that noticed the cinematic potential in the Island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. American film  Avanti!  starring Jack Lemmon chose some breathtaking landscapes on the west coast of Italy including Ischia, the Isle of Capri and the Instagrammable Amalfi Coast.

Avanti!  is about a wealthy American businessman who must travel to Italy to deal with his recently-deceased father’s affairs. He soon learns that his father left behind a mistress and that his month-long trips to Italy weren’t for the relaxing mud baths.  Avanti!  shot at the same hotel where the film is set, the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria , which is still open today.

8. Amarcord  (1973) dir. Federico Fellini

Language:  Italian  Run time: 124m 90% Rotten Tomatoes

Federico Fellini is one of Italian’s most revered directors of all time. So, one of his films had  to feature on my list of films set in Italy.  Amarcord  is a self-autobiographical film based on the director’s experience growing up in 1930s Fascist Italy. Before moving to Rome, Fellini lived in Rimini in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy where  Amarcord  is set. The film doesn’t have a traditional ‘plot’ but rather a series of snapshots around the village of Borgo San Giuliano near Rimini.

It must be considered a decent enough film because Amarcord won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Fellini shot most of  Amarcord  in Rome’s Cinecittà Studios but shot a couple of scenes on location in Rimini and Rome.

9. A Room with a View  (1985) dir. James Ivory

Languages: English, Italian  Run time:  117m 100% Rotten Tomatoes

Based on the classic novel of the same name by E.M. Forster,  A Room with View  is set in England and Italy. It’s about an inhibited young woman, Lucy, living in Edwardian England. Lucy and her chaperone stay with a young man named George and his father at their home in Florence where Lucy and George strike up a friendship. Lucy returns to England, but when the pair are reunited, Lucy is already engaged.

Most of the film takes place in England, but it’s the scenes in Italy everyone remembers. A Room with a View is the quintessential travel-inspiring film to watch if you’re heading to Tuscany! Who doesn’t want a room with a view when the view is overlooking the river Arno , eh? Some of the filming locations in Florence include Piazza Della Signoria , Piazza Santa Croce and the Fiesole area of Florence.

10. Enchanted April  (1991) dir. Mike Newell

Language:  English  Run time:  95m 84% Rotten Tomatoes

Ever felt unhappy with the direction of your life and wanted up sticks to the Italian Riviera? Well, if you were rich in the 1920s, that’s exactly what you’d do!  Enchanted April  is a little-known film about four women who have hardly anything in common except the desire to share the rent in an Italian villa for one month to get away from it all.

The ‘villa’ the four ladies stay in is actually Castello Brown in Portofino and  Enchanted April  shot on location there. Castello Brown is a castle up on a hill overlooking the whole of Portofino and the port. I imagine it’s a pretty spectacular place to stay!

11. The English Patient  (1996) dir. Anthony Minghella

Languages:  English, German, Italian, Arabic  Run time:  162m 85% Rotten Tomatoes

It’s been  aaaages  since I watched  The English Patient ! I’m not sure I could even explain the plot without the help of my good pal, Wikipedia. Though, I did not forget that The English Patient  was a triumph during awards season, sweeping up several Academy Awards including Best Picture . But those Academy judges do love a period-set, country-hopping war film, am I right?

It’s near the end of WWII and Hana is a French-Canadian nurse who moves into a bombed-out Northern Italian Monastery to care for a burn victim who cannot remember who he is. In a series of flashbacks, the anonymous burn victim uncovers his identity and many adventures. Aside from Tunisia for the flashback sequences, The English Patient  shot the majority of its scenes in Italy. Grand Hotel des Bains stood in for a hotel in Cairo and the glorious monastery from the film is actually the Agriturismo Sant’Anna in Camprena in Siena, Tuscany which you can actually stay in! And host a wedding in! Other Italian cities used as filming locations include Rome and Trieste. 

12. Life is Beautiful  (1997) dir. Roberto Benigni

Languages: Italian, English, German  Run time: 116m 80% Rotten Tomatoes

Life is Beautiful  was the director and actor Roberto Benigni’s passion project. His father spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp in WWII and inspired this heartbreaking yet life-affirming film. Benigni plays a Jewish-Italian bookshop owner who is captured by Nazis along with his son. He uses his comedic talent and imagination to shield his son from the tragedy happening around them.

Not very travel-inspiring you say? I understand, but there are some cracking filming locations in  Life is Beautiful.  The majority of the Italy-set scenes are filmed in Arezzo, Tuscany and Terni, Umbria as well as Viterbo in the Lazio region . Think long cobbled streets with brightly painted houses and historic piazzas galore!

13.  The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) dir. Anthony Minghella

Language:  English  Run time: 139m 83% Rotten Tomatoes

Of all the films set in Italy on this list,  The Talented Mr Ripley is the one I recommend the most . Why? Because I think it’s an extremely well-made, enticing drama-thriller featuring great, well-known actors. Oh, and it showcases at least four different drop-dead gorgeous places in Italy. It’s the perfect all-rounder if a group of your travel-loving mates are coming round to watch a film.

Since it’s based on the same novel, the plot to  The Talented Mr Ripley is very similar to that of  Purple Noon.  Except in this version, ‘Philippe Greenleaf’ is ‘Dickie Greenleaf ‘and a few more Italian cities are ticked off, too. Ischia Island yet again stands in as the fictional seaside town of Mongibello. While in Rome, Tom and his pals visit the Spanish Steps , Piazza Navona , the Roman Forum and stay in La Grand Hotel and Positano even makes an appearance somewhere (probably as San Remo) . Towards the end of the film when the characters stay in Venice, Cafe Florian and Hotel Europa & Regina are filming locations.

So many Italy filming locations, all over the country, in just one film! Dammit, I really wanna just stop writing this blog post to watch  The Talented Mr Ripley right now. Does anyone know if it’s on Netflix?

The Talented Mr Ripley Filming Locations in Italy

14.  Tea with Mussolini  (1999) dir. Franco Zeffirelli

Languages:  English, Italian  Run time: 117m 66% Rotten Tomatoes

Over 30 years later, and director Franco Zefferelli makes my list of films set in Italy for another British-Italian film. Dames Judy Dench and Maggie Smith are part of a group of intelligent English women living in Italy during WWII who take it upon themselves to care for a young boy whose father shows little interest in.

Tea with Mussolini  shot most of its scenes in Tuscany where the film is set. Piazza Della Cisterna in San Gimignano , Siena was a prolific location in the film as well as the Collegiate Church . Florence and Cinecittà Studios in Rome were also utilised for  Tea with Mussolini.

15. Under the Tuscan Sun  (2003) dir. Audrey Wells

Language:  English  Run time:  113m 61% Rotten Tomatoes

Isn’t it a bit crazy it took us 15 films to finally reach one directed by a woman? Well, it’s a good one, in my opinion. I think Under the Tuscan Sun  laid the foundation for the  Eay Pray Love   boom. It’s about a newly-divorced American writer who goes on a trip to Italy and spontaneously buys a rundown villa in Tuscany . She has to navigate hiring workers, managing her finances and a burgeoning new relationship with a handsome Italian man.

There’s a lot to love about  Under the Tuscan Sun.  The tour is made up of an all-gay group which is fun and you see many sides of Tuscany in just one film. There’s the super touristy, writing postcards home to your mum side of Tuscany, the traditional ceremonies and Italian family values and even an immigrant’s perspective. A really great film and a must-watch if you’re planning a Tuscan holiday.

Specific filming locations include Cortona in Arezzo, Piazza Grande in Montepulciano , Siena, Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze in Florence, and even a quick trip down to Positano near the Amalfi Coast.

16. Ocean’s Twelve  (2004) dir. Steven Soderbergh

Language:  English  Run time: 125m 55% Rotten Tomatoes

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen  Ocean’s Twelve  (so long that I didn’t even remember that there are scenes in Rome!) but it’s a great film to watch if you’re planning a trip to Europe. The second film in the  Oceans  Trilogy after  Ocean’s Eleven  (2001) and before  Ocean’s Thirteen  (2007), Danny Ocean’s gang is back together to steal more money to pay off the guy they screwed over in the first film . They plan three European heists which take the team to Amsterdam , Paris, Monaco, Rome and Lake Como.

Brad Pitt’s character Rusty meets Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Europol Detective Isabel at a café in Piazza Della Rotonda , just outside the Pantheon in Rome . And the thief known as ‘Night Fox’ has a rather swanky villa, Villa Erba in Cernobbio on Lake Como which makes me wish I was a millionaire.

17. Genova/A Summer in Genoa  (2008) dir. Michael Winterbottom

Language:  English  Run time: 94m 77% Rotten Tomatoes

I know not many people have even heard of  Genova  or  A Summer in Genoa  (its USA release title), but I thought it was worth adding to my list of films set in Italy because a) I’ve been to Genoa and b) I’ve watched the film A LOT. And it’s such a big city but Genova  is one of the only films I can think of that’s set in Genoa.

The film follows a recently widowed dad played by Colin Firth who moves to Genoa with his two daughters to teach at the university and have a fresh start. The girls have a summer to adjust to living in Italy before they start school which is difficult due to the recent death of their mother.

It’s not a ‘happy happy happy’ film and the aesthetic is quite grey and gritty , but Genova  is shot entirely on location in Genoa and features a heck of a lot of locations. And if you’re planning on visiting this port city in Liguria, and you can actually find a copy of the film, definitely give it a watch. I have an entire blog post detailing all the filming locations in Genova   so you won’t miss any!

A Summer in Genoa/Genova Film Locations in Genoa, Italy

18. Quantum of Solace  (2008) dir. Marc Forster

Language:  English  Run time: 106m 65% Rotten Tomatoes

There have been many Bond films set in Italy but none so prolific as  Quantum of Solace.  Which is a bit unfortunate, considering it’s a lacklustre film compared to the two movies which bookend it: Casino Royale  (2006) and  Skyfall  (2012).

Quantum of Solace  is a straight sequel to  Casino Royale  and starts where the previous film finishes. Bond is driving from Lake Como to Siena in Tuscany with the elusive Mr White in the boot of his car . While in Siena, M’s bodyguard turns out to be a double agent so Bond ends up chasing bad guys on the cobbled streets (and roofs) of Tuscany . Of course, he doesn’t stay in Italy for long and soon moves onto Austria, Bolivia and Russia in the rest of the film.

Quantum of Solace  shot scenes in the Piazza del Campo in Siena, Limone on Lake Garda in Brescia and Craco in Matera as well as the Tuscan towns of Massa-Carrara , Grosseto and Maremma.

19. I Am Love  (2009) dir. Luca Guadagnino

Language:  Italian  Run time: 120m 82% Rotten Tomatoes

I Am Love  is the first film in director Luca Guadagnino’s self-named ‘desire’ trilogy. The second film is  A Bigger Splash  (2015) which I’ve written about in my films set in Sicily post and the final film in the trilogy is the very last movie on this list!

Set and filmed entirely in Milan and Liguria,  I Am Love  stars Tilda Swinton as Emma. She married into a powerful, Italian textile family and is the mother to three children yet remains unfulfilled. When she meets Antonio, one of her son’s friends, she develops feelings for him and they begin an affair. Aside from the cosmopolitan city of Milan , the film also shot scenes in San Remo on the Italian Riviera  and some filming locations in Milan include the famous Duomo and Villa Necchi Campiglio .

13 Great Films set in Sicily to Inspire you to Visit

20. Letters to Juliet  (2010) dir. Gary Winick

Languages:  English, Italian  Run time: 105m 41% Rotten Tomatoes

Letters to Juliet  follows young Sophie, a fact-checker from New York who takes a pre-honeymoon trip with her boyfriend to the romantic city of Verona. While he, a restauranteur, gets wrapped up in wines, cheeses and truffles, Sophie gets swept up in a 50-year-old love story. Sophie finds a letter that an English woman, Claire, wrote to the ‘Secretaries of Juliet’ asking for relationship advice , but it was never received. Claire, now widowed, is on a mission to find her Italian lover, residing somewhere in Tuscany, with the help of Sophie and her sceptical grandson.

I know that  Letters to Juliet  will only appeal to a certain type of film fan (those who enjoy fluffy romcoms like myself) but it’s one of the only  films set in Italy that shows off the beautiful city of Verona! Crazy, right? Luckily, I got to visit Verona in June and see how gorgeous the place is and check out the  Letters to Juliet  filming locations for myself. I’ll have to visit the locations in Tuscany another time!

Letters to Juliet Filming Locations in Verona and Tuscany

21. Inferno  (2016) dir. Ron Howard

Language:  English  Run time: 121m 23% Rotten Tomatoes

I know, I know.  Inferno  is a horrendous film and this is made even worse by the fact it’s the final film in  The Da Vinci Code trilogy in which the first two films are also not good. But I don’t care!  Inferno  is a race-against-the-clock adventure featuring the work of a 14th-century poet spanning no less than three major cities and I’ve watched it several times.

Everyone’s favourite Symbologist, Professor Robert Langdon is back and this time he’s in Florence with a concussion and bad guys chasing after him. Langdon and new pal Dr Sienna Brooks must follow the clues and fill in the blank spots to stop a deadly virus killing off half the world’s population.

Unlike  The Da Vinci Code (2006) which is the first film in the trilogy and set in primarily Paris and Angels and Demons  (2009) which is the second film and set in Rome,  Inferno  switches up locations. Starting in Florence , filming locations include the Ponte Vecchio , Palazzo Vecchio and Giardino di Boboli . Moving onto Venice , Piazza San Marco makes an appearance and then the film finishes up in Istanbul, Turkey at the world-famous Hagia Sophia .

22. Call Me By Your Name  (2017) dir. Luca Guadagnino

Languages:  English, Italian, French  Run time: 132m 95% Rotten Tomatoes

We’ve reached the end of our cinematic trip around Italy! And what a journey it’s been. I leave you with not only one of the best films set in Italy but one of my favourite films of all time.

Call Me By Your Name is set in the Lombardy region of Italy in the early 1980s. Elio is a precocious 17-year-old and Oliver is a 20-something Grad student of his father’s, staying in Elio’s family’s villa for the summer. As the weeks unfold, Elio and Oliver’s feelings for each other develop into an intense relationship against the backdrop of swimming in ponds, picking fruit from orchards and cycling in charming piazzas.  Call Me By Your Name ‘s locations in the Lombardy region include Crema, Bergamo and a town on Lake Garda called Sirmione which I visited in June!

Verona to Sirmione Day Trip on Lake Garda: Call Me By Your Name Location

Other films set in Italy:  Journey to Italy (1954), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977),  For Your Eyes Only (1981), Dear Diary (1993), Only You  (1994),  Il Postino (1994) Stealing Beauty  (1996),  In Love and War  (1996), A Good Woman  (2004), Shadows in the Sun  (2005), Nine  (2009),  No Time to Die  (2020)

And those are all the top films set in Italy that will inspire you to visit! Are you planning a trip to Italy? Or have you watched any of these travel-inspiring films? Let me know in the comments below!

19 Top Films set in Rome to Watch Before Your Trip

Hey! I wrote this. And I'm the human (and hair) behind Almost Ginger. I live for visiting filming locations, attending top film festivals and binge-watching travel inspiring films. I'm here to inspire you to do the same! Get in touch by leaving a comment or contacting me directly: [email protected] .

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25 Best Movies Set in Italy (By Genre!)

With its stunning landscapes, magnificent cities, charming towns, and captivating culture, Italy has been a favorite place to film movies for decades–and as a result, there are plenty of wonderful movies set in Italy to choose from.

Classic films full of old Hollywood glamor? There are plenty of those.

Action movies? Of course.

Romances? Certo .

Whether you’re gearing up for a trip to Italy and hope to get inspired, or you just want to make the most of some armchair travel on a rainy day, here are some of the best movies about Italy to watch!

Table of Contents

Classic Films Set in Italy

Romantic movies set in italy, self-actualization movies that take place in italy, political + action movies about italy, teen movies set in italy.

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These classic movies set in Italy edge toward being a bit older, and all are either based on classic books set in Italy or are classics in their own right… or both!

Roman Holiday (1953)

Perhaps the best-known and most classic movie set in Italy, Roman Holiday is Audrey Hepburn’s beloved comedy about a princess setting off to explore Rome.

You may remember the iconic Spanish Steps as a filming location for this movie, and it is also largely responsible for the immense popularity of the Mouth of Truth.

A Room With a View (1985)

Based on the classic 1908 novel by E.M. Forster, A Room With a View opens with the adventures of a young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, as she explores Florence.

A Room With a View features plenty of places that are recognizable to visitors today, driving home just how long travelers have been infatuated with Tuscany!

If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend the novel, as well.

La Dolce Vita (1960)

The Italian movie of La Dolce Vita (translated to “The Sweet Life”, a common phrase in Italy) chronicles the adventures and many romances of a gossip columnist as he explores the streets of Rome over the course of a week.

One of the best-known and most classic Italian movies, you’ll see references to La Dolce Vita in some of the other movies set in Italy on this list!

Enchanted April (1991)

Four English women in the 1920s are determined to leave the gray weather of the UK behind for the month of April–and where better to go than the coast of Italy?

This story of friendship is set (and was filmed in) Castello Brown in Portofino, and while the plot of the movie (and the classic book it was based on) is interesting in and of itself, the views of Portofino alone would make this Italy movie well worth watching.

The Godfather (1972)

Perhaps the most famous of all of these movies set in Italy, The Godfather follows the exploits of the Corleone crime family for ten years, centering primarily on the family’s patriarch, Vito Corleone, and his son Michael Corleone.

The movie was filmed in both New York and Sicily and remains one of the most celebrated movies of all time.

While virtually all of the movies set in Italy included in this blog post have some kind of romantic plot or subplot, these three movies about Italy center primarily on a love story.

When in Rome (2010)

A skeptical New Yorker takes a trip to Rome and accidentally places several would-be suitors under a love spell–so begins the plot of When in Rome, a lighthearted romantic comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, while sharing plenty of scenes of beautiful Rome.

And, while it isn’t explicitly stated, the fountain of love that is featured in the movie is most likely based on the Trevi Fountain.

Letters to Juliet (2010)

Verona , vineyards, and plenty of romance: Letters to Juliet is a fun romantic comedy set, like its namesake, in fair Verona.

When Sophie tags along on a trip to Verona with her fiance, she finds herself with a lot of time on her hands–and eventually finds a “Letter to Juliet” written by a heartbroken woman in the 1950s.

Hoping to help the woman find her love decades after he was lost, Sophie returns the letter to its owner and sets off on an adventure across Italy.

Only You (1994)

Faith believes that her true love is set in stone: she and a man named Damon Bradley are meant to be… despite the fact that she hasn’t found him.

When she flies to Venice to find him, she finds another paramour instead–but will she be able to let go of her idea of fate and give in to the possibility of love that is in front of her?

While the movie itself is considered rather unexceptional, the scenes showing off Italy are a delight and stretch across Venice, Rome, Tuscany, and the Amalfi Coast.

While a couple of these films could also be classified as romantic movies set in Italy, ultimately their themes run more toward self-discovery than romance–and they include some of the best-known travel movies for Italy travel inspiration.

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Based on a true story, Under the Tuscan Sun chronicles Frances Mayes’ experience buying a Tuscan villa near Cortona on a whim, and her journey as she renovates the property and gets to know the locals (Italians and ex-pats alike).

While the movie does change some key points from both the book (which is focused much more on the house, Bramasole, itself) and Frances Mayes’ actual life, the movie is a delightful way to experience a sliver of the Tuscan countryside when you can’t actually hop on a plane to see it.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Adapted from the critically acclaimed 2007 novel by the same name, Call Me By Your Name tells the coming-of-age story of 17-year-old Jewish-American Elio over the course of a summer spent in a 17th-century villa in Italy in 1983.

At the heart of the story is the development of Elio’s romantic relationship with 24-year-old Oliver, also a Jewish-American, but ultimately, Call Me By Your Name is as much about growing up as it is about falling in love.

Eat, Pray, Love (2010)

Elizabeth Gilbert’s runaway best-seller about her one-year journey to find herself in Italy, India, and Indonesia after a hard divorce has captivated audiences around the world, as has its movie adaptation.

Fittingly, the Italy section of the movie focuses on the “eat” section of the title.

Featuring plenty of scenes sprinkled across Rome and Naples , watching Eat, Pray, Love will definitely not fail to make you crave several hearty meals worth of delicious Italian food!

Shadows in the Sun (2005)

Set in Tuscany, this made-for-TV movie about Italy tells the story of a young writer who is tasked with traveling to Tuscany to find an older, celebrated author who is suffering from writer’s block, and convince him to write again.

The Tuscan countryside, some clashes with the older writer in question, and a dash of romance, though, distract him along the way.

My Brilliant Friend (2018 – ?)

I’m technically breaking my own rule here because My Brilliant Friend is a TV show rather than a movie about Italy, but Elena Ferrante’s series is too wonderful not to include here.

Here’s the setting: it’s a poor, violent neighborhood in 1950s Naples.

Two girls befriend each other, defy the non-existent expectations of their academic talents, and dream of achieving great things.

One is able to continue their education past elementary school. One is not. What happens next?

That is the story of My Brilliant Friend, and it’s absolutely one worth experiencing.

While I am separating books from movies set in Italy here, I’d be remiss not to suggest, in this case, reading Elena Ferrante’s phenomenal series the show is based on first.

Not only is her language too riveting not to experience, but the show itself was filmed in Italian, so having context before diving into subtitles helps.

Looking for a mystery, a bit of political intrigue, or just some good, old-fashioned chase scenes through beautiful Italian cities?

If so, these movies that take place in Italy are for you!

Angels & Demons (2009)

Acting as a sequel to The DaVinci Code movie (though the Angels & Demons book was actually a prequel), the Angels & Demons movie brings back the character of Robert Langdon, a symbologist who is tasked with solving a mystery around a plot to murder four Catholic cardinals.

Filmed in Rome, Angels & Demons is packed with scenes that will make you miss Rome, as well as potentially add a few out-of-the-way corners to your list of places to see the next time you visit!

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Of course, no list of movies about Italy could fail to include a James Bond movie or two!

James Bond is perhaps the ultimate franchise for inspiring wanderlust via action movies.

Quantum of Solace, the immediate sequel to Casino Royale, opens in Italy, with scenes in and around Lake Garda, the Tuscan countryside, and Siena.

And, while the bulk of Casino Royale takes place in Monaco, if you’re watching James Bond movies, you might want to pop Casino Royale in as well: a gorgeous villa on Lake Como was used to film a few scenes.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Set in the 1950s and boasting an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow, I have to admit I’m hesitant to include any details about the plot of The Talented Mr. Ripley in this blog post about movies set in Italy because I watched it with absolutely no clue what the plot was and ended up enthralled with the twists and turns.

If you’re into psychological thrillers, excellent acting, and/or absolutely stunning cinematography showcasing Italy’s beauty, add The Talented Mr. Ripley to your list of must-see movies about Italy.

The Tourist (2010)

Part intriguing spy movie and part heist movie, The Tourist is a fairly standard, if enjoyable movie.

Where it truly shines, though, is in how obvious it is that much of the movie was filmed on location in beautiful Venice, and it is complete with chase scenes in the lagoon and across the rooftops.

While the movie’s understanding of Venice’s layout is a little spotty, the movie is a feast for the eyes for those of us who love the city of canals.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

The newest movie in the current Spider-Man franchise has all the elements of an MCU universe movie, complete with a huge battle that takes place in Venice!

The movie is set partially in Venice, as well as several other places scattered across Europe, and while a set was built to film the battle scene (the actual Rialto Bridge definitely would not have been suitable for filming) some scenes were filmed on location in Italy.

The Italian Job (2003, 1969)

A classic heist movie featuring Mini Coopers and plenty of Venice (including an epic chase scene through Venice’s canals), The Italian Job tells the story of several criminals banded together to get back at a former colleague who double-crossed them after a successful heist.

While the 2003 version of this movie set in Italy is the one we’re most familiar with, it was actually a remake of a 1969 British film!

Tea With Mussolini (1999)

Centered around a young man with a father who would rather not acknowledge him and his relationships with a group of older, wealthy British ex-pats, Tea With Mussolini tells the story of WW2 through the lens of how its characters are affected throughout the rise of fascism and later war in Italy.

These movies set in Italy are definitely a nod to my generation, but fellow millennials no doubt remember growing up with these lighthearted movies filmed in Italy!

When in Rome (2002)

I’m sure I’m not the only millennial who remembers very early wanderlust inspiration provided by the Olsen twins and their series of movies that took a different pair of fictional twins to an exotic location (in addition to Rome, Paris, Australia, New York, London, and the Bahamas were all featured in a film).

When in Rome centers around a summer fashion internship the twins score, complete with distracting boys, great views of the Colosseum, and sabotaging coworkers.

New Moon (2009)

The second installment of the (in)famous Twilight saga concludes with a distraught Bella Swan tearing through Tuscany to save the life of her suicidal, semi-immortal love Edward Cullen from the Volturi, a dangerous governing body of ancient vampires that he’s determined to anger because (insert teenager reasons).

The whole plot is completely over the top, of course, but the climax was indeed filmed in Italy, complete with installing a fountain for Bella to run through in the piazza. 

The very real Tuscan town of Volterra is the setting in both the New Moon book and movie, but Montepulciano stands in for Volterra during filming.

The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

Acting as the conclusion to the Lizzie McGuire Disney Channel show, The Lizzie McGuire Movie is a fun early-2000s teen movie set in Italy.

Memorable scenes featuring Rome include not only 14-year-old Lizzie McGuire singing onstage in the Colosseum, and cartwheeling on the Spanish Steps, but meeting a cute boy on a Vespa at the Trevi Fountain and ditching her school group to hang out with him.

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About Kate Storm

In May 2016, I left my suburban life in the USA and became a full-time traveler. Since then, I have visited 50+ countries on 5 continents and lived in Portugal, developing a special love of traveling in Europe (especially Italy) along the way. Today, along with my husband Jeremy and dog Ranger, I’m working toward my eventual goal of splitting my life between Europe and the USA.

14 thoughts on “25 Best Movies Set in Italy (By Genre!)”

Great list with my favorite “The Godfather” up there however the classic “Roman Holiday” was well-chosen for the number one position. If you want a list of 26 I suggest adding the creepy Venetian-noir “Don’t Look Now”.

I’ll have to see if we can track that one down! We sure have plenty of movie time on our hands this week.

Don’t Look Now is a great story!

The Trip to Italy is an amazing movie. Funny and incredible cinematography in the Amalfi Coast.

Good to know!

Malena should have been in this list…

Yes ! i agree . I watched it a few days ago but if you are feeling unhappy i wouldnt recommend it as it is quite sad.

The way of the Dragon

“The Bicycle Thief” and “The Seven Beauties” should also make the list in the heavy drama section for sure, but both are worth the watch. The opening for the Seven Beauties alone is quite a rendition of the absurdity of what life can be and make people who get caught up in the circumstances do.

You forgot classics like:

1962’s “Rome Adventure” with Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue;

1954’s “Three Coins in the Fountain” with Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Louis Jourdan and Rossano Brazzi;

David Lean’s 1955 “Summertime” with Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi;

1960’s “It Started in Naples” with Clark Gable and Sophia Loren;

“Arivederci Roma” / “Seven Hills of Rome” from 1957, with Mario Lanza.

I agree with P. Garrison, and would ad “Malena,” as well.

Oops, and Cinema Paradiso! I did happen to see another recommendation for Malena.

I think ‘Made In Itay’ with Liam Neeson was a cosy and sweet film tackling a father and son relationship. It wasn’t amazing like the ones on your list and other classics but it was romantic and provided enough Italian longing to want you wishing you had a house in Tuscany!

Definitely sounds worthy of being on here!

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25 Incredible Movies To Watch Before Going to Italy

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Are you looking for the best movies about Italy? You’ve come to the right place!

Italy has such a stunning landscape, be it mountains, lush meadows, forests, pristine coastline, cute towns , quaint villages or bustling cities crammed with grand and historic architecture and warm friendly people. 

It is therefore not a coincidence that it has provided the backdrop to so many films since the advent of cinema. 

We have listed a few movies set in Italy, which showcase the splendour of this beautiful country. 

In this article, you will discover an incredible selection of movies set in Italy. This includes rom coms , classics, thrillers and many more! 

🔎 Table of Contents

1. The Godfather

• 📅 Release date : 1972
• 🌟 Starring : Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, James Caan
• 📍 Main location: New York and Sicily

The Godfather is by far the most iconic movie about Sicily out there. While most of it is actually set in the United States, the numerous connections to Italy and the scenes filmed in Sicily make it an excellent watch for Italy lovers.

The movie is based on the best selling novel of Mario Puzo. It’s about the Sicilian mafia in America and it starred some of the most famous actors of all time, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.

In the first movie of the series, you’ll see how Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) hands over his business to his son Michael (Al Pacino).

There are many fascinating things to say about the Godfather but it’s important to note that most of it were filmed in the USA.

The parts in Sicily were filmed in the villages of Savoca and Forza d’Agrò. If you are heading to Sicily soon, you’ll be happy to know that you can visit these places.

In Savoca for example, you can find the bar and the church where Al Pacino gets married.

2. La Dolce Vita

• 📅 Release date : 1960
• 🌟 Starring : Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimme, Anita Ekberg
• 📍  Main location: Rome

La Dolce Vita is the most iconic movie set in Italy of all time! It’s a typical Fellini film featuring exactly what the Italian Dolce Vita (sweet life) is like.

The main character is called Marcello Rubini. He is a gossip columnist who gets caught up in a frenzied but confusing week in Rome amongst glamorous Hollywood stars, members of the high society and his photographer friend, Paparazzo.

This film is particularly well known for its iconic scene in the fountain of Trevi. There you can see the gorgeous Anita Ekberg swimming in the fountain.

Please note that this is actually not something you are allowed to do now! But, it is a great movie to watch before heading to Rome. 

You will recognise a lot of the places featured in the movie.

FUN FACT: Incidentally, the photographer, Paparazzo, gave birth to the term “Paparazzi”! 

La Dolce Vita is regarded as one of the best Italian vintage movies and no matter what, it must be on your watch list!

3. Roman Holiday

• 📅 Release date : 1953
• 🌟 Starring : Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck
• 📍 Main location: Rome

The Roman Holiday is a beautiful romantic comedy-drama, based on the real-life Italian adventures of Britain’s Princess Margaret.

It is known as one of the best movies that take place in Italy and starred the famous Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

Both stars give superb performances, perhaps the best of the 1950s, earning Hepburn an Academy Award for Best Actress!

Here is what the movie is about: a princess on a state visit to Rome, frustrated by her royal schedule, falls asleep on a park bench after being prescribed a sedative by her physician. 

An American reporter finds her and without recognising her and takes her home. 

He takes her on a tour of the city and, yes, a romance develops, jeopardising her stately visit. 

After a little adventure through the streets of Rome and some classic twists and turns, it does have an unpredictable end. Really worth watching again.

4. Eat Pray Love

• 📅 Release date : 2010
• 🌟 Starring : Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, James Franco, Billy Crudup
• 📍 Main location in Italy: Rome

This is one of the best travel movies of all time and a lot of it is set in Italy. Eat Pray Love is based on the Elizabeth Gilbert’s book of the same name.

It stars Julia Roberts who leaves her husband go travel the world.

During her journey, she goes to Rome and lives there for a while. She learns the language and explore. It’s a great romantic movie about travel so make sure to watch it if you haven’t yet.

• 🌟 Starring : Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills
• 📍 Main location: Sorrento and the Italian island of Ischia

Avanti! is a rip-roaring comedy that certainly makes the list of best movies set in Italy. 

Two fun characters portrayed by Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills in a hilarious storyline is a sure winner. 

But when you throw in the beautiful scenery of Sorrento and Ischia as a backdrop as well, rest assured you have a classic! 

The movie is about two people who get killed in a car crash whilst cheating on their spouses.

When their respective children go to claim the bodies, they realised that they went missing.

At this point, they both suspect each other of body snatching. 

Both have their own agendas but there is a complicated twist nobody will see coming. It’s hilarious! 

The look on Jack Lemmon’s face when the waiter rattles off Italian names of pasta dishes, will have you in stitches. 

Just watch this movie! 

6. Summertime

• 📅 Release date : 1955
• 🌟 Starring : Katherine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi 
• 📍 Main location: Venice

Another one of the many classic movies set in Italy, this is a timeless love story set in the romantic city of Venice. 

Directed by the legendary David Lean, Katherine Hepburn, in the prime of her career, gives a stunning performance not easily forgotten.

The story is about a middle-aged and lonely American spinster, Jane Hudson, who uses her life savings to fund a trip to Italy and soak up some culture and perhaps… 

As you would expect, she meets, what she sees as the man of her dreams in Venice and is swept off her feet by this distinguished-looking and very handsome antique shop owner. 

The relationship takes a turn when she realises that he is leading a double life and she has to choose between her own happiness and the effect that will have on others. 

One of the most unforgettable moments is when she falls into a Venetian Canal.

7. The tourist

• 🌟 Starring : Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie
• 📍 Main location: Venice Italy, Paris France

The Tourist is one of the most famous romantic thrillers set in Italy.

It takes place in several places including Paris, France but most of the movie is set in Venice and that’s why it made the list.

As far as the cast goes, this is a great movie since there are Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

Here is what it is about. 

An unassuming American tourist is lured by a beautiful criminal who uses him as a decoy to throw off the metropolitan police, Scotland Yard and a powerful gangster who are all after her. 

After a night of passion, the tourist’s holiday turns into a nightmare, as he struggles to escape from people he does not even know, resulting in his memorable quote “Why is everybody trying to kill me?” 

You will see some great views of Venice in this one!

8. When in Rome

• 📅 Release date : 2002
• 🌟 Starring : Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Leslie Danon and Julian Stone

The Olsen twins are without the shadow of a doubt, the most famous twins of the 90s and 00s!

They are known for their romantic teen movies. Each one of them takes place in a different country and watching them is a great way to discover places such as Sydney, New York City or even Peru!

In When in Rome , the two twins go to Rome to take part in a summer internship. 

Quickly after getting there, they get fired which will lead them to meet more people, and of course boys.

We will let you watch it to discover who ends up with whom but all in all, it’s a good feel-good movie for teenagers.

You get to see the most famous landmarks such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Spanish Steps.

If you are planning a trip to Italy with a teenager, it could be a great movie to watch with them since it will definitely make them want to go!

9. The Lizzie McGuire Movie

• 📅 Release date : 2003
• 🌟 Starring : Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Jake Thomas, Robert Carradine

Lizzie McGuire is one of the most popular Disney teen shows from the 00s. It made Hilary Duff incredibly famous and it’s only normal that a movie would be produced after the end of the show.

While Lizzie lives in the US, in the movie she travels to Rome where she is mistaken for a pop star, Isabella.

She decides to start living the life of her doppelganger and becomes a star, right here in Italy.

Some of the iconic scenes include Hilary Duff on a red Vespa scooter, at the Colosseum and in front of the beautiful Trevi Fountain.

• 📅 Release date : 2021
• 🌟 Voices : Giacomo Gianniotti, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jacob Tremblay, Emma Berman
• 📍 Main location: Italian Riviera, Cinque Terre, Liguria

If you’ve always wanted to visit the Cinque Terre, this new Disney Movie will be ideal for you. Released in 2021, Luca is a Pixar movie that takes place in Liguria.

Although they don’t mention the Cinque Terre, it is clear that it was the source of inspiration as you can see many elements that you would find in the 5 villages.

This includes the train, the port of Monterosso and the Via dell’Amore.

This Disney movie about Italy is of course an excellent watch for kids but even as an adult, you will love it.

Luca is a little sea monster who discovers there is a world at the surface.

He becomes human and discovers a fascination for Vespas.

With his friend, Alberto, he will do everything to get a real Vespa and that includes taking part in a local competition in the small town of Portorosso.

11. Il Postino

• 📅 Release date : 1994
• 🌟 Starring : Massimo Troisi, Maria Graiza Cuccinota, Philippe Noiret.
• 📍 Main location: The Italian islands of Procida and Salina

Il Postino is a really beautiful story based on true events, of a simple postman wanting a little more to life than delivering post on his tiny island off the Italian coast. 

His life is transformed when he strikes a friendship with Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet and exiled Communist activist.

In this movie, you can see postman Mario who learns about poetry from Pablo and uses his newly acquired skill to woo the local lasses. 

Mario plagiarises one of Pablo’s romantic poems and recites it to a beautiful barmaid, winning her heart, much to the anger of her battle-axe aunt. 

Pablo, on the other hand, supports Mario at his wedding to the barmaid, after Mario told him that poetry does not belong to those that write it but to those who need it! 

Pablo gets to return to his homeland but when he returns to the island he learns that Mario, the postman has died. 

A beautiful true to life story that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. 

To add more drama to this film, the postman actor, Massimo Troisi, passed away the day after the film was completed. 

At the funeral, his film double walked behind the coffin in honour of Massimo, making everyone think it was his ghost.  

Pablo Neruda died in Santiago, Chile in 1973 having been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

12. Benvenuti al Sud

• 🌟 Starring : Valentina Lodovini, Alessandro Siani, Claudio Bisio and Angela Finocchiaro
• 📍 Main location: Castellabate near Naples

Benvenuti al Sud is one of the funniest Italian movies out there.

It’s also a great thing to watch from a cultural point of view since it pinpoints all the differences between Northern Italy and the South.

It is a remake of the French movie Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks) which is, still to this day, one of the highest-grossing French movies of all time.

Here, you follow the adventures of Alberto, a northern man who works for the post office and is being transferred to the small village Castellabate near Naples.

As he arrives, he discovers that people live in a completely different way here. People are late, they don’t kid with coffee and plenty more things.

Adapting reveals itself to be more a challenging thing than expected.

There are so many hilarious parts in this movie and it will truly make you laugh out loud.

Especially since you love Italian culture and already know quite a bit about it.

13. Benvenuti al Nord

• 📅 Release date : 2012
• 📍 Main location: Milan

Benvenuti al Nord (meaning Welcome to the North) is the sequel of Benvenuti al Sud.

Since the first movie was such a huge success, it was decided to keep going and do another movie.

In this one though, it’s the northern culture that is highlighted.

Alberto leaves Naples to go back to Milan and his friend, Mattia, comes with him.

Once Mattia gets to Milan, he definitely has a bit of a hard time adapting. He tends to be late like they do in the south, doesn’t understand why people would eat sushis and so goes on.

It is not quite as funny as the first one but still a great movie to watch. It’s cute and definitely hilarious either way.

14. Tea with Mussolini

• 📅 Release date : 1999
• 🌟 Starring : Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Cher. Lily Tomlin
• 📍 Main location: Italy

Tea with Mussolini is a drama that begins in pre-WW2 Italy and traces the lives of a group of eccentric English and American women and how the war affected them while trying to raise and protect a young illegitimate Italian boy. 

It is based on the experiences of the famous film director, Zeffirelli as a boy during WW2.

The movie is about the lives of 2 American and 3 high-society British tea-drinking ladies that are disrupted by Mussolini’s fascists and the threat of war that is gripping Europe. 

One, who is the widow of a former British Ambassador to Italy, seeks to have tea with Mussolini, who assures her of their safety under his dictatorship. 

Unfortunately, things do not quite turn out that way as their lives are turned upside down when Britain declares war on Italy.

15. Angels & Demons

• 📅 Release date : 2009
• 🌟 Starring : Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor
• 📍 Main location: Rome and the Vatican

Angel & Demons is the first of the Dan Brown mystery-thriller series on prophecies, conspiracies, ancient codes, hidden symbols and secret societies.

The other super famous movie of that same series is the Da Vinci code but unlike the name may suggest, it’s not set in Italy but in Paris, France.

Angel & Demons is about an expert on symbolism who takes us on an adventure through the intriguing and secret world and the lair of the “Illuminati”, Free Masons and the Vatican. 

His quest is to decipher clues, which will lead him to a canister of “antimatter” buried somewhere in the Vatican and is due to explode at midnight and destroy the Vatican.

In and out of some of the most stunning churches in Rome and the Vatican itself, revealing secrets buried within the texts and famous arts, sculptures and artefacts, are the highlights of this powerful, complicated story, rich with so much historical background. 

Set almost entirely in Rome and the Vatican, this is one of the movies about Italy you do not want to miss.

READ MORE: 14 Essential Rome Travel Tips to know before visiting the Eternal City

16. The Talented Mr. Ripley

• 🌟 Starring : Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman
• 📍 Main location: Venice, San Remo, Positano, Ischia and Procida

The Talented Mr. Ripley is one of the most popular Matt Damon movies out there.

It’s a dark murder thriller about a penniless young man being thrown into the world of affluence and luxury, and will do anything to stay there…even murder.

A young man, Tom, is mistaken by a wealthy American industrialist for a friend of his son, and sends him to Italy to convince him to return. 

Tom plays along and becomes accustomed to the sweet life and commits the most atrocious crimes to continue this life of deceit, eliminating anyone that stumbles upon his secret.

Although the film shows graphic violent acts, don’t be surprised if you find yourself sympathising with the murderer.

Such is the acting performance of clean-living, boy next door type, Matt Damon.

17. Cinema Paradiso

• 📅 Release date : 1988
• 🌟 Starring : Salvatore Cascio, Philippe Noiret, Marco Leonardi.
• 📍 Main location: Sicily

Inspired by a real-life cinema projectionist, this nostalgic and moving drama reflects the power of cinema, as seen by a young boy and his mentor, an elderly projectionist in wartime Sicily. 

Cinema Paradiso is about an acclaimed film director who returns to the little Sicilian village to attend the funeral of his mentor who had ignited his love and passion for film as a boy. 

He meets up with his elderly parents, old friends and an old flame where they reminisce the past and receives an unexpected gift from his deceased projectionist friend had left for him.

The haunting music provided by Ennio Moricone adds magic and soul to warm your heart. A real beautiful and sentimental movie. 

18. In Search of Fellini

• 📅 Release date : 2017
• 🌟 Starring : Ksenia Solo, Maria Bello, Mary Lynn Rajskub.

In Search of Fellini is a nostalgic drama which enters the mind and works of the renowned Italian film maker, Federico Fellini. 

It’s written and based on the true story of Nancy Cartwright, better known for her 30 years run as the voice of Bart Simpson – who would have thought?

The movie is about a young naïve American woman, enchanted by the films of the legendary film director, sets off to Italy to find him, but ends up finding herself in the process. 

If you’re not familiar with Fellini’s works or you’re not a fan, you may battle through this, or you may also find yourself seeking him or his films out. One of the few Italian films on Netflix.

19. Enchanted April

• 📅 Release date : 1991
• 🌟 Starring : Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence
• 📍 Main location: Portofino 

A rich nostalgic film set in the 1920s in a castle in Portofino, where the author of the book, Elizabeth Arnim, stayed in the same period.

Enchanted April takes place after World War 1, where four unhappily married English women take a vacation and a break from their husbands in a small medieval castle in Italy. 

After several twists and turns, they become completely transformed by their new stress-free lifestyle and peaceful surroundings, finding hope and love in their lives. 

The stunning performances of Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright earned them both Golden Globe Awards for best actress and best-supporting actress respectively. 

20. And While We Were Here

• 🌟 Starring : Kate Bosworth, Jamie Blackley, Iddo Goldberg, Claire Bloom. 
• 📍 Main location: The Italian Island of Ischia

This drama film set in Italy is about an unhappily married woman faced with a life changing choice, while on a visit to Italy.

Caught in a loveless marriage to a boring viola player, Jane meets a young a free-spirited American, who awakens her desires and she is forced to choose whether to return to the mundane life and try to patch up her marriage or change the course of her life. 

She eventually makes her choice, which is to… You just gotta see this film!

21. 6 Underground

• 📅 Release date : 2019
• 🌟 Starring : Ryan Reynolds, Melanie Laurent Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.
• 📍 Main location: Florence, Rome, Siena, Taranto, and Frascati

If you are looking for a movie with Ryan Reynolds and featuring scenes in Italy, 6 Underground will be perfect for you.

It is about a billionaire philanthropist who fakes his own death and forms a vigilante team of people who have also faked their deaths, to seek and destroy powerful criminals and terrorists.

Scenes were filmed in various parts of Italy including Siena and Rome but the most impressive one is the car chase through the streets of Florence.

22. Quantum of Solace

• 📅 Release date : 2008
• 🌟 Starring : Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judy Dench.
• 📍 Main location: Tuscany

Quantum of Solace is the direct sequel to Casino Royale and Daniel Craig’s second film as the famous secret agent 007. 

As usual, loads of globe-trotting, shooting, fighting, killing, crazy car chases, special effects, love affairs and gorgeous girls!

With nothing but revenge on his mind for the killing of his lover, (that’s the second girlfriend he’s lost) Bond sets off on a personal trail of mayhem and destruction. 

This leads him to a billionaire who is staging a coup in Bolivia to seize control of the water supply, which is being secretly held beneath a barren desert.

Fun fact: the producers say all the cars supplied by Aston Martin, survived the film.

23. No time to Die

• 🌟 Starring : Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux and Rami Malek
• 📍 Main location: Matera

Looking for another James Bond movie set in Italy? You are in luck!

The 2021 Bond movie also shows loads of scenes in Italy.

At the beginning of the movie, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is going on a romantic holiday with his girlfriend, Madeleine (Léa Seydoux).

You can see many aerial views of this gorgeous town with an aqueduct and beautiful Italian houses. 

This town? It’s Matera, in Southern Italy.

You can also see a thrilling car chase through the streets of Matera that ends up at the train station where Bond puts Madeleine in a train.

These scenes are brilliant and one thing is sure, you’ll want to visit Matera after that!

24. The Italian Job

• 📅 Release date : 1969
• 🌟 Starring : Michael Caine, Benny Hill, Noel Coward.
• 📍 Main location: Turin  

This classic British gangster film has to be one of the most iconic movies ever set in Italy. 

An ex-con, just released from prison sets out to carry out a heist in Italy that his friends had failed. 

His biggest problem is that he has the Mafia on his tail. It begins in the stunning Italian Alps, then later moves to the city of Turin in Northern Italy. 

It’s packed with thrilling car chases, now-classic cars, a literal cliff-hanging ending, and some of the most famous lines ever uttered on-screen (“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”), you can’t miss adding this to your list of films set in Italy to watch.

25. Red Notice

• 🌟 Starring : Ryan Renolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot
• 📍 Main location in Italy: Rome  

This is one of the most recent movies on this list since it was released on Netflix in November 2021.

Although it is not entirely set in Italy, it’s still a great movie to watch if you want something fun, packed with action and with loads of travelling involved.

Also, the cast is pretty amazing!

In this story, you will follow an Interpol agent trying to arrest the world’s most wanted art thieves.

The thieves (I’m not saying who they are on purpose, I wouldn’t want to give any spoilers) are trying to steal the three eggs of Cleopatra.

The first one is located in Rome , Italy and that’s where the first scenes of the movie are filmed.

You can see the car with the Rock arriving right in the Castel Sant’Angelo which is one of the most famous landmarks in Rome !

Now that you know all the best movies to watch before going to Italy, it’s time to set up the TV and have fun.

You may also be interested:

• 18 Best Places To Visit in Italy in winter
• 15 Best Books about Italy
• What is Italy famous for? 19 Extraordinary Things Italy is known for
• 14 Famous Cities in Italy You Must Visit
• 18 Reasons to Visit Italy (That will make you want to book your trip now!)

Founder of Beeloved City, I am originally from France and have been living in the UK since 2016. I've travelled to 25 countries as a backpacker, travel coordinator and for holidays. I spent a year in Australia before eventually settling down in Manchester, England

The 20 Best Movies To Watch If You Want To Feel Like You're In Italy

Many films have the remarkable ability to transport us to new places. Whether through the emotional resonance of the story, the historical accuracy, or the setting itself — film breeds escapism. If you love to travel — and find yourself frequently daydreaming about a trip to Italy — there is a vast selection of breathtaking and culturally accurate cinema to take you there. 

Whether you dream of the picturesque winding roads and sprawling vineyards of the Tuscan countryside, the bustling cobblestone streets of historic Rome, or the sun-drenched paradise of the Italian coastline, there are plenty of ways to get your fix without having to leave your home.

If you missed out on your chance to soak up an Italian summer, or you're reminiscing about the time you may have spent there, we've compiled the following list of the 20 best movies to watch if you want to feel like you're in Italy — "when in Rome" or elsewhere.

1. Eat Pray Love

While this travelogue romantic film sees the protagonist go to several different countries, it has become synonymous with Italian culture. Adapted from a memoir of the same name, "Eat Pray Love" follows Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) through Italy, India, and Indonesia as she attempts to rediscover herself following the breakdown of her marriage. 

At a crossroads in her life, Elizabeth is struggling with the concept of "having it all" and still not being happy. Leaving behind her old life, she steps out of her comfort zone and travels across the world to discover what she might be missing. While critically reviled , "Eat Pray Love" remains a guilty pleasure, bound to spark a sense of curiosity about traveling in just about everyone.

Set against gorgeous backdrops in Rome, Florence, and Naples, viewers follow along as Elizabeth navigates a path to self-discovery — learning from the friends and experiences she has along the way. As viewers journey through the Italian streets and Elizabeth's interactions with locals, "Eat Pray Love" provides a glimpse of what life is like in Italy — while challenging the work-centric culture prevalent in America. This film will leave you feeling warm and inspired — epitomized in the unforgettable scene where Liz teaches us all about our "moral imperative" to enjoy life ... and pizza.

2. Under the Tuscan Sun

Following a devastating divorce, Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) embarks on a 10-day tour through Tuscany in the hopes of someday being happy again. As she is reeling from the loss of her home to her cheating ex-husband, Frances impulsively buys a dilapidated villa in Cortona that she plans to renovate with the help of an eccentric group of workers and Italian neighbors. 

This award-winning 2003 film captures the true feeling of being in Italy, with the appearance of many famous Italian landmarks, including the Piazza del Duomo, Positano Beach, the famous Florence market in Piazza della Repubblica, and the many winding roads of the idyllic Tuscan countryside.

Audiences get to watch Frances find happiness in her new life, as she finds a support system among her peers, and dabbles in traditional Tuscan cooking. Diane Lane's honest portrayal of a writer stepping out of her comfort zone by broadening her horizons acts as a motivational tale. "Under the Tuscan Sun" leaves viewers with the lasting lesson that "unthinkably good things can happen, even late in the game" proving that you're never too old to start over.

3. Call Me by Your Name

"Call Me by Your Name" centers on the secret relationship between 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and 24-year-old Oliver (Armie Hammer). Set in the summer of 1983, the film takes place in a rural area of Northern Italy, where Elio spends long lazy summers with his family, reading, riding bikes, and writing music. Given that the film was adapted from an Italian novel — written by André Aciman — its depiction of the country is what makes this film so geographically and culturally accurate. Hammer and Chalamet's onscreen chemistry — highlighted by the gorgeous cinematography and set to the equally beautiful Italian countryside — is one of the reasons why this film was so critically-acclaimed .

Although the story contains deep undertones, the director considers "Call Me by Your Name" to be "light, warm, and summer-ish," (per Variety ) as we follow along with Elio and Oliver's blossoming relationship in the sun-kissed Italian Riviera. According to director Luca Guadagnino, the film was never meant to be seen as a "gay" movie, instead, he hoped to draw attention to the "beauty of the newborn idea of desire, unbiased and uncynical" (per The Playlist ). 

Guadagnino approached the film with the hopes of honoring his motto: that we should all live with a sense of "joie de vivre" (via Yahoo Movies ). Plenty of films focus on Rome and Tuscany, but if you'd prefer a glimpse of life in Lombardy — framed against an exquisite bittersweet love story — "Call Me by Your Name" is the perfect film to watch.

4. Roman Holiday

This '50s classic is notable for so many reasons. The scenes of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck careering around the streets on a Vespa shot the scooter to worldwide recognition — reportedly responsible for more than 100,000 sales (via BBC ) — and it gave Hepburn her first Academy Award for best actress, to name just a few. 

"Roman Holiday" follows the fictional European princess, Ann (Audrey Hepburn), who is visiting Rome to perform royal duties. When she grows overwhelmed by her relentless obligations, she sneaks out to get a taste of freedom. What follows is a trip through the chaotic streets of the eternal city — through the lens of a first-time visitor — who falls in love with an American journalist (Gregory Peck) along the way.

"Roman Holiday" is home to the legendary haircut scene that immortalized the style Hepburn would carry with her throughout most of her career. With views of the Spanish Steps, the Mouth of Truth, Piazza della Rotonda, and many more, the film transports you to the busy streets of Rome and does a great job of incorporating so many iconic landmarks. Watching Ann shop at local markets, eat gelato, sip on champagne at Caffè Rocca, and zoom through the streets on a Vespa are what make this film feel so authentic and celebratory of Italian life. "Roman Holiday" will have you itching to book your own trip to the Italian capital.

5. The Hand of God

"The Hand of God" is an Italian coming-of-age drama set in '80s Naples, following the teenage boy, Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti), as he comes to terms with the loss of his adolescence following a family tragedy. The plot is somewhat autobiographical — and deeply personal — as it was inspired by real events in director Paolo Sorrentino's life growing up in Naples (via The New York Times ). 

As well as the hardships that Fabietto endures, "The Hand of God" juxtaposes this with youthful joy — with Napoli's football superstar, Diego Maradona, giving Fabietto something to celebrate. The beautiful cinematography does an excellent job of capturing the coast of Southern Italy, even as just a backdrop for some very emotional scenes.

A majority of the story is filmed in Naples, with views of the Stadio San Paolo (now the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona) and Galleria Umberto. However, the film also takes viewers along the picturesque Amalfi Coast to Capri and Sorrento, with stops in the Emerald and Blue Grottos. If it's the coast of Italy you wish to be immersed in, the visual storytelling in "The Hand of God" will make you feel like you are there.

6. La Dolce Vita

Taking its name from the well-known Italian phrase, the film's title "La Dolce Vita" translates in English to "the sweet life." Set in early '60s Rome, the black-and-white film chronicles a week in the life of a tabloid journalist, Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni), as he searches for happiness, love, and "la dolce vita." The Academy Award-winning film has been hailed as a "masterpiece" by countless critics for director Federico Fellini's focus on the more glamorous side of post-war Rome. 

There is no denying the cultural impact that "La Dolce Vita" has had on society. One of its more prominent characters was a relentless celebrity photographer, named Paparazzo (Walter Santesso) — which later made the film responsible for coining the term "paparazzi" when categorizing a type of crazed photojournalist (via Far Out Magazine ).

While most of the filming locations were intricate set designs, Fellini would blend shots from constructed sets with real location shots, to give the film a more authentic feel (via Mille ). Some of the genuine filming locations throughout the film include Bassano Romano Palace, St. Peter's Square, Piazza del Popolo, and the Trevi Fountain — the setting for one of the most iconic scenes . Viewers get a look at the opulent side of Rome as we follow Marcello's extravagant life full of movie stars, parties, and debauchery.

7. The Great Beauty

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, "The Great Beauty" centers on Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), a writer and theatre critic who is starting to grow regretful of his lavish yet superficial lifestyle. Jep has devoted his entire life not only to be a socialite but to being the "king of society," but this begins to take its toll. The aging Jep finds himself reevaluating the path he chose for himself while addressing the concept of lost love and what could have been. The artful cinematography depicts the vibrant party scene in Rome and, stylistically, bears a passing resemblance to the chaotic Baz Luhrmann classic of a similar name, "The Great Gatsby."

The film earned an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2014, as well as a number of critics awards. Ironically enough, the aforementioned "The Great Gatsby" was among the other Oscar winners that very same year. To create the film's unique aesthetic — giving a colorful peek into the world of the elite — Sorrentino chose filming locations around Rome such as Via Veneto, Parco degli Acquedotti, Lungotevere along the Tiber river, and Sant'Agnese in Agone for a sumptuous and authentically Italian feel.

8. To Rome with Love

Woody Allen's romantic comedy, "To Rome with Love" is told through four different vignettes about love, family, and status, taking place at the same time in Rome. Regardless of your current preconceptions of Woody Allen or this particular brand of rom-com with its intertwining stories, this 2012 film is suitably silly enough to pass the time. Despite the narrative contrivances, "To Rome with Love" has a sunny disposition that immerses you in many iconic Italian landmarks and recognizable streets.

"To Rome with Love" truly makes the most of the city, and depicts the iconic architecture in a way that offers a more lighthearted view of the city. Some filming locations used in the film include the Colosseum, Piazza del Popolo, the Trevi Fountain, Capitoline Hill, Piazza Venezia, and Piazza Navona. With Allen himself appearing in the film — marking his first acting role for six years — "To Rome with Love" features an all-star cast including Alec Baldwin, Penélope Cruz, Greta Gerwig, Elliot Page, and Jesse Eisenberg in this romantic tale spanning the eternal city.

9. From the Vine

When many people think of Italy, they're reminded of the beautiful blooming vineyards that stretch across the countryside; whether that be in Tuscany, Sicily, or the setting of our current story: Acerenza. "From the Vine" follows Marco Gentile (Joe Pantoliano) who becomes so disenchanted by his corporate lifestyle that he quits and moves to his hometown in rural Southern Italy, in the hope of fixing up his grandfather's vineyard.

The film's genteel pace and warm storytelling make it easy to enjoy the vast landscapes of the countryside and the olive trees that occupy the striking scenery. Viewers will be guided through a story as Marco learns how to make wine, breathing new life back not only into the vineyard but himself and his family as well. While its story of soul-searching and self-discovery doesn't break any new ground in this genre, it is nonetheless a comforting watch, and you might even learn a few things about the extensive winemaking process along the way.

10. A Room with a View

The 1985 film, "A Room with a View," is a romantic period piece set in Italy and England. The story follows Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) as she discovers her true passion for life while on a trip to Italy. Away from the repressed culture of her proper life in England, she soon shifts her desires in favor of a more free-thinking outlook on life. "A Room with a View" was originally adapted from a novel of the same name, written by E.M. Forster during a visit to Italy at the age of 22.

Director James Ivory guides viewers on a trip throughout much of Florence, with appearances of the Arno River, Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, the Duomo, and the Fiesole countryside — among many other locations around London. The film was a huge box-office success and managed to garner widespread critical acclaim and multiple Academy Awards — still sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes . The film was later remade in 2007, but it was not as well-received and didn't quite have the impact it did back in the '80s. "A Room with a View" offers a sweeping love story, giving a great feel of the busy streets and calm river views spanning across the historical city of Florence.

Another charming animated offering from Pixar, "Luca" is a coming-of-age film following two teenage sea monsters as they take on their human forms in order to experience the world above water. The film is set in the fictional town of Portorosso along the Italian Riviera — possibly a reference to the Italian-set Studio Ghibli movie "Porco Rosso" (via DisInsider ) — and bearing some similarities to the real-life town of Monterosso in Northern Italy. In fact, many of the landscapes shown throughout the film are inspired by the vibrant and colorful seaside regions of Liguria, and director Enrico Casarosa pulled inspiration from his own childhood in Genoa, Italy as well (via Cinematografo ). 

Luca and Alberto run around the picturesque coastline trying to soak in as much Italian culture as possible — accurately depicted as eating gelato, swimming, riding Vespas, trying pesto, and cliff jumping. The exquisitely animated deep emerald blues of the water and the beautiful detail in the village's cobbled streets encompass what it feels like to explore the Italian Riviera, and the warmth radiates throughout "Luca."

12. Journey to Italy

"Journey to Italy" is the 1954 story of Katherine (Ingrid Bergman) and Alex Joyce (George Sanders) who are attempting to rectify their failing marriage with a trip to Italy. As the couple goes their separate ways to explore the southern part of the country, viewers receive appearances of Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Capri. Filmed across the country, director Roberto Rossellini showcases a number of key landmarks in this romantic melodrama, including the Archeology Museum in Naples, the Temple of Apollo, the Phlegraean Fields, and the town of Maiori along the Amalfi Coast.

Despite its initial negative response , many have grown to consider this to be Rossellini's masterpiece, and the "wellspring of the French New Wave" with influential directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut singing its praises (via The Guardian ). Also called "Voyage to Italy," what stands out so much about the story is its lack of plot and emphasis on mood and feeling. New York Times critic, A.O. Scott, points to the director's way of "dissolving narrative into atmosphere," placing the majority of its storyline within the "unspoken." With the focus on the stunning views of so many renowned landmarks, "Journey to Italy" does an excellent job depicting the drama of the country.

13. Only You

Directed by Norman Jewison, "Only You" is a 1994 romantic comedy starring Marisa Tomei as Faith Corvatch — a woman who is fixated on the idea of a soulmate. After consulting a ouija board in her childhood, Faith is convinced that her soulmate will be called "Damon Bradley," and on the day of her wedding, she impulsively travels to Venice to find him. While in Venice, she meets and falls for Peter Wright (Robert Downey Jr.), but can she forget her supposed destiny to give someone else a chance?

Italy often becomes the destination of choice for some soul-searching, and "Only You" utilizes romantic locations in Venice, Rome, Tuscany, and Positano, with landmarks such as the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Piazza Navona, and the Mouth of Truth featuring prominently in the film. While it was critically panned , "Only You" is still an enjoyable watch, touching on the theme of fate and the idea that there is one true love out there for everyone — it just might not be who you expect.

14. Made in Italy

A relatively new addition to the list of Italian-set movies, 2020's "Made in Italy" follows Robert Foster (Liam Neeson) and his son Jack (Micheál Richardson) as they attempt to fix up and sell an old family villa in Tuscany. As well as the beautifully authentic Tuscan views, there is another layer of realism as Richardson and Neeson are father and son in real-life. Speaking about working with his son to Radio Times , Neeson mentioned how it helped with some of the more emotional scenes, saying, "I knew we'd be able to do that with ease because it was so close to us." 

Written and directed by James D'Arcy, much of the filming takes place across a variety of idyllic Tuscan provinces. The main villa is called Villa Fontanelle in Montalcino, Italy, and can actually be rented out for people looking to visit the Tuscan countryside. "Made in Italy" does an excellent job of capturing Tuscany's winding streets lined with cypress trees and vineyards, as well as the hundreds of olive trees and cobblestone streets of Monticchiello. The film might not have won over critics , but the strong performances and gorgeous setting make it worth a watch.

15. Tea with Mussolini

"Tea with Mussolini" is set during Benito Mussolini's dictatorship — which marked a dark time for the country. This somewhat autobiographical story centers on Luca (played by Charlie Lucas and later, Baird Wallace) — an orphan that gets brought into the world of the "Scorpioni" in order for them to teach him about life and art, with the aim of crafting him into a better man. The Scorpioni was a real-life group of wealthy elderly English women in Florence during the '30s and '40s, and the role of Luca was inspired by director Franco Zeffirelli's real childhood spent with the women (via The Florentine ).

With a starry cast that includes legends such as Cher, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith, this comedy-drama showcases the art and culture of historic Italy — and is a testament to the influential women who shaped Zeffirelli and the city of Florence. The film was shot all throughout Florence, Tuscany, and San Gimignano with specific filming locations in the Piazza del Duomo, the Uffizi Gallery, Piazza Pecori, and Piazza della Cisterna. While "Tea with Mussolini" certainly contains political themes and discussion of the war taking place in Italy, it examines this through a more light-hearted lens, exploring the cultural world of the well-connected expatriate aristocrats.

16. It Started in Naples

"It Started in Naples" is a '60s romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and 25-year-old Sophia Loren. It was to be the last film starring the Hollywood legend to be released in his lifetime, as he passed away just 3 months after its release (per The New York Times ). The story centers on the two stars as they fight for their right to raise Nando (Carlo Angeletti) — a sharp and quick-witted 9-year-old who just lost both of his parents. Already a huge star when "It Started in Naples" was released, Italian actress Sophia Loren shines as a symbol of the country — a legacy she maintained throughout her career, and is still considered one of the greatest stars of the Golden Age of cinema.

Directed by Melville Shavelson, "It Started in Naples" is a vibrant and colorful trip along the coast of southern Italy, stopping at some recognizable spots in Capri, Rome, and — of course — Naples, with notable scenes shot in the legendary Blue Grotto, the Bay of Naples, and Napoli Centrale station. Although the Oscar-nominated film was not a huge hit with critics  following its release, it has since grown to be considered a classic by many film buffs — thanks to Sophia Loren's charming, yet risqué performance as a cabaret singer.

17. Cinema Paradiso

"Cinema Paradiso" follows a fictional famous film director, Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio), as he takes a nostalgic look back at his childhood and what inspired his passion for filmmaking, after learning about the death of his mentor. Salvatore spent most of his childhood at the titular movie theater in town and ends up bonding with the middle-aged projectionist, Alfredo — who opens his eyes to the beautiful world of narrative film. "Cinema Paradiso" is a must-see for movie fans, as the story focuses heavily on the amazing power of cinema in escapism.

"Cinema Paradiso" largely takes place in '80s Sicily, featuring appearances of Bagheria and Cefalú. However, director Giuseppe Tornatore also utilized Piazza Umberto, Piazza Venezia, Chiesa di Maria Santissima Assunta, and Porta Pescara as key filming locations. Placing 27th on Empire's list of the 100 best films of world cinema, "Cinema Paradiso" is frequently called one of the greatest films of all time, and it was awarded an Oscar for best foreign language film. Considered by many as a prime example of "nostalgic postmodernism" (per Medium ), the movie's touching portrayal of the universal joy found in something as simple as the movie theater is bound to bring tears of joy to any viewer.

18. I Am Love

"I Am Love" is a 2009 romantic drama that follows the collapsing empire of one of the most affluent and established families in Milan. The story focuses on Emma (Tilda Swinton), who lives an opulent lifestyle after joining the Recchia family, but still finds herself unfulfilled. She ultimately finds love in the arms of a chef, amidst the impending shift in power following the death of the family patriarch. With its artful and symbolic cinematography and lavish Italian locations, it's no surprise that "I Am Love" comes from the same director as "Call Me by Your Name," Luca Guadagnino.

The Recchia family was inspired by the Castellini Paldissera family, who own a luxury Lombardian textile company in Milan (via The Wall Street Journal ). Considered Italian royalty, the Castellini Baldisseras fall under the category of "bourgeoise," meaning they rely on a more materialistic representation of success. "I Am Love" was primarily filmed around Milan and features filming locations in San Remo, Castel Vittorio, Piazza del Duomo, and the textile warehouse used by the real Castellini Baldissera family. The Recchia family estate was filmed at the Villa Necchi Campiglio, which now stands as a museum . This film touches on the idea of forbidden love as well as the importance of a class system and provides viewers with a peek into the influential world of old Milanese money.

19. Il Postino

This 1994 film centers on a humble postman named Mario Ruoppolo (Massimo Troisi) who befriends world-famous poet, Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) when he moves to town. Although Mario is far too reserved to tell a local woman — named Beatrice (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) — of his love for her, Pablo soon teaches him about the power of expressing yourself through poetry. Boasting a 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes , "Il Postino" was an overwhelming success, earning multiple accolades including a BAFTA and an Academy Award.

"Il Postino" takes place in the Gulf of Naples on a serene island called Procida. Procida is known for its pastel array of houses lining the coast, with views reminiscent of Cinque Terre. The film was also shot at locations around Salina in Sicily, as well as Pantelleria, and the harbor of Corricella. In this charming film, director Michael Radford does a great job of depicting the untouched calmness of the small Italian island, transporting you to the quaint setting as viewers watch a man gain a new-found love for poetry and a renewed sense of self.

20. The Talented Mr. Ripley

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is a dark psychological thriller adapted from Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel of the same name. The story centers on Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), a master impersonator who successfully lies his way through life. While pretending to be a Princeton graduate, he is approached and offered money to travel to Italy in order to retrieve rich kid Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law). While on his mission, Ripley forms an infatuation with Greenleaf and becomes obsessed with taking his exorbitant lifestyle for himself. In this deliciously sinister thriller, viewers will learn the dangerous lengths Ripley will go to keep his secrets.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is filmed largely on location in Positano, Ischia, Procida, Anzio, Palermo, Rome, and Venice. Some specific filming locations include Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Caffè Florian, Capitoline Hill, and Galleria Principe di Napoli. With a stacked cast of heavy hitters like Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett alongside Law and Damon, it's no surprise that the film was a commercial success upon release and was nominated for five Academy Awards .

These Movies About Italy Are the Closest You'll Get to that Roman Holiday Right Now

Aperol spritz not required (but highly recommended).

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We have now been living a pandemic-induced alternative life for around 74 years. Unless you're some kind of diplomat or you're rich rich , that also means you haven't been able to travel. Granted, that's hardly the worst consequence of a year in quarantine times, but it's also a bummer. For the travel bugs in the audience, the closest thing you can get to scratching that jet setting itch is watching a film that captures the essence of the place you want to go. So here we are, finding Italian films that pairs perfectly with lasagne and a youthful chianti.

This is an everybody list. You have your classics like The Godfather (ok, this is based in New York, but fun fact—parts were shot in Sicily!) and The Talented Mr. Ripley . And then you have your guilty pleasures like Under the Tuscan Sun and La Dolce Vita . Why does Italy make for such a perfect setting in so many movies? Because it taps into something really carnal about us: pleasure and anger and rich food and ripe alcohol.

Take a night and leave the dreariness of your house or apartment behind by diving headfirst into the TV (not literally: you cannot enter your TV). Become one with Italy, however you like to imagine it.

The Italian Job

You have to love a heist movie that has Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg racing Mini Coopers through the streets of Italy. The F. Gary Gray film is actually an homage to the original film, which came out in 1969, but in its own way, The Italian Job has become a classic all its own.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Who among us hasn't suffered a crippling divorce, taken our lesbian friends up on their offer to commandeer their LGBTQ-centric tour of Italy, and then hopped off the tour bus to buy a villa in Tuscany to restart our lives? OK, that's oddly specific, but this Diane Lane film that takes a twist on the conventional rom com is a prime comfort food movie for everyone.

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Call Me By Your Name

I'm not sure there's a more aesthetically pleasing film on the list. Starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name is a coming of age film set in Italy and drenched in beautiful people, beautiful food, and a beautiful story about the first time you fall in love (and lose it).

Ok, so Spectre was only partially shot in Italy, but this car scene alone means it has to be included on the list. Sam Mendes' 2015 Bond flick is like a quick tour of the Western world, stopping in Italy, Mexico, London, Austria, and more, but those shots of Rome are some of the most stunning from the bunch.

Roman Holiday

I mean, it's Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in one of the most iconic romantic comedies ever. Roman Holiday sets the two up as a roving American reporter and a European princess on holiday, respectively. Written by Dalton Trumbo, the film garnered Hepburn an Oscar, but the quiet third lead is the location of Italy that serves as a gorgeous backdrop for their love story to unfold.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Take the vibe of Roman Holiday and throw it out the window, make it absolutely menacing, and then add a dash of lust and murder. This one is sultry, sexy, and absolutely diabolical. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley begins as a film about a young man who has gone to wrangle a wealthy man's son from a life of grandeur, but he becomes entrapped himself in an erotic and murderous life of his own making.

Ridley Scott's historical epic starring Russell Crowe doesn't need an introduction. Gargantuan in scale, the film follows a Roman general whose fall from elite status reduces him to slavery, then a gladiator's life. He must fight through the throes of Roman ranks for the hope to seek revenge on behalf of his family.

The Godfather

We're going to recommend a movie you can't refuse. This list would simply not be complete without Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 The Godfather . The classic about a crime family in the midst of a power shift is a pioneer in the crime genre, but beyond its cultural impact, some of the most famous parts of The Godfather were shot in Sicily (i.e: the wedding).

Tea with Mussolini

Once upon a time, there was this film starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Cher. It had Oscar buzz, and yet, it's remains largely buried 20 years later as a relic of the 1999 film year. Set in the 1930s, the story follows a little boy who is being watched by the three actresses whilst the Allied forces declare war on fascist Italy.

La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita is a 1960s dramedy that has become a classic staple in Hollywood history. Directed by Federico Fellini, the film is broken into seven episodes that follow a journalist's listless pursuit of love and romance during a week in Italy. La Dolce Vita has come to be known as one of the most revered films in the world despite only winning one Oscar (for costume design, no less).

The Two Popes

Not that the Catholic Church isn't without its squabbles (gestures wildly to history, gestures more specifically to Spotlight ), it is an integral part of Italian-set cinema. Cut to The Two Popes —a 2019 Oscars contender starring Jonathan Price and Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, respectively, as two men who have conflicting views despite one succeeding the other as the figure head for one of the world's largest religions.

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• 13 Movies To Watch Before...

13 Movies to Watch Before Visiting Italy

Italian cinema has produced some of the 20th century’s finest films and Italy – its grand cities, its beautiful countryside, its Latin culture – continues to inspire writers and directors around the world. In the following list, some of the movies are pure travel inspiration, others shed light on the country’s fascinating history and culture. Grab some popcorn and get stuck in.

Roman holiday (1953).

Language: English

A light-hearted love story between American reporter Joe Bradley ( Gregory Peck ) stationed in Rome and stifled Princess Ann ( Audrey Hepburn ), who wants to escape the boredom of her royal tour. It was the film that put Hepburn on the map and arguably the Vespa scooter as well. Bradley, the princess and the Vespa make for a dashing trio zipping through the chaotic streets of Rome until Ann’s inevitable return to her regal duties. In this film, you see the wonders of the city and Italian charm through the romantic lense of a first time visitor.

Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (1960)

Language: Italian

Five brothers from Southern Italy move to the industrial North in search of prosperity. Director Luchino Visconti expertly weaves the individual narratives of each brother into a tense and emotionally charged story about love, family and the reality of migrant life in postwar Milan. The city appears both gritty and beautiful – brutality set against the facade of bleak cinderblock apartments, but also romance on top of the Duomo. 1960s sex symbol Alain Delon received critical acclaim for his portrayal as Rocco.

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Federico Fellini is one of Italian cinema’s most acclaimed directors and this film marks a transition from his neo-realist style to a more experimental phase. La Dolce Vita recounts the exploits of the womanising lothario and photojournalist, Marcello Rubini and his quest for ‘the sweet life’ and love during one week in Rome. This film is a prophetic analysis of fame, the cult of celebrity and the power of image. When it was released a headline-hunting newspaper referred to the film as ‘ papparazzo ’, famously coining the term that would go on to define 21st century media. It takes place in post-war Italy that is a nation rebuilding itself on the fragile foundations of emergent mass-consumerism and is a critique of the morality and cultures associated with it. Shot in black and white, this film captures the grandeur and eternal splendour of Rome and its leading stars, Marcello Mostroianni and Anita Ekberg, epitomise classic Hollywood beauty.

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The Leopard (1963)

This is based on the 1958 novel The Leopard , by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. It follows a Sicilian nobleman who lives through the social and political turmoil brought on by civil war in Italy and the subsequent difficulties of Italian unification in the early 1800s. Tomasi himself was the last in a line of minor princes in Sicily and wrote the historical novel after the Sicilian island of Lampedusa was bombed by Allied forces in World War II. It explores the decline of the aristocracy, societal changes and our morality. The 19th-century costumes are as beautiful and romantic as the Sicilian backdrop.

The Italian Job (1969)

“You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” is just one of Michael Cane’s perfectly delivered lines in this British comedy classic. Cane, playing cocky and charming Charlie Crokers who has just been released from Wormwood Scrubs prison, stars alongside Noel Coward and Benny Hill in a caper plot in which they plan to use a traffic jam in Turin to steal a weighty gold shipment. The film begins and ends on the stunning Great Saint Bernard Pass – a high altitude pass of hairpin bends that connects Valais in Switzerland with the Aosta Vallery in Italy. In between, Turin’s architectural landmarks provide the backdrop for the films iconic car chase that sees two minis drive down the grand stairway inside Baroque Palazzo Madama and speed around the rooftop race track of the old Fiat factory (1923–1982).

The Godfather (1972)

The most famous mafia movie of all time focuses on the transfer of power within the family of ageing, Italian-American mobster, Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, in what was arguably the performance of his career. Don Vito’s youngest and brightest son, Michael ( Al Pacino ), reluctantly agrees to lead the family’s activities and finds himself embroiled in the unavoidable cycle of violence, manipulation and betrayal associated with the Corleone line of work. The story, which is based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel, is set in the 1950s and takes place between New York and the rural village of Corleone, south of Palermo. By the time of filming, the real-life Corleone had been modernised and therefore two other locations just a few miles north were used – Forza d’Agro and Savoca. Both show stunning views of the Sicilian hinterland and the typical architecture of small hillside towns.

A Room With A View (1985)

This adaptation of E. M. Forster ’s iconic 1908 novel, A Room With A View , will make you fall in love with the city of Florence : the Arno River, Santa Croce, Piazza Signoria and Fiesole all feature prominently in the story. It is set in Italy and England and is both a romance and critique of English society at the turn of the century. It follows protagonist Lucy Honeychurch, a young upper-middle-class woman who struggles against the social hierarchy of England and experiences a different way of life in Italy – one that is more liberating, with more fluid social boundaries. Forster himself had experienced a similar epiphany during a previous trip to Italy and this served as inspiration for his highly lauded novel. The all start cast includes Simon Callows, Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dame Judy Dench, and Dame Maggie Smith.

Tea With Mussolini (1999)

English eccentricity comes to the fore in the comic tale of a dark time in Italian history. It tells the story of adolescent Luca, a motherless English boy who is under the guardianship of a collective of privileged, elderly British and American women (Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Joan Playwright, Lily Tomlin, Cher) who are living in Florence to feed their love of Italian art and culture. It begins in 1935 and life is full of afternoon, society gossip and medieval frescos until the hostility of Mussolini’s Fascist regime extends into their expatriate idyll. As the title suggests, the tone of this film is rather silly, but it still touches upon major wartime issues including conscription, oppression of the Jews and the Italian resistance. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, it is a semi-autobiographical tale.

Cinema Paradiso (Paradise Cinema) (1988)

Often credited as the beginning of the revival of Italian cinema, this is director Giuseppe Tornatore’s ode to origins of the art form . It is a sentimental but historically astute analysis of the power and innocent joy of cinema in its infancy. It is the late 1980s in Rome when prominent filmmaker Salvatore Di Vita (Jacques Perrin) hears news of the death of his beloved childhood father figure and former picture house projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret). He begins a journey back to his small hometown in Sicily and the film then unfolds as a series of flashbacks to his boyhood and adolescence that coincide with the ascent of the silver screen in the local theatre. For young Di Vita, and fellow residents of the town, cinema comes to represent a means of escape from the graft of life in post-war Italy.

Il Postino (The Postman) (1994)

In the 1950s on the small island of Procida in the Gulf of Naples , Mario Ruoppolo is a humble fisherman who has forever been in love with enchanting barmaid Beatrice Russo, but is ill-equipped to express and act on his feelings. The real-life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda arrives in Procida after facing political exile in his homeland for holding communist views, and Ruoppolo is hired to be his personal postman. After many weeks of hand delivering mail to Neruda, he and the postman develop a friendship from which Ruoppolo learns to love poetry. Poetry ultimately gives him the means to express his emotions and pursue Beatrice. This seemingly propels the film to a happy ending. Alas, the final chapter of the film overshadows an otherwise heartwarming tale, rendering Il Postino a true tearjerker. The story fast-forwards and Neruda returns to the island several years later to find a tragic turn of events born from the tumultuous political climate in Italy at the time. Aside from the central narrative, directors Massimo Troisi and Michael Radford create a charming, often comical portrait of the slow pace and rustic charm of mid-century Mediterranean island life.

The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

This is a psychological thriller about power, wealth and obsession set in the fictitious town of Mongibello, inspired by luxurious Positano on the Amalfi Coast . The protagonist and anti-hero, Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), is a master manipulator and minor con artist. It is the early 1950s, and Tom is a poor graduate living in New York City when he takes advantage of an opportunity that crosses his path: he must persuade Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), the son of a rich shipping magnate, to return to America from Italy, where he is currently leading a hedonistic, unfocused lifestyle that disappoints his father. The stylish and charming Dickie is in Mongibello with his glamorous girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow). After an initial period of revelry on the sunny shores of the charming port town, Marge becomes suspicious of Tom’s behaviour, and his apparent obsession with Dickie. Things quickly unravel resulting in a murder in San Remo and Tom living a fraught and deceitful existence in Rome. The tense story climaxes in the shadows of Venice ‘s narrow streets. The film is based on Patricia Highsmith’s seductive, intelligent page-turner of the same title.

La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) (2013)

The hedonistic but wistful retired writer, Jep Gambardella, (Toni Servillo) is the protagonist of Paolo Sorrentino ’s 2013 film, but Rome is the real star. From the cloisters and sacred chambers of the city’s churches to the grand palazzos of its wealthy residents, the beauty and magnificence of Rome is use to highlight the disparity between the empty culture of contemporary high society and the high culture of Italy’s past. There is no clear narrative in the film, rather it follows Jep taking stock of his life, analysing what it means to have spent the best decades of his life amongst Rome’s literary and creative circles, in its nightclubs and cafes, but without the great love of his youth. This all sounds trite and nostalgic, but somehow Sorrentino ensures that this is not the case.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

In the small town of Crema in Lombardy , 17-year-old Elio’s academic, bohemian family have a resplendent 17th-century villa for the summer. Elio’s father is a professor of antiquities conducting research in the area and his doctoral student, 24-year-old Oliver arrives to assist him. Against a backdrop of Lombardy’s countryside, intellectual dinner parties, provincial discos and early 1980s pop music, Elio and Oliver’s friendship quickly develops into an intense, lustful romance with a difficult ending. Timothée Chalamet brilliantly portrays the exquisite rush and pain of a first love. Read a more in-depth review here .

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The Best Movies About Rome

Films have always offered a kind of escapism. From vintage classics to modern cinema marvels, movies about Rome can transport you to the Eternal City from anywhere in the world. 

Not only is Rome ridiculously picturesque, but the city also has a long tradition with filmmaking. It has been the set of some of Italy’s most celebrated classic films as well as providing a backdrop for thrillers and comedies that have been contemporary blockbusters.

Here are the best movies about Rome, in the order that they were made.

Ladri di Biciclette – The Bicycle Thief

Year : 1948 Original language : Italian, available with English subtitles Director : Vittorio De Sica

This classic drama tells the story of Antonio Ricci, a man who is struggling to support his family in Rome during World War II.

He finally finds work and his family makes great sacrifices to buy back his bicycle from a pawn shop because he will need in order to earn a living. Tragically, the bicycle is stolen on the first day.

He desperately sets out to search the city for his much-needed bicycle, making his way through Rome with his young son. Watch closely and you will be able to spot film locations that include Porta Portese, Piazza Vittorio, and Porta Pia.

You can find unofficial versions on YouTube or pay to stream it (or keep it forever) from Amazon . Not available on Netflix (US or Italy).

Roman Holiday

Year: 1953 Original language : English Director: William Wyler

If you haven’t seen Roman Holiday, you have missed out on a true cinema classic. The film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is one of the best romantic comedies ever made about the city.

The black and white movie was filmed in English, and it tells the story of a princess (Hepburn) who slips away from her chaperones while visiting Rome. Peck plays an American reporter living in the Eternal City who soon sets out to give her a tour of what makes Rome one of the most magical places in the world.

Locations you might notice are the Mouth of Truth, the Spanish Steps , and Via Marguetta – the pretty cobbled street where Peck’s character lives. Of course, they also pass by the Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Colosseum, seeing Rome in a whirlwind tour from Peck’s vintage Vespa.

Unfortunately, the movie is not available on Netflix but you can rent or buy it on Amazon for instant watching. 

Un Americano a Roma – An American in Rome

Year : 1954 Original language : Italian, available with English subtitles Director : Steno

If you have no already made the connection – this blog is not named for my own nationality, it is actually a homage to Un Americano a Roma. At one point, moving to Rome felt like such an insurmountable challenge and one of the things that kept me going was this comedy from the 1950s.

In the film, Sordi (one of Italy’s greatest cinema stars) plays Ferdinando “Nando” Mericoni, an overgrown youngster who lives in Trastevere but who dreams of nothing more than becoming American. His attempts to imitate American culture often disappoint him or get him into trouble. And yet he perseveres, adopting the alter ego of Santi Bailor of Kansas City.

The movie is satire, poking fun at the belief in post-war Italy that a mythical America held all the answers.

Places you will recognize are Trastevere, Portico d’Ottavia, and the Colosseum.

Sadly, this film is currently hard to track down online but worth there is currently a pirated version on YouTube .

La Dolce Vita

Year : 1960 Original language : Italian, available with English subtitles Director : Federico Fellini

La Dolce Vita is one of the best movies ever made about Rome because it shows the gloss of the glamour city, as well as the less desirable vices of the city. Fellini’s brilliant film tells the story of Marcello Rubini, a reporter who is dissatisfied with life in Rome and disillusioned by the richness and vulgarity he sees.

Though he should be looking after his trouble partner, Marcello is soon caught up with persuing a gorgeous movie star named Sylvia, played by Anita Ekberg. The most iconic scene is when Ekberg jumps into the Trevi Fountain with her evening gown on- an act that would get you a heavy fine these days.

Places you will recognize in the Roman movie include Via Veneto, the Trevi Fountain, Terme di Caracalla , and Parco degli Acquedotti . And for even more movie trivia – the film is where we get the word paparazzo from. 

You can sometimes find pirated versions online, but unfortunately, La Dolce Vita (like most of the classic Italian movies) is not available on Netflix. You can stream or buy the film instantly on Amazon .

Un Sacco Bello (Fun is Beautiful)

Year: 1980 Original Language: Italian Director: Carlo Verdone

A movie about the unique characters and stories you can find in Rome when the city is deserted for Ferragosto – Italy’s August 15th holiday. All of the main characters in the three storylines are played by the director, Carlo Verdone. Diehard fans of the film always carry nylons and ballpoint pens with them on the 15th of August, but you will have to watch it to find out why.

You will spot landmarks like Piramide and the Mouth of Truth as the characters move through a hot but quiet Rome.

You can find the DVD here .

Il Marchese del Grillo

Year: 1981 Original language : Italian Director: Mario Monicelli

Il Marchese del Grillo was made in the 1980s but it depicts Rome in the early 19th century. The misbehaving nobleman at the center of the story is the Marquis Onofrio del Grillo played by Alberto Soldi. While the city is being threatened by Napoleon’s army, the Marquis keeps up his prankster ways and is known for committing sometimes cruel jokes on even the highest figures in Roman society. These pranks take a new turn when the Marquis meets a poor coalman who is his exact doppelganger.

Some of Rome’s prettiest places are featured as backdrops in the film, including Palazzo Pamphilj and Palazzo Braschi , and Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco .

You can stream or buy the movie from Amazon . 

The most famous line from the movie is Io sò io, e voi non siete un cazzo. (A line which I would, at this time, like to dedicate out to the website that keeps copying all of my Rome articles word for word and passing them off as their own. Sti cazzi). 

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Year: 1999 Original language : English Director: Anthony Minghella

Tom Ripley, played by Matt Damon, is completely enamored by the lives of the young and rich. The problem is, he doesn’t actually belong to that society, so he has to create a persona (and commit many crimes) in order to blend in. 

The film takes place in various parts of Italy, including some glorious scenes set on the island of Procida. In Rome, you will notice Piazza di Spagna, the turtle fountain , Piazza Navona, and Ponte Sant’Angelo , among others.

Finally- this one is available on Netflix! You can also stream it or buy it on Amazon .

To Rome with Love

Year: 2012 Original language : English and Italian Director: Woody Allen

I have mixed feelings about including this film because of my feelings towards Woody Allen, but I do think that the movie does a good job of capturing some of the most gorgeous parts of Rome. The film tells four parallel love stories that are taking place in various corners of the Eternal City at the same time. 

You will see lots of Trastevere because it is where some of the characters live, as well as Prati. You can also spot Piazza Venezia, the Colosseum, and Piazza Navona.

You can find the Rome movie on Netflix, or rent/buy it on Amazon . 

La Grande Belleza

Year: 2013 Original language : Italian Director: Paolo Sorrentino

This is my favorite movie about Rome because it is all about the city’s immense beauty. Of course, it also highlights the ridiculousness that beauty can hide. The cinematography is stunning and the movie won the Oscar for best foreign film for good reason.

La Grande Belleza tells the story of an aging culture writer who has been caught up in Rome’s nightlife scene for years. After a milestone birthday, he starts to actually perceive the frivolousness of his life and the lives of those around him. He finds solace in the beauty of the city – both in its monuments and its hidden corners.

It is impossible to list of the Rome filming locations because there are simply too many but the movie opens on the fountain atop the Gianicolo Hill , then takes you on an unforgettable tour of the city.

You can watch La Grande Belleza on Netflix – dubbed in English or in Italian with subtitles, or rent/buy it here .

Other movies about Rome

The above list are my personal favorite films set in the Eternal City, but there are also many others that you might enjoy, including:

• Roma Città Aperta (1945)
• I Soliti Ignoti (1958)
• Una Giornata Particolare (1977)
• Caro Diario (1993)
• Pranzo di Ferragosto (2008)

Do you have any other personal favorite films set in Rome?

Note: This post may include affiliate links. Purchases made through these links may generate a small commission for me, but you are under no obligation to purchase anything.

Natalie is a food and travel writer who has been living in Rome full time since 2010. She is the founder and editor of this blog and prefers all of her days to include coffee, gelato, and wine.

9 thoughts on “ The Best Movies About Rome ”

Great list! Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) is also a great escape to Rome (but be warned—its representation of women is very 1950s). In one of my favourite scenes, the characters casually drive a car right up to the Trevi—there are no traffic restrictions. Imagine that :)!

Rome Adventure (1962). With Suzanne Pleshette, Tab Hunter, Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi (swoon!!!!!!). Super Corny but features the Piazza Navona, as well as other Italian sites.

From IMDB “Prudence resigns from her teaching position after being criticized for giving a student her copy of a romance novel. She sails for Italy, takes a job at a small bookstore in Rome, and meets Don, who has just broken up with his girlfriend. Prudence and Don tour Italy together, and romance naturally follows”

Correction It’s Troy Donahue, not Tab Hunter

Great list, shame on whoever is copying your hard work, it is not a form of flattery, but stealing.

Thanks for the list. Currently studying Italian and I like to watch movies in Italian

Rome Adventure with Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleashette. Lots of pictures around Rome and takes them on a tour to Northern Italy to Lake Maggiore!

My love of travel may have been inspired by Mary Kate and Ashley’s travel movies. Of which one was When in Rome. Also, The Lizzie McGuire Movie should definitely be on this list!

I love Rome. My favorite movie is Roman Holiday

haha no vabbè non lo sapevo della connection con Albertone , oramai sei proprio Romana, anche se gli Americani o inglesi non potranno mai cogliere la comicità delle battute in romanesco perchè impossibili da tradurre con i sottotitoli e/o in lingua inglese.

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34 of the Best Italian Movies & Films Set in Italy You Need to Watch

This list of the best Italian movies and films set in Italy is based on the films I have enjoyed watching the most.

All of these 34 interesting films are great in their own way. Many of them can be watched over and over again which to me is reserved for the best films, however there are also excellent films that will stay with you forever from only one viewing so you only need to see them once.

I’m confident many of these films with Italian themes shown here would satisfy even the most hardened cinema critic.

At the end of this post I also list movies related to Italy that I’m still hoping to watch one day, plus a list of Italian movies & films set in Italy that I didn’t like for some particular reason.

Keep in mind that even the films I didn’t like that much doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy watching them. Some of the better known movie titles have plenty of fans out there and no doubt many would disagree with my opinions.

For now though, I consider these to be the top films set in Italy until I discover more great movies. I’ll update this list when something else pops up and I’m inspired to do so.

1. 365 Days (2020) – Best Italian Movies

Original Movie Title: 365 DNI [Mafia, Erotic Violence]

Awesome movie about a Mafia Boss who forces a woman he desires to be with him for 365 days in the hope that she would fall in love with him. If not she is free to go.

I have to say I was glued to the TV screen the entire time when watching this movie.

To give you a better understanding of the film it’s probably like the film Fifty Shades of Grey would be if it were on steroids. I can understand why many females don’t like 365 Days but I’m sure most guys would find it very interesting. Definitely a film for adults only and not for impressionable young minds.

Italian movie rating (my own): 8/10

2. Where Am I Going? (2016) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: Quo Vado? [Romantic Comedy] [English subtitles]

An Italian public servant is put under constant pressure by his boss to resign from his cushy Government position and pay, though he resists at all costs no matter where they send him.

This Medusa Film production is one of the highest-grossing Italian films of all time. The movie has even held the number one spot in Italy for highest box office takings, but no doubt it will eventually be beaten one day.

Checco Zalone, the star of the film has appeared in several other very successful Italian movies, which have also become some of the highest-grossing Italian films ever made.

There are plenty of laughs to be had in Quo Vado? I personally think it has to be one of the funniest Italian movies of all time.

The restaurant scene shown above is an absolute classic as is the funny Norwegian accent scene, which will probably make you laugh.

The beauty about this movie is that it combines Italy with Norway in a unique film experience that will surprise you in almost every scene. It’s a superb comedy travel movie.

Movie locations:  Italy and Norway

3. Suburra (2015)

[Crime, Thriller] [English subtitles]

A complex tale involving political corruption, loan sharks, mafia rackets and revenge.

This movie packs a big punch! It’s easily one of the best Italian movies I have ever seen.

Interesting facts:  The scene above shows a bust of Apollo, the God of light in front of a cross for some reason. Suburra was the name of a suburb of Ancient Rome. A highly rated TV series based on the movie began 2017 and lasted for 2 seasons.

Movie location:  Around Rome

Italian movie rating (my own):  9/10

4. Palio (2015)

[Documentary] [English subtitles]

A new kid on the block tries to win a famous horse race in Siena.

I’m not into horse racing at all but I still found this Italian documentary style film really fascinating to watch.

Trip Inspiration:  Italian city of Siena

Italian movie rating (my own):  7/10

5. Letters to Juliet (2010) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Romantic Comedy/Drama]

An American girl on vacation in Italy tries to find two lovers forever linked by a love letter.

I like this film for one big reason and that’s because Amanda Seyfried, the star of Letters to Juliet also plays Sophie in the Greek island movie Mamma Mia! Need I say more.

Movie locations around Italy:  Verona, Tuscany

Movie rating (my own):  7/10

6. Welcome to the South (2010) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: Benvenuti al sud [Comedy] [English subtitles]

A postal worker from Milan gets transferred to the southern side of Italy which happens to be his worst nightmare until he learns to adapt to the southern ways.

A very entertaining movie. Love the actress Valentina Lodovini who plays Maria.

Interesting fact: This movie was based on a French movie Welcome to the Sticks (2008) (French title: Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis) which has a similar plot. Dany Boon who starred in the French movie has a cameo as a French tourist in the post office in this very enjoyable Italian movie.

Trip Inspiration:  Southern Italy and Milan

7. The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003) – Best Movies Set in Italy

[Romance, Adventure, Family]

Lizzie McGuire meets a guy in Rome who happens to be a pop star.

This movie gets better and better as you watch it. The second half of the film is especially good.

Trip Inspiration:  Rome

Italian movie rating (my own):  6.5/10

8. Respiro (2002) – Best Italian Films

[Drama] [English subtitles]

I don’t want to spoil this great movie for you in anyway. It’s best watched by knowing hardly anything about it.

A very artsy movie that is unbelievably unique.

Movie setting:  Lampedusa, one of the Pelagie Islands (from the Greek name Pelaghiè – Islands of the high seas) in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily.

9. Pinocchio (2002) – Best Italian Movies

[Fantasy] [English subtitles]

This movie is a classic! I love it and some of you are probably thinking I’m crazy to include this movie in this list of best Italian films but I really like it. I’m not lying to you, I’ve seen it at least 5 times!

Just make sure you watch it with Italian subtitles. It’s unwatchable in my opinion if you watch the English dubbed version. I absolutely hate that version but I love the Italian language version.

One thing to remember, this isn’t a family movie even though it was meant to be one. Don’t be tempted to show any young kids this film because I’m pretty sure many of them will get nightmares from it. Some would also end up crying because does get sad at one point. I think I may have even shed a tear the first time I watched it.

This version of Pinocchio is more suited for adults who still enjoy watching extremely imaginative fantasy movies which seems to be hardly anyone these days going by the number of bad reviews received.

To me it’s almost like the cult movie Xanadu , you’ll either love it or hate it.

Interesting fact:  The film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni was so panned by film critics that he obviously decided to appear in another Italian film about Pinocchio in 2019 to try and redeem himself, however he didn’t direct the newer film. I need to watch this later Pinocchio film to see how it compares with this masterpiece from 2002 but I can’t see how it could be better than this one.

Italian movie rating (my own):  8/10

10. Malena (2000) – Best Italian Movies

[Romance/War] [English subtitles]

A young boy becomes infatuated with a stunning Italian woman played by the  beautiful Monica Bellucci , during the tensions of a war climate.

This scene is a standout.

Movie locations around Italy:  Sicily

11. Gladiator (2000) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Action, Adventure]

A noble turned gladiator must fight to regain his freedom and honour.

One of the best movies set in Italy and more precisely ancient Rome. I can watch this movie over and over again.

Trip Inspiration:  Rome (Colosseum)

My movie rating (my own):  9/10

12. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) – Movies Set in Italy

[Thriller, Drama]

A young man from America named Tom Ripley gets the taste of the good life in Italy during the 1950s, which leads him to take whatever drastic action is required to continue living the extravagant lifestyle he so desperately desires.

You won’t easily forget this very memorable movie after you’ve seen it. It’s probably not greatest movie for repeat viewing simply because the whole movie will be ingrained into you’re memory bank forever. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed watching the film.

Trip Inspiration:  Islands of Ischia and Procida

Movie rating (my own):  8/10

13. Tea with Mussolini (1999) – Best Italian Movies

A group of English women who have based themselves in Florence find that their safety is no longer assured with the rise in power of Mussolini.

I never realised that Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of love and Eros (Cupid), the God of love could be found in this spot inside the Uffizi Gallery . This movie scene seems to offer hidden symbolic meaning.

Tea with Mussolini sounded so boring initially but I was so wrong. I highly recommend this film especially if you have a strong interest in the historical side of Italy. It’s another very memorable movie to watch.

Cher provides a great performance as a troubled Jew in this very moving film as do all the cast.

Trip Inspiration:  Piazza Cisterna in San Gimignano, Florence

14. Life is Beautiful (1997) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: La vita è bella [War, Comedy, Romance] [English subtitles]

An outgoing Jewish guy falls in love, has a family, and later plays an incredible make-believe game in order to shelter his young son from the hellhole of a concentration camp.

What a great movie this is. It’s absolute genius!

15. The Postman (1994) – Best Italian Movies

Italian movie title: Il Postino [Biography, Romance, Comedy] [English subtitles]

A postman desires to woo a beautiful woman with poetry so he asks a famous poet staying on the same island for some much needed advice.

If any movie has ever been made to resemble a poem then this is the one. The movie is absolute perfection. You really do need to watch this film if you haven’t seen it before. One of my favourite movies of all time.

Interesting fact:  Sadly the Italian actor and director Massimo Troisi (above) died in 1994 of heart failure shortly after the main filming on Il Postino had been completed.

Trip Inspiration:  Salina (one of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily )

Italian movie rating (my own):  9.5/10

16. Only You (1994) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Romance, Comedy]

A fortune teller predicts the name of a young woman’s future partner who then seeks him out in Italy.

Marisa Tomei is a Goddess in this movie. This would have to be one of the best rom-com movies set in Italy ever made. It made me want to visit the Amalfi Coast .

Trip Inspiration:  Amalfi Coast

Movie rating (my own):  7.5/10

17. Enchanted April (1992) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Drama, Romance]

Four English women dream of staying in an Italian villa in Italy so that they can escape from their unsatisfied lives and the dreary English weather.

If I were living in England and I saw this movie I’d be me packing my bags for Italy in no time.

Interesting fact: The film was shot on location at Castello Brown in Portofino, Italy. This is the same castle where the author of the book stayed in the 1920s.

Trip Inspiration:  Portofino, Italy

Movie rating (my own):  6.5/10

18. Mediterraneo (1991) – Best Italian Films

[Comedy, War] [English subtitles]

A group of Italian soldiers are stationed on a remote Greek island where they have time on their hands.

A very enjoyable film with a great ending.

Trip Inspiration: Kastellórizo, in the Dodecanese island group

19. Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Best Italian Movies

A famous film director in Rome reminisces about his love of cinema and his deep friendship with the cinema projectionist from the small Sicilian village where he grew up.

One of the best Italian movies you could ever hope to see.

Trip Inspiration:  Sicily

20. Ladyhawke (1985) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Fantasy, Adventure]

Two lovers are cursed which stops both of them from spending time together in human physical form.

This film will stay with you forever.

Trip Inspiration:  Dolomite mountain range in Italy including the Torrechiara Castle near Palma in the Emilia Romagna region, the Rocca Sforzesca in Soncino, Soncino castle near Cremona, Rocca di Calascio near L’Aquila, and Castell’Arquato near Piacenza.

21. Swept Away (1974) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto

[Drama, Romance, Comedy] [English subtitles]

A man and woman from totally different backgrounds find themselves stranded on a deserted island in the Mediterranean sea.

Ask yourself this: What would be the relationship dynamics be if an extremely rich Italian wife found herself stranded on a remote deserted island with an ordinary married guy from southern Italy? Do you think they’d get together?

This movie is a masterpiece. Forget about Madonna’s terrible remake of this film and watch the original, it’s a classic!

Interesting fact: The Italian actress Mariangela Melato who played Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti in Swept Away, also starred in the classic sci-fi adventure movie Flash Gordon in 1980 as the villainess General Kala. Here’s a classic line from Flash Gordon: “General Kala, Flash Gordon approaching”. If you love the movie Flash Gordon you can just about hear her say it.

Trip Inspiration:  Sardinia

Movie rating (my own):  8.5/10

22. Don’t Look Now (1973) – Best Movies Set in Italy

[Thriller, Horror]

A married couple move to Venice for work and as an escape after suffering a family tragedy. During their stay they get mixed up with a psychic warning them of imminent danger.

This movie is quite suspenseful and will have you thinking throughout the movie about where it is going. I would have never predicted the ending.

Interesting fact: The sex scene in this movie is very different.

Trip Inspiration:  Venice

23. The Godfather (1972) 

[Crime, Drama]

The reluctant son of a Mafia boss takes over the reigns of the family’s criminal empire.

I could include quite a few Mafia films in this list of best Italian movies and films set in Italy but I have to limit it.

I can’t glamorise the Mafia too much even though I do have a dedicated post talking about the best Mafia and gang related movies and TV shows .

Movie rating (my own):  9/10

24. The Way of The Dragon (1972) – Films Set in Italy

Bruce Lee fights Chuck Norris in the Colosseum.

Had to include this film because the fight scene in the Colosseum at the end of the movie is bloody awesome!!!

25. The Italian Job (1969) – Best Films Set in Italy

[Action, Crime, Comedy]

A group of English thieves come up with a clever gold heist within Italy from under the eyes of the Mafia.

Politically incorrect in so many ways, it’s no wonder The Italian Job has disappeared from the TV screens as feminist groups would be outraged!

Trip Inspiration:  Turin

26. Romeo and Juliet (1968) – Best Italian Movies

[Romance, Drama] [English subtitles]

A young couple experiences forbidden love because they come from rival families in historic Verona.

This is my favourite movie about the Romeo and Juliet love story.

Interesting fact:  Romeo + Juliet (1996) with Leonardo DeCaprio is another great movie to watch but this one was never filmed in Italy.

Trip Inspiration:  Verona

27. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) 

[Western, Adventure]

A gold treasure hunt during the American civil war leads to a face-off between the good, the bad and the ugly.

This 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood is easily one of the best Italian made movies of all time.

Ok, technically it is not set in Italy, but I don’t care. It’s a classic Italian spaghetti western! If you only ever watch one western film in your lifetime, make it this one.

28. Contempt (1963) – Best Films Set in Italy

French Movie Title: Le mépris [Drama, Romance]

I’m still wondering what this movie directed by Jean-Luc Godard is truly about. It seems as though Contempt blurs the line between myth (The Odyssey) and reality on the Italian island of Capri.

Interesting fact: It stars Brigitte Bardot, one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s.

Trip Inspiration: The island of Capri (off the Amalfi Coast)

Movie rating (my own):  6/10

29. Romulus and Remus (1961) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: Romolo e Remo in Italian [Action, Adventure]

Romulus and Remus also known as Duel of the Titans is a 1961 Italian production starring Steve Reeves. It’s the story of Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome.

Rhea Silvia, a mortal, has two twin babies fathered by the God Mars and so abandons them on a river by placing them in a basket to float away. They’re both found by a she-wolf who nurtures them. Later a shepherd discovers them and raises both children as his own. The twin brothers eventually go on to lead a group of men that want to eliminate two cruel kings: king Amulias and king Nemulias who are the kings of the Sabines.

Trip Inspiration:  Italy

30. Hercules (1958) – Best Italian Movies

[Adventure, Fantasy]

Hercules sets sail for the legendary Golden Fleece among other things.

This is one of the best peplum movies of all time . Who could ever forget the climactic ending of this extravagent sword and sandal movie?

Interesting fact:  One of the best known peplum movies otherwise known as sword and sandal movies that were very popular from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s.

Trip Inspiration:  Greece and Italy

31. La Strada (1954) – Best Italian Movies

Translated Movie Title: The Road [Drama] [English subtitles]

The brutal life of a circus performer on the road is on show.

If you only watch one Fellini film in your life then this is the one I’d highly recommend.

32. Ulysses (1954) 

[Adventure]

After the Trojan war ends Odysseus (Ulysses: in Latin) tries to make his way home to Ithaca against great odds after angering Poseidon, the God of the sea.

This is one of those movies based on Greek and Roman Mythology you need to watch.

Trip Inspiration:  The Mediterranean

33. Roman Holiday (1953)

A princess tired of public duties and comfortable arrangements tries to get some alone time in Rome under the pretence of being an ordinary person.

Roman Holiday is a bit slow moving at the start but as soon as the princess starts exploring Rome the story really takes off. I was surprised to find that I really liked the film in the end.

34. Bicycle Thieves (1948) – Best Italian Movies

Italian Movie Title: Ladri di biciclette [Drama] [English subtitles]

Bicycle Thieves (aka The Bicycle Thief ) is about a man who tries to find his bike after it has been stolen so that he can make a measly living and take care of his family.

I can really relate to this movie because as a kid I had my bike stolen and it was gut wrenching.

This movie is an absolute masterpiece even though at times it may make you feel like turning it off due to its very bleak outlook on life in post-World War II Rome.

Stick with it and I’m sure you’ll be very glad to have seen this classic Italian story.

Interesting fact: Bicycle Thieves received an Academy Honorary Award (most outstanding foreign language film) in 1950.

Not the best Italian movies and films set in Italy (in my opinion) but still worth watching

These movies are still good enough to watch at least once even though a few of them are forgettable.

Murder Mystery (2019) (Comedy, Mystery) – Starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston The Great Beauty (2013) The Best Offer (2013) – Enjoyed watching this very mysterious film. The Immature (2011) – I discuss this movie when talking about the sequel to it in a post about  movies made in the Greek Islands , even though this film was set in Italy. When in Rome (2010) – One of my favourites. Room in Rome (2010) – Interesting! Loose Cannons (2010) – I was about to turn it off but so glad I didn’t. Genova (2008) – Nearly made it into the main list of best Italian movies and films set in Italy. Bread and Tulips (Pane e Tulipani) (2000) – A very enjoyable romance movie. A Good Woman (2006) – Italy locations: Amalfi, Atrani, Ravello, Sorrento, and Rome I’m Not Scared (2003) – If you don’t know anything about it you will be surprised. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) – Just to see Villa Balbianello in Lake Como, Italy. Makes you want to go there yourself. Stealing Beauty (1996) – I like Enchanted April better than this movie for some reason. The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso) (1971) L’Avventura (1960) – Takes place at an incredible baroque Villa Palagonia near Palermo and the volcanic rock Aeolian island of Panarea.

Italian Movies and Films set in Italy (I want to see)

I still hope to watch a few of these movies one day. If I watch a movie and really like it I’ll move it up higher in this list of best Italian movies and films set in Italy.

In Search of Fellini  (2017) Inferno (2016) – The third movie based on the novels by Dan Brown. All Roads Lead to Rome (2015) – Stars Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex in the City. Tutta Colpa di Freud (2014) (Comedy) I Can Quit Whenever I Want  (Smetto quando voglio) (2014) The Trip to Italy (2014) – Two men enjoy six scenic meals in Italy from Piedmont to Capri, as well as Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, and Amalfi. Romeo and Juliet (2013) The Mafia Only Kills in Summer  (La mafia uccide solo d’estate) (2013) Angels & Demons (2009) Shadows in the Sun (2005) Manuale D’Amore (The Manual of Love) (2005) – So popular that two more sequels were made. Shadows in the Sun (aka The Shadow Dancer) (2005) – Set in Tuscany. Ocean’s Twelve (2004) – Filmed at Villa Erba in Cernobbio and Villa Oleandra in Laglio .

Italian Movies and Films set in Italy (I want to see) – Made prior to 2000

Caro Diario (1993) – A Vespa rider sees Rome and holidays in the Aeolian Islands where he travels from Lipari to Salina and also Stromboli, and finally to Alicudi. Portrait of a Lady (1996) A Month by the Lake (1995) – Lake Como. Dear Diary (Caro diario) (1993) Kaos (1984) – Filmed in Sicily and the island of Lipari. Segni particolari: bellissimo  (1983) Hector the Mighty (Ettore lo fusto) (1972) – A loosely based parody of Homer’s Iliad set in modern times. The Devil in Love (1966) – The devil comes down to earth to stop the marriage of an aristocrat and a Spanish woman in Florence. Sounds interesting! It Started in Naples (1963) The Leopard (1963) Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) La Dolce Vita  (The Sweet Life) (1960) – I do remember the famous Trevi fountain scene in Rome but apart from that not much else. I need to see it again. Three Coins in a Fountain (1954) Beat the Devil (1954) – Even has a scene at Ravello including Villa Cimbrone and its Terrace of Infinity.

Italian Movies and Films set in Italy (I didn’t like for some reason)

These movies are not to my taste even though they may have many film fans. Either they’re very forgettable or too boring in certain parts of the film for my liking.  Maybe I turned some of them off a bit too early on or maybe I wasn’t in the mood for the film at the time. Whatever the case you may want to check them out for yourself.

Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) (2016) – I didn’t warm to the characters. A Bigger Splash (2015) To Rome with Love (2012) The Tourist (2010) Eat, Pray, Love (2010) I am Love  (Io sono amore) (2009) Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) – Set in Cortona and Positano. A Room with a View (1985) – A scene where Lucy faints when witnessing a knife fight between locals is filmed by the Neptune Fountain ( Fontana di Nettuno ), in Piazza della Signoria. The movie started off good but when they went back to England it nosedived. Purple Noon (1960) – Both this movie and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) were based on the same book. This movie is a bit slow but it is interesting to compare the two movies as they are very similar and quite different in parts.

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13 Italian movies on Netflix you can’t miss

By: Author Tracy Collins

Posted on Last updated: October 11, 2023

Prepare for some serious binge-watching with our selection of good Italian movies on Netflix. Includes Italian language films on Netflix plus some of the best movies set in Italy.

Do you like Italian movies? If so, then this is the blog post for you! With the help of travel bloggers, I have compiled a list of 13 Italian movies on Netflix (or movies set in Italy on Netflix) that are worth watching.

From Italian comedies to love stories and romance to Italian gangster movies, there’s something here for everyone. Whether it’s a rainy day or just a Friday night in with friends, these Italian films on Netflix will keep you entertained all night long.

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Under the Riccione Sun

With surfshark vpn you can, a room with a view, rose island, letters to juliet.

• The Ruthless (Lo spietato)

Angels and Demons

The talented mr ripley, an italian dream, out of my league (sul più bello) , caught by a wave, call me by your name, plan your trip to italy, best italian romantic comedies on netflix.

• Year of release: 2020
• Genre: Comedy-Romance

Under The Riccione Sun is a super nice feel-good movie, with a great mix of summer romance, beach life and lots of Italian vibes. This romantic comedy is about a group of teenagers who meet on the lively beaches of Riccione and spend an exciting and unforgettable summer together.

Some of them use their vacation to party hard, while others are looking for the love of their lives. You may well be reminded of Three Meters Above the Sky, a Netflix series that is also really worth watching! Especially nice is this story of the blind teenager who wants to emancipate himself from his patronizing mother and who wants to find his own life (and love). Otherwise, the movie is a lot about flirts with some nice vacation anecdotes.

If you love this kind of feel-good movie, and on top of that if you love Italy flair, you will for sure enjoy Under The Riccione Sun.

• Starring: Italian actors Cristiano Caccamo,Lorenzo Zurzolo,Ludovica Martino
• Where was it filmed? All the movie is set in Riccione, a town on Italy’s Adriatic coast!

Watched by Martina of  PlacesofJuma

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• Released 1985
• Romance/comedy

A Room With A View is an adaptation of the EM Forester novel of the same name. It is the story of Lucy Honeychurch who has to decide to be what her family expects or be what she wants

Lucy is sent to Florence with her cousin Charlotte. She falls in love with the beauty of the Tuscan countryside and in turn with an equally beautiful and untamed man named George. Remembering that she has a stuffy fiancé at home in England she dutifully returns only to have George show up in her English Village.

A Room With A View is highly rated as one of the best movies to come from Merchant/Ivory productions. It has 100% rating on rotten tomatoes as well as high praise from every critic around. It also launched the careers of Helena Bonham Carter and Rupert Graves.

• Featuring: Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench
• Filmed on location in Florence, Italy. The film was shot in locations across Tuscany, including, Capanne di Careggi, Terranuova Bracciolini and Forte dei Marmi.

Watched by Alicia from Travels with the crew

• Year of release – 2020
• Genre – Comedy-drama

The movie Rose Island is based on a true story of an Italian Engineer that decided to build a platform outside the territorial waters and legal jurisdiction of Italy . 

After seeing an image of an oil Platform, Giorgio Rosa and his friend Maurizio, resolved to create their own country 12km off the coast of Rimini, just outside Italian territorial waters. This meant it was outside the control of the authorities. They built a 400 sq m platform in the Adriatic Sea, and on this artificial island, they built a bar and a small house with potable water. 

Rose Island had its own government, currency, post office, and commercial establishments, and an official language. Naturally, Giorgio Rosa was the President.

The island started receiving tourists, and attention. People mostly partied on the island but it became quite famous. Several people even asked for citizenship.

The Italian government unsatisfied with these developments and the fact that it didn’t pay taxes, decided to intervene. In consequence, Giorgio Rosa decides to ask for the help of the United Nations Headquarters. 

This is a very funny movie, but the best part is that it’s based on true events which makes it even more interesting.

• Starring – Elio Germano, Matilda De Angelis, Leonardo Lidi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Luca Zingaretti, François Cluzet
• Where was it filmed? It was filmed in an infinity pool in Malta Film Studios

Watched by Cláudia & Jorge from Travel drafts

• Year of release – 2010
• Genre – Romantic Comedy

The premise of Letters to Juliet is that a young aspiring writer, Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried), travels to Italy together with her Italian fiancé for a honeymoon before the wedding. He’s a busy chef in their home town of New York and won’t have time after the wedding to embark on a honeymoon.

When strolling around the city of Verona, Sophie stumbles on the ‘Letters to Juliet,’ an organisation of volunteers who make it their mission to reply to letters from brokenhearted people who leave their letters in ‘Juliet’s Wall’. While examining the wall, Sophie stumbles on a letter that was written by Claire and was trapped in the wall.

As such, the letter hasn’t been seen for decades. Sophie replies and soon enough, Claire turns up in Italy, inspired to track down her long lost lover. She also brings her grandson Charlie along with her and it’s not long before Sophie finds herself more interested in him than she would like to be…

• Starring – Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave
• Where was it filmed? The  City of Verona , Siena, the Italian countryside

Watched by Sophie of Solo Sophie

Best Italian gangster movies on Netflix

The ruthless ( lo spietato ).

• Year of release  – 2019
• Genre  – Crime/Drama

The Ruthless ( Lo spietato  in Italian) is a traditional gangster movie, loosely based on the book  Manager calabria 9 and inspired by the real-life story of Saverio Morabito, who was a “ndrangheta” mafia boss during the 1990s and later a police informant. 

Set primarily in Milan, this account of the Italian mafia follows the somewhat classic formula of movies in this genre.  As such, it is full of all the gritty and intense drama you’d expect from a gangster movie with brutal violence, sex, money, drugs and high-speed cars. 

It follows the journey of Santo Russo, played by Riccardo Scamarcio, as he makes his way from a rebellious teen to the upper echelon of the Milan underworld.  

The movie begins in 1990, with an adult Santo sat on the roof of his penthouse apartment overlooking Milan Cathedral.  From here, we learn more about his rise and fall within the criminal world through a series of flashbacks spanning three decades.  

• Starring  – Riccardo Scamarcio, Sara Serraiocco, Alessio Praticò
• Where was it filmed?   The movie is filmed and takes place primarily in  Milan .  Filming also took place in Apulia in southern Italy.

Watched by Sophie and Adam of WeDreamOfTravel

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Best Italian movies on Netflix

• Year of release – 2009
• Genre – Mystery/Thriller

The mystery thriller takes place in Rome, Italy, in which Dr Langdon, a Harvard University professor of history of art and “symbology”, partnered with beautiful CERN scientist Dr Vittoria Vetra, is in the quest to recover a missing vial of antimatter from an Illuminati terrorist, who plans to destroy the Roman Catholic Church by annihilating the entire Vatican City.

Their heart-racing and time-bound mission is filled with brilliant plots, exciting catch-and-chase scenes, riddle-solving that are based on ancient symbology, secret societies, and conspiracy theories, all under the backdrop of the numerous historic landmarks in the Eternal City. Follow Dr Langdon’s path from the Vatican to the entire city of Rome, until the dramatic reveal of the mastermind.

You will be fascinated by the meaning and messages of classical art, and the next time you are in Rome, you will definitely see the paintings and sculptures, symbols, and architecture from a completely different point of view.  

• Starring – Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor
• Where was it filmed? Rome

Watched by Kenny of Knycxjourneying.com

• Year of release – 2019
• Genre – Biographical Drama

In 2012, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce), deeply disappointed in the Catholic Church’s direction, asked Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins) to let him retire.

Pope Benedict refuses the cardinal’s consent to retire and invite him to the  Vatican  to discuss the matter. In subsequent discussions, The two Popes – current and future (at that time) discuss the future of the Roman Catholic Church, the world they live in, dogmatic matters, and the music they listen to. The conversations are deep and same time funny; we see two different personalities, both responsible for the future of the Catholic Church. During this fascinating discussion, Pope Benedict tries to check whether cardinal Bergoglio, a man whose attitude he does not fully understand, will be able to complete the work begun by their predecessors, which he himself couldn’t carry on his shoulders anymore.

If you want to know and see what is happening behind closed Vatican doors, watch Two Popes.

• Starring – Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge
• Where was it filmed? The Vatican

Watched by Ania from The Travelling Twins

• Released – 1999
• Genre – Psychological Thriller

The Talented Mr Ripley is a 1999 film adaptation of a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, which was originally published in 1955.

The movie stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, who befriends Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), the son of a shipping magnate, and his beautiful girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) by pretending to be an old Princeton classmate of Dickie’s.

The first part of the film sees Tom, Dickie and Marge relaxing on a luxurious and extravagant holiday in the fictional Italian seaside resort of Mongibello. The scenes in Mongibello were filmed in Positano on the Amalfi Coast and on the  islands of Ischia and Procida in the Bay of Naples . The beautiful narrow streets of Marina di Corricella on Procida are clearly recognisable and make the perfect backdrop for the trio’s idyllic, sun-soaked Italian vacation, although the production was apparently plagued with uncharacteristically bad weather. Later scenes in the movie take part in Rome and Venice.

The Talented Mr Ripley was nominated for five Academy Awards and five Golden Globes. Jude Law won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dickie.

• Starring -Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow
• Where was it filmed? Ischia, Procida, Positano, Rome and Venice

Watched by Helen of Helen on her Holidays

• Genre – Sentimental Drama

An Italian Dream is a feel-good story based on the real-life of Enrico Piaggio – the inventor of the Italian icon – Vespa scooter.

It’s 1945, and Enrico’s factory is in ruin, and all its employees are about to lose their jobs. Enrico feels very responsible for all his workers and their families that rely on the factory salaries to come up with an idea to save his company and provide the financial means to all its loyal employees.

He comes up with a new mode of transport – a small but capable vehicle that at the same time is very affordable – a scooter. The time is ticking, there are people that want to take over his factory and many obstacles to overcome.

The only way to make Enrico’s idea a success is to get Vespa featured in William Wyler’s movie – Roman Holiday about a couple in love travelling Italy, hopefully on Vespa.

• Starring – Alessio Boni, Violante Placido
• Where – Pontedera

Watched by Mal from  Raw Mal Roams 

• Year of release: 2004
• Genre: Action

The movie Pompeii is a film that depicts the tragedy of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD that killed thousands of people. 

Expect lots of action, fighting and special effects, plus a healthy dose of Romance. While the graphic annihilation of Pompeii makes a thrilling film in itself, the story also gives an intriguing insight into the political contentions between the city and the Roman Empire.

The storyline follows an orphaned child whose village was massacred by Romans. You will be glued to your seat as you watch his journey to become a champion gladiator and the constant battles to avenge his past. 

Pompeii is a Netflix movie that will keep you glued to your seat. It also helps bring vivid picture to this terrible historical disaster. You can visit the ruins yourself as a day trip from popular holiday destinations such as Naples or while on an  Amalfi Coast road trip.

• Starring: Kit Harrison, Emily Browning, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Jessica
• Filmed: While set in Pompeii the majority of scenes were filmed in Canada

Recommended by Kerry Hanson from VeggTravel

Best Italian romance movies on Netflix

• Genre – Romance/drama

Set in  northern Italy  in the city of Turin, ‘Out of My League’ (‘Sul Più Bello’) is a sweet (and sad) romantic movie based on a novel with the same name by Eleonora Gaggero, who also plays in the film.

It follows Marta, a young, bubbly, and quirky girl who suffers from cystic fibrosis, a genetic and incurable illness that damages the lungs and other organs in the body. Being an orphan, she lives with her two best friends in the house she inherited from her parents.

When she comes across the undeniably handsome Arturo, she doesn’t waste any time and essentially starts stalking him. She sees herself as an ‘ugly duckling’, so she doesn’t think someone like him will like someone like her. When he faces her, she manages to get a date with him (without telling him about her illness). Will this unusual situation turn into true love?

• Starring – ‏Ludovica Francesconi and Giuseppe Maggio 
• Where was it filmed? Turin

Watched by Or from My Path in the World 

• Year of release –  2021  
• Genre –  Romance/drama

Set on the  beautiful island  of Sicily,  Caught by a Wave  ( Sulla Stessa Onda ) is an Italian romantic drama directed by Massimiliano Carnaiti.

Currently streaming on Netflix in the Italian language with English subtitles, the film tells the story of two college students, Sara and Lorenzo, who meet at a summer camp and fall in love. Not long after their courtship commences, their budding relationship faces its first challenge as Sara confesses to Lorenzo that she’s suffering from a rare degenerative disease. After a tense scene where the pair are out on a sailboat and Sara collapses in pain, she can’t keep her secret from her suitor any longer and reality comes crashing down on the duo.

With one brilliant Sicilian sunset after another as their backdrop, the rest of the film follows the pair as they navigate the uncertainty of Sara’s future while trying to kindle the first sparks of their young romance.

• Starring –  Elvira Camarrone, Roberto Christian, Donatella Finocchiaro
• Where was it filmed?   –  Sicily

Watched by By Emily from Wander-Lush

• Year of release – 2017
• Genre – Romance, Drama

Call me by your name is an equally beautiful and heart-wrenching story of love and self-discovery that has won over audiences around the globe. It features the story of Elio, a 17-year-old who is spending the summer of 1983 with his parents at the family’s idyllic Italian villa in the northern region of Lombardy.

During this time Elio’s father invites a charming 24-year-old US graduate student to help him with his research. Soon, both Oliver and Elio realize a shared romantic connection and an ensuing journey of discovery follows. It’s a poignantly beautiful film where the stunning Italian surroundings act more as a backdrop to the ensuing storyline, instead of being the main star.

Today, you can visit beautiful Crema, where most of the film was shot, by travelling an hour by car or 1.5 hours by train. Other key filming locations include Bergamo where the couple spent a couple of nights away, as well as the Grotte di Catullo ruins. 

• Starring – Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Amira Casar, Michael Stuhlbarg
• Where was it filmed – The main location in and around Crema, Lombardy

Watched by Marco from The Avid Campers

With all the inspiration you now have after watching all these Italian movies on Netflix you may want to start planning your trip to beautiful Italy!

• One day itinerary for Milan
• Top tips for planning a trip to Venice
• 2 days in Florence itinerary
• Best places to stay in Venice – Area and accommodation guide
• More to watch for destinations around the world – Best Australian series on Netflix

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The best Italian movies of all time: from ‘Bicycle Thieves’ to ‘The Great Beauty’

Live the dolce vita with these 50 timeless classics

There’s a reason Martin Scorsese has dedicated part of his life to championing Italian movies – and it’s not just to keep his nonna happy. It’s the national cinema that gave us Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini, Pasolini, and De Sica – where one minute you can corpse to the slapstick silliness of  Commedia all'Italiana   capers and the next, have your heart smashed into tiny pieces by a human drama about an old man and his dog. Where dodgy politics spawns angry thrillers and seismic historical events are tackled in sweeping epics. And where Clint Eastwood chewed on a cheroot while dispatching bad guys, and Argento and Bava gave us the lurid shocks of giallo. It’s flamboyant, glamorous, jaded, shocking and sexy – sometimes all at once. 

And it’s not just sexy people standing in fountains, either. Rome’s famous old Cinecittà Studios powers on, the Venice Biennale is the world’s coolest film festival (sorry, Cannes), and modern-day moviemakers like Alice Rohrwacher, Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino and Gianfranco Rosi keep offering up fresh slices of la dolce vita (or its darker sides). With the BFI celebrating the work of the Taviani brothers  in February and neorealism in May-June , a ‘Cinema Made in Italy’ season running at London’s Ciné Lumière in March, Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Garrone’s Oscar-nominated Io Capitano coming to cinemas soon, not to mention a cinema re-release of Rome, Open City in May. There’s plenty of Italian films to sample out there. Allow us to add 50 more to the list – the best of the lot.

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Best Italian films

1.  8½ (1963)

Director : Federico Fellini

By the early ’60s, Federico Fellini had fully abandoned neorealism in favour of more symbolic, emotional and thematically complex filmmaking. His flights of fancy had grown increasingly fancier and flightier, reaching their peak with 8½ , a kind of ‘psychological autobiography’ about a director in the throes of artistic inertia. Marcello Mastroianni is Fellini’s avatar, a filmmaker who can’t seem to make a movie and prefers to retreat into his own head, revelling in memories and fantasies while battling his own creative anxiety. The irony, of course, is that Fellini was more than capable of making a movie. And this is his most definitive.— Matthew Singer

2.  The Conformist (1970)

Director : Bernardo Bertolucci Bertolucci’s towering examination of one young, ambitious right-wing thug – played by Jean-Louis Trintignant with blank malice – may be his finest film. Set during the Mussolini regime, and employing some of the most gorgeous art deco mise-en-scène imaginable, Bertolucci uses the baroque style of the 1930s to convey – and undermine – the spirit of fascism. As Trintignant’s troubled antihero prepares to carry out an assassination attempt on a former professor, the loss of his soul becomes painfully clear. The film’s legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro would go on to work with Francis Ford Coppola – in part because of Coppola’s love for this film.— Christina Newland

3.  Rome, Open City (1945)

Director : Roberto Rossellini One of films most closely associated with Italian neorealism, Rome, Open City is a film-school staple – and for good reason. Filmed in the crumbling ruins of the city in the aftermath of World War II, Rossellini synthesised his experiences, and those of his friends, into a complex story of Romans under Nazi occupation. The phenomenal Anna Magnani makes the biggest impression. The heartbreaking sequence in which her man is rounded up by Germans and she is caught in the crossfire powerfully drives home the price paid by brave resistance members during the war.— Christina Newland

4.  The Leopard (1963)

Director : Luchino Visconti

The best-looking film in all of cinema? With its gorgeous colour palette, smokeshow cast (Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale), glittering ballroom sequence and Risorgimento-era set pieces that spill over with chaotic action, The Leopard would surely be right up there with The Conformist in any People Magazine poll. But its themes of decay and revolution, adapted from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel and embodied in Burt Lancaster’s ageing aristocrat and Delon as his impetuous nephew, make it a kind of 19th century Succession too. Visconti, the son of Milanese aristocrats who turned to Marxism during the war, knew more about this stuff than most, but he never lets the politics obscure the humanity – helped by a Lancaster performance full of sorrowful dignity.— Phil de Semlyen 

5.  Voyage to Italy (1954)

Director : Roberto Rossellini

Power couple Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman’s finest creative partnership is a key moment in modern cinema. From the somewhat mundane story of Bergman and George Sanders’ crumbling marriage during a trip to Naples, it works through mood and metaphor to ascend from emotional emptiness to spiritual transcendence. Daringly, Rossellini allows much tetchy unease before the ancient landscape's history and traditions gradually impact the seemingly listless central duo. Voyage to Italy is a truly contemporary vision – a waymarker for Antonioni and the French New Wave, and a testament to vulnerable togetherness confronting time and mortality.— Trevor Johnston

6.  Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

Director : Sergio Leone

Sill the best film with a ‘Once Upon a Time in…’ prefix (sorry Midlands, Hollywood), Sergio Leone’s takes everything you love about his Dollars trilogy – big landscapes, bigger close-ups, violence, comedy – and adds extra breadth, depth and stature. From its unparalleled title sequence as three hired killers wait the arrival of The Man (Charles Bronson) on a train, it debunks the mythology of the Hollywood Western – hero Henry Fonda as a cold killer – operating as an operatic eulogy to the genre, enriched by Ennio Morricone’s ground-breaking score. A strong contender for the greatest Western ever made.— Ian Freer

7.  Salvatore Giuliano (1962) 

Director : Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi takes on the life of infamous Sicilian bandit in a fascinating story told with typical passion and polemical fire. Using flashbacks and flashforwards, after introducing Giuliano lifeless in a pool of his own blood, Rosi gives us a kaleidoscope of different viewpoints on this ’50s-folk-hero-turned-public-enemy, refusing to lead the viewer to take sides so much as to probe their own feelings for the bandit’s deeds. The film isn’t exactly entry-level in its deep ties to Italian politics and history, but it’s worth sticking with. And don’t take my word for it: it’s one of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films.— Christina Newland

8.  La Strada (1954) 

Director : Federico Fellini How many films have caused fights in the cinema aisles? Legend has it that a brawl broke out when Fellini’s La Strada premiered at the Venice, which seems extreme for a movie about a circus clown (Fellini muse Giulietta Masina) and her marriage to Anthony Quinn’s abusive strongman. But this was a seismic moment in the director’s career, when he moved away from neorealism and toward a surrealist sophistication that would come to be known as ‘Felliniesque’. Some critics saw it as a betrayal. Three quarters of a century later, La Strada just feels sublime – a melancholy, searching tone poem about the loss of innocence that laid a path for masterpieces to come.— Matthew Singer

9.  Black Sunday (1960)

Director : Mario Bava

If only all film debuts were as good as Mario Bava’s. Black Sunday is an atmospheric gothic horror, released in 1960 and banned in the UK until 1968 for its graphic violence, considered too gruesome at the time. Based very loosely on Nikolai Gogol’s story ‘Viy’, the film follows the wrath of the powerful witch-vampire Asa (played by Barbara Steele in one of her first big-screen roles), who places a curse on her family after they execute her for Satanism. And for being a vampire. And a witch. And being too… horny? Few horrors deliver performances as haunting as Steele’s in Bava’s creepy classic.— Anna Bogutskaya

10.  La Notte (1961)

Director : Michelangelo Antonioni No one can make a dying relationship seem quite as cinematic as Antonioni. La Notte dresses up Marcello Mastroianni’s jaded writer and Jeanne Moreau’s disillusioned wife to the nines and sets them lose on an urbane Milan, where louche soirées, existential angst, and a sexily inscrutable Monica Vitti await them. Antonioni’s existential mood pieces aren’t for everyone, but these levels of seductive languor are hard to resist. Emotionally sparse but never blank, and with cut-glass black-and-white compositions, it’s easy to see why La Notte was one of Stanley Kubrick’s favourite films.— Phil de Semlyen

11.  The Battle of Algiers (1960)

Director : Gillo Pontecorvo

Before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, The Pentagon put on a screening of The Battle of Algiers to gain insights into counter-terrorism techniques. It’s easy to see why. Gillo Pontecorvo’s film about the struggle for Algerian independence from the French is a clear-eyed how-to of guerrilla warfare, told through a mixture of documentary stylings and Ennio Morricone-scored poetry. Yet what stands out is the even-handedness on display, as Pontecorvo brilliantly explores the perspectives and problems on both sides (Jean Martin’s French paratroop commander is unforgettable). Paul Greengrass’s favourite film, it was also shown to the Algerian football team to instil underdog revolutionary zeal before a World Cup match against England. The result was – obviously – a nil-nil draw.— Ian Freer

12.  La Dolce Vita (1960)

Federico Fellini’s copper-bottomed masterpiece is an odyssey through decadence in seven episodes as gossip columnist Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) looks to find himself in a morally bankrupt ’60s Rome. Fellini puts indelible imagery – a statue of Christ being flown over Rome, Anita Ekberg wading into the Trevi Fountain – at the service of a masterful study of paralysing ennui, the pursuit of misplaced values, and the loss of self. It’s one of those rare films that gifted the world a word – Walter Santesso’s hyperactive photographer is named ‘Paparazzo’ – but more importantly delivers a rich, unforgettable experience, a film so full it makes most films look anaemic by comparison.— Ian Freer

13.  Il Sorpasso (1962)

Director : Dino Risi

No one grumbles about ‘fucking Merlot’ but make no mistake, without this commedia d'italia classic there’d be no Sideways. In fact, Dino Risi’s astute and stinging comedy of male inadequacy, not to mention the odd-couple dynamic at its heart, makes Il Sorpasso a blueprint for just about any offbeat road-trip movie. Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant play a high-living gadabout and the meek law student he takes under his wing. Cue girls, booze, beaches, and all the ingredients for a frisky coming-of-age adventure – at least, until it all comes crashing down in an ending that goes off like a hand grenade in a martini glass.— Phil de Semlyen

14.  Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Director : Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio De Sica’s working-class tragedy is made all the more crushing by its mundanity. The story couldn’t be simpler: a downtrodden man in postwar Italy finds a job posting advertisements, but his employment is dependent upon owning a bicycle; when his is stolen, he and his young son set out across Rome to find it. One of the most affecting illustrations of the cycle of poverty and crime ever made, it was shot with non-professional actors and achieves the neorealists’ aim of capturing life as it actually happens. In a cruel twist, star Lamberto Maggiorani was laid off from his factory job after the movie’s release. As his own character says: ‘You live and you suffer.’— Matthew Singer

15.  The Great Silence (1968) 

Director : Sergio Corbucci

This desolate, subversive western may be the high-point of Corbucci’s career thanks to its ice-cold atmosphere and brilliant performances. Klaus Kinski is a scene-stealer in the role of a ruthless bounty killer who believes it’s his ‘patriotic duty to exterminate’ outlaws – while Jean-Louis Trintignant is quietly compelling as his opponent: a mute avenger who survived a throat-slitting as a child. Silvano Ippoliti’s alpine cinematography is frequently breathtaking, and would later serve as a key influence on Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight — a film with which it also shares a composer in Ennio Morricone. — James Balmont

16.  The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

Director : Pier Paolo Pasolini A huge influence on Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation Of Christ , Pier Paolo Pasolini’s take on the birth, teachings and death of Christ is the perfect antidote to the bloated Hollywood epics of the ‘50s. Employing techniques from the neorealist movement (Pasolini gets fantastic mileage from the faces of non-professional actors), it takes Christ out of beatific religious representations and puts him into the real world, raw, violent and politically-informed as it is. Unbelievably moving, whatever your faith.— Ian Freer

17.  Ossessione (1943)

‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ has been much-adapted but never bettered than in Luchino Visconti’s unauthorised take on James M Cain’s pulpy noir. Massimo Girotti is the handsome drifter who catches the eye of Clara Calamai’s bored tavern landlady, only for the pair’s affair to go torridly wrong. Somehow, this brilliantly clammy thriller is Visconti’s first film – he was put onto the novel by Jean Renoir while working as the Frenchman’s assistant director – and its real Po Valley locations and gritty, hard-bitten characters paved the way for neorealist flicks to come. Oh, and he made it in the middle of a world war.— Phil de Semlyen 

18.  The Great Beauty (2013)

Director : Paolo Sorrentino

A modern companion piece to La Dolce Vita u pdated for the Berlusconi era, Paolo Sorrentino’s sensory overload sends another jaded journo, Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), through the morass of the Eternal City, bobbing from one decadent party to another. From the costumes to his music choices Sorrentino’s filmmaking is bravura, Luca Bigazzi’s camera zooming and swooping, adding to the operatic quality of a film that skates on love, loss and, towards the end, a profound melancholy. Emotional emptiness has rarely been this satisfying.— Ian Freer

19.  Suspiria (1977) 

Director : Dario Argento

An American girl (Jessica Harper) enrols at a prestigious ballet academy in Germany, only to discover something sinister within its walls. It’s the stuff of fairy tales; indeed, Argento has noted Disney’s Snow White as an influence. Argento floods the screen with garish primary colours, including sprays of unnaturally red blood, and his grisly set pieces still retain a quality of stained-glass beauty. What elevates Suspiria into the horror pantheon, though, is Italian prog-rockers Goblin’s shuddering soundtrack. Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake upped the gore, added political subtext, and had Thom Yorke doing the score, but there’s no improving upon the original.— Matthew Singer

20.  L’Avventura (1960)

Director : Michelangelo Antonioni 

Antonioni’s seminal film of the moneyed classes defined mid-century alienation. He reshuffles the rules of cinema in the process, offering a missing-person mystery where finding the missing person is almost beside the point. At its centre, among the ominous coves and inlets of the Aeolian Islands (40-odd kilometers from where Rossellini filmed Stromboli ), a woman vanishes and her elegant best friend (Monica Vitti, in one of her defining roles) tries to find her. Pauline Kael disdainfully referred to it a ‘come dressed as the sick soul of Europe party’, but this peculiar and languorously-paced film changed the face of ’60s cinema. —Christina Newland

21.  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

• Action and adventure

Shot in Spain with American stars, sure, but as Italian as a bowl of pasta, this gunslinging classic is peak Sergio Leone. The Roman first two Dollars films are trifles compared to the sweep and slyness of his third entry. The irony of the title, of course, is that all these dudes are bad. It’s also so much cooler than many of those older films. Clint Eastwood’s poncho-draped Man With No Name? The close-ups? Ennio Morricone’s twangy, whistling, operatic score, which is arguably more famous than the movie itself? The climatic cemetery shootout? It’s a landmark of iconographical radness, admired by the likes of Tarantino and Scorsese, but never quite matched.— Matthew Singer

22.  Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

A tapestry of melodrama and social realism, Luchino Visconti’s beautiful, sweeping tale of the Parondi family is a heartbreaker. The story follows the migration of a mother and her five strapping sons from the South to find work in Milan: Alain Delon, young and angelic, is Rocco, who attempts to curb the worst impulses of his more freewheeling brother Simone (Renato Salvatori) and the neighborhood sex worker (Annie Girardot). Visconti explores the changes in Italian social life at this period of economic prosperity, where the bright lights of the big city offer the potential for ruin. —Christina Newland

23.  Stromboli (1950)

Rossellini’s tempestuous drama stares you square in the face and dares you to call it romantic. The filmmaker’s lover (and then wife, and then ex-wife) Ingrid Bergman plays Karin, a Lithuanian refugee at the end of the war, who ties the knot with a hulking Italian ex-POW (fisherman-turned-thesp Mario Vitale) to escape her internment camp. Back on his Sicilian island, she finds this jagged world of hostile fishermen suffocating and plots to escape. A brooding drama that threatens to explode like the simmering volcano on which it’s set, it gave Italian cinema one of its most famous endings.— Phil de Semlyen

24.  Divorce Italian Style (1961)

Director : Pietro Germi 

This bitumen black comedy has a sky-high concept that modern Hollywood would kill for. An impoverished Sicilian aristocrat (Marcello Mastroianni) plots to kill his wife (Daniela Rocca) by setting her up to have an affair to take advantage of an Italian legal loophole that a wronged husband will get off lightly if he murders his missus (and her lover) in the act. Winner of the Best Screenplay Oscar, it’s a darkly funny satire that deliciously skewers Sicilian macho mores. And then some.— Ian Freer

25.  The Great War (1959)

Director : Mario Monicelli

One of the great First World War movies – sadly, tough to track down in English-subtitled form – Mario Monicelli’s masterpiece plays like a kind of ‘All Quiet on the Italian Front’ or a tragicomic version of Paths of Glory . It tackles notions of patriotism and duty with a smirk that really rubbed critics up the wrong way when it was first released, before shrugging the controversy off to win a Golden Lion. Nestled within its huge battles scenes (Dino De Laurentiis was its super-producer) and gnarly depictions of trench warfare, it’s really a buddy movie in which Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi take a Matthieu-and-Lemmon-ish approach to military service: grousing, shirking and cheating, before finally finding their nobility in the face of ruthless Austrian troops.— Phil de Semlyen

26.  Happy as Lazzaro (2018)

Director : Alice Rohrwacher

Taking its name from an Italian turn of phrase that loosely translates as ‘happy as Larry’, this fable of ’70s class warfare and friendship in rural (and later, urban) Italy is moving and sharp by turns. An innocent-minded young man, played with dimwit sweetness by Adriano Tardiolo, is a farm labourer working under a near-feudal system. He befriends the wealthy son of the marchioness who runs the estate he works on to poignant – and eventually disastrous – effect. Showing the negative effects of money and exploitation on ordinary people, Alice Rohrwacher’s film might be called social commentary were it not so charmingly weird.— Christina Newland

27.  Paisan (1946)

This stirring World War II anthology movie – six vignettes that loosely follow the Allied advance north through Italy – combines gritty social realism with straight-up war movie beats that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hollywood flick. It’s occasionally uneven but boasts a kind of incremental power that creeps up on you when the credits roll. There are villainous Nazeees , daring partisans and doughty American G.I.s, but also a spiritual and emotional rawness to its harrowing action scenes and war-weary characters. Paisan – or ‘compatriot’ – is as a powerful statement of what it means to be Italian as any film on this list.— Phil de Semlyen

28.  Umberto D. (1952)

Some movies break your heart. Vittorio De Sica’s wound the soul. More sentimental than Bicycle Thieves , Umberto D . is the poignant face of neorealism. It’s a movie about the callousness of society, couched in the story of a poor old man and his dog. Kicked out on the street after failing to make rent, the titular pensioner (Carlo Battisti) is driven to despair, pulled back only by the loyalty to his adorable fox terrier. It is perhaps the most unvarnished film in a genre that stripped cinema to its bones, and in that way represents neorealism’s peak. The movement never produced another classic after it.— Matthew Singer

29.  Danger: Diabolik (1968)

Imagine if Austin Powers was played completely straight, and about twice as psychedelic. Danger: Diabolik – a cult classic of the Bond-aping Eurospy genre – is what you’d get. Mario Bava’s adaption of one of Italy’s most popular comic book series, concerning the capers of the titular, costumed super-criminal and the authorities attempting to thwart him, is full of flashy cars, underground lairs, and gonzo gadgets — like ‘exhilarating gas’ and an aeroplane with a trapdoor. Amid all the scantily-clad ladies, there’s also a cigar-chomping crime lord played by Thunderball villain Adolfo Celi.— James Balmont

30.  Amarcord

You could include every Federico Fellini film on this list – easily. But if you must start somewhere, start with Amarcord , the maestro’s homage to small-town Italian life set in the 1930s, when the country was under Mussolini’s rule. Low on plot but long on humour (Fellini loved a fart joke), Amarcord is a portrait of the sentimental education of youngster Titta, as he comes of age surrounded by the eccentric characters of his town. Autobiographical in parts, but fantastical in others, it skewers the doctrines of fascist Italy while lovingly remembering the era that Fellini himself grew up in.— Anna Bogutskaya

31.  The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)

Director : Ermanno Olmi Mike Leigh describes this Palme d'Or-winning pastoral as ‘extraordinary on a number of levels’. One of them is the captivating detail and authenticity of its vision of rural life. Like Clarkson’s Farm with more relatable characters, it spans a year on one Bergamo farm in the late 1890s, as crops are planted, animals slaughtered, and new generations welcomed into the ranks of its four hard-toiling families. It was filmed over four months on an old farm, with Ermanno Olmi drawing on his grandmother’s memories of her younger days as a peasant (jotted down in notebooks) to craft an soft-spoken and slow-burn tribute to life on the land.— Phil de Semlyen  

32.  La Terra Trema (1948)

Director : Luchino Visconti Neorealism’s On the Waterfront , Visconti’s rugged tale of Sicilian fishermen is a punch in the gut that leaves even other great filmmakers winded. Martin Scorsese lists it among his all-time favourites, and its ability to make you first understand, and then care about, its hard-pressed characters is timeless. It’s a deeply sad film in which poverty is depicted as an absence – of joy, family comforts, and solidarity – and whose mariners, constantly lowballed by wholesalers in a way that the actual fishermen who played them could probably relate to, are slowly beaten down by a rigged system.— Phil de Semlyen

33.  L'Eclisse (1962)

Director : Michelangelo Antonioni Italy’s foremost purveyor of modernist alienation, Michelangelo Antonioni is best known in the English-speaking world for 1966’s Blow Up, an enigmatic murder-mystery set in Swinging London. But his films set in bourgeois Italian society made his name, and L’Eclisse (‘The Eclipse’) may be their pinnacle. It’s set in a bleak Rome, shorn of Via Veneto glamour. There’s the icy elegance of Monica Vitti, drifting around the city after a nasty break-up, meeting Roman stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon) and not-quite starting a new affair. Enigmatic and mood-oriented, it requires patience. But its feeling of despair, backdropped by the noise and artifice of contemporary society, is all-encompassing.— Christina Newland

34.  Theorem (1968)

Director : Pier Paolo Pasolini

Few films are as shudderingly erotic as Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem . A devilish Terence Stamp is a mysterious visitor who arrives at the front door of a bourgeois Milanese family and quickly inveigles his way into beds of everyone in the household, before suddenly vanishing again. lf Theorem has defied analysis since its controversial release in 1968, and remains ambiguous: we’ll never truly know if Stamp’s visitor is a destructive or liberating force – even Pasolini’s comments on it were contradictory. The film’s influence can be felt on everything from Tom Ripley to Saltburn , but nothing else comes close: Theorem is timeless.— Anna Bogutskaya

35.  Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

Director : Mario Monicelli Like Rififi  on nitrous, this crime caper is a giddy pisstake of the stony-faced heist thrillers that were everywhere in America and France at the time. Writer-director Mario Monicelli wasn’t just a comedy master – later, he’d make fierce political screed I Compagni (‘The Organizer’) – but his gift for overseeing finely-tuned slapstick courses through this very breezy, very silly classic. Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori and Marcello Mastroianni are among five burglars attempting to rip off a Roman pawn shop, only to get it all horribly wrong. It was pipped to a Best Foreign Film Oscar by Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle , which probably made sense in context.— Phil de Semlyen

36.  Accattone (1961)

Director : Pier Paolo Pasolini Described by one critic as ‘maybe the grimmest movie I’ve ever seen’, Pasolini’s depiction of the life of a Roman pimp is not a rollicking LOL-fest. Yet, in its jagged juxtaposition of the spiritual (the Bach score) with the amoral (everything else), it’s a piercing glimpse at life on the fringes of an otherwise booming society. The director rejected the term ‘neorealism’ for his debut film, but it’s hard not to see the grasping Accattone – played by first-timer Franco Citti – as desperate kin to Bicycle Thieves ’ dad or the fisherman in La Terra Trema . He’s one cinema’s most irredeemable characters, but for all his calculating, contemptuous treatment of his sex-worker girlfriend (Silvana Corsini), he’s still recognisably human.— Phil de Semlyen

37.  Hands Over the City (1963)

Director : Francesco Rosi 

The side of a Naples apartment block crumbles and collapses into the street, crushing a man and injuring a small boy. From that starkly dramatic opening, Francesco Rosi’s vigorous and angry drama maps out a system in which men like Rod Steiger’s corrupt politician and real estate developer, Edoardo Nottola, flourish by cutting corners and making dodgy back-room deals. Rosi’s camera never gets too close to the potential hero, a communist councilman played by real-life politician Carlo Fermariello – mainly because his story has no heroes. Instead, Steiger, all seedy menace in the best film of his Italian phase, looms over it like the Teflon face of greed and corruption.— Phil de Semlyen

38.  The Seduction of Mimi (1972)

Director : Lina Wertmüller

Lina Wertmüller was a towering and iconoclastic figure of Italian cinema, in part because she was a woman in film at a time when the primary genre flicks of the time – giallo horrors and poliziotteschi crime films – were often misogynistic and male-dominated. Her best work follows a left-wing Sicilian labourer who refuses to support a local Mafioso and must escape – only to start a second family entirely. His cowardice and eventual abandonment of his ideals, though, make his attempt to fight off Mafia influence near-impossible. A painful allegory about conflicting political and personal loyalties, with intimations of sexual violence, it’s not for the faint of heart.— Christina Newland

39.  A Special Day (1977)

Director : Ettore Scola

Two of Italy’s greatest film stars, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, combine to heart-wrecking effect in a romance told in real-time that’s a rare mix of deeply poignant and sharply political. Appearing without a skerrick of their trademark glamour, the two play a weary housewife and her gay neighbour, Mastroianni’s haunted writer, who meet in their modernist apartment block when her myna bird escapes. The title holds a bitter double meaning: it’s set on the day Adolf Hitler visited Benito Mussolini in Rome, and the trumpeting of fascist speeches soundtracks the pair’s encounters. Despite presenting it in the sepia of a faded family snap, director Ettore Scola’s film still feels strikingly modern.— Phil de Semlyen

40.  Senso (1954)

Director : Luchino Visconti  A great, sexy swoon of a movie, Luchino Visconti’s opulent melodrama wears a battered heart beneath its finery. The filmmaker, using colour for the first time, locates it in a historically sensitive moment, balancing affairs of the heart with those of the state in a way that would also echo through his later masterpiece The Leopard . Italian starlet Alida Valli plays Contessa Livia Serpieri, an unhappily married woman who falls for Farley Granger’s dashing but feckless Austrian officer (a role originally earmarked for Brando). Opera-filled 1866 Venice is a hotbed of revolt and repression, in which the fat lady will inevitably sing for the headstrong contessa.— Phil de Semlyen

41.  Deep Red (1975)

Boasting a striking use of colour, an excess of peeping tom camera angles, and perhaps the most outrageous bass line in the history of film scores (the culprits: prog-rock titans Goblin) is Dario Argento’s gruesome giallo masterpiece. The set-up is classic: in Turin, a British jazz musician witnesses a terrible murder committed by a cloaked figure – but the subsequent crime scene investigation turns out to be a real head-scratcher. As strange occurrences take place soon after, the question remains: whodunnit?— James Balmont

42.  Cinema Paradiso: Director’s Cut (1988)

Director : Giuseppe Tornatore

Ah yes, the sentimental favourite about the cute boy, crusty projectionist and the kissing montage! But if you’ve only seen the Oscar-winning two-hour version, you're missing out. When the original cut tanked in Italy at 155 minutes, panicked producers chopped it down, delivering a global hit which essentially gutted Tornatore's intentions. The 173-minute director’s cut reveals a darker, more profound movie, the wee kid’s grown-up self now a famous film director carrying deep psychological scars. Full disclosure is given to traumatic past events; the famous smooching clip fest now a bitter reminder of all the emotions he’s unable to feel. Played against Ennio Morricone’s soaring score, it cuts so much deeper.— Trevor Johnston

43.  The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)

Directors : Paolo & Vittorio Taviani

This Cannes prize winner, shot in the Tuscan hometown of the Taviani brothers, plays like a fairy tale, thanks to its use of natural light and dream sequences. Like much of the directors’ work (which often tackled Italy’s political struggles and classical literature), it’s based on tragic true events: in 1944, the cathedral in San Miniato was hit by an explosive that killed 55 men, women and children. The Night of the Shooting Stars – an ideal entry point to the BFI’s retrospective of their work – follows a small group of locals who had sensed the impending danger, choosing to flee across the rustic countryside in hope of salvation from the approaching fascist threat.— James Balmont

44.  Il Divo (2008)

The flashy, baroque storyteller of modern Italian cinema, Paolo Sorrentino ( The Great Beauty, Youth ) goes straight for the heart of the country’s corruption with this loud, grotesque, powerful biography of politician Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo). Andreotti was the seven-times Italian Prime Minister who was accused of all sorts of nefarious doings, including collusion with the Mafia, but always managed to remain untouchable. Sorrentino mounts his own trial by cinema, and his verdict is ‘guilty’. His muse Servillo plays Andreotti as an extremely creepy presence in an unedifying but extremely entertaining tour of a sick Italian system, where the worlds of politics, religion and business are all stained with blood. It gets right under your skin.— Dave Calhoun

45.  Le Quattro Volte (2010)

• Documentaries

Director : Michelangelo Frammartino

A capsule description makes it sound like a pisstake, so you'll have to trust us this is a wonderful, unique film about life, the universe… and especially charcoal. In rural Calabria, a remote village has its religious festivals, an elderly goatherd tends his flock, kids are born (the goat kind), trees get turned into charcoal, and a whip-smart collie watches everything. Frammartino’s patient camera allows us to sense how the human, animal, vegetable and mineral work in concert as they’ve done for centuries. We get time to ponder, time even to ponder what we’re pondering. No special knowledge is required to appreciate it, just an open mind and an open heart.— Trevor Johnston

46.  Mediterraneo (1991)

Director : Gabriele Salvatores

Not to be confused with the Notting Hill restaurant, Mediterraneo is a peach of a picture that mines gold from a simple idea. In the midst of World War II, an Italian unit is washed ashore on a deserted Greek island after its ship is sunk by the Allies. It turns out the islanders, fearing the worst, have been in hiding and their emergence sees them welcome the Italians into fold, the latter discovering the meaning of community. Cue romances, football and living a life without the rigors of military strictures. Still gorgeous some 30 years on.— Ian Freer

47.  The Beyond (1981)

Director : Lucio Fulci

If giallo gorehound Lucio Fulci had retired at the end of the 1970s, he might be best known for an underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. No shade on the excellent Zombie Flesh Eaters , but Fulchi’s bloody masterwork arrived two years later. It’s set in Louisiana, where a woman inherits a creepy hotel built on a gateway to Hell. But the horrors here are imaginative in a way few of Fulci’s Eurotrash peers could match. Mind you, what he’s imagining is spiders ripping off eyelids, faces melting, and undead corpses shambling around with their heads blown off. It’s up there with the nightmarish best of Argento and Bava.— Matthew Singer

48.  Illustrious Corpses (1976)

This chilling conspiracy procedural delivers harsh truths about basket-case 1970s Italy. In a masterclass of understatement, Lino Ventura exemplifies crumpled integrity as the detective investigating the murders of high-profile judges, potentially uncovering a web of political iniquity – if he survives long enough. Euro-arthouse character stalwarts provide thespian heft, while Rosi brilliantly exploits the visual contrast between classical and modernist architecture to ponder whether humanity has really lost its way… or perhaps was always so venal and corrupt. Like Italy’s answer to The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor , it remains dismayingly relevant.— Trevor Johnston

49.  Gomorrah (2008) 

Director : Matteo Garrone Italian-American filmmakers have sometimes fallen under the spell of mobsters, valorising their lifestyles in all sorts of cannoli-fuelled ways. There’s no glamorising here, as Matteo Garrone, one of Italy’s finest modern-day filmmakers, crafts a vivid, if tundra-bleak crime tableau from a piece of investigative journalism from Roberto Saviano, surely Italy’s most courageous reporter. Gomorrah will probably not feature strongly on the Camorra’s Letterboxd account, as its five interlocking story threads depict Naples’ answer to the Mafia as corrupting, gun-toting thugs. With mopeds their main MO for drive-by shootings, you will never look at the humble scooter the same way again.— Phil de Semlyen

50.  The Son’s Room (2001)

Director : Nanni Moretti This devastating, unsentimental drama plays a little differently from much of Roman writer-director Nanni Moretti’s early work, often more playful or blackly comic. As usual, though, Moretti himself stars. Here, he’s a successful Rome therapist who is suddenly – horrifically – forced to deal with the accidental death of his own teenage son. It’s a tragedy that blows an unforgiving hole in the fabric of this middle-class family, and Moretti deals with it in a forensic and horribly believable fashion. The film won him the Palme d’Or and heralded the beginning of a second, sometimes more serious chapter in an ongoing career defined by taking wry looks at the mysteries and miseries of everyday life.— Dave Calhoun

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Italian travel movies

In the top there are new films of 2022, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Romulus and Remus, two shepherds and loyal brothers, end up taking part to a journey that will lead one of them to be the founder of the greatest nation ever seen. However, the fate of the chosen one will pass from killing his own brother.

A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.

Giulia is thirty years old and unmarried. She has a good job which allows her to travel and lead a luxurious life in Milan and Paris. She is convinced that she has everything she needs for happiness, but after meeting Renzo, a charming Apulian farmer, Giulia understands that she's missing the most important thing in her life - true love.

In 1915 a man survives the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, but loses his family, speech and faith. One night he learns that his twin daughters may be alive, and goes on a quest to find them.

A music group and a journalist cross the region of Basilicata by foot to attend a music festival.

Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.

Maggie is an uptight, single mother and college writing teacher from New York City. In an effort to reconnect with her troubled teen daughter Summer, she decides to embark on a journey to a Tuscan village where she frequented in her younger days. Upon arrival, Maggie runs into Luca a handsome former lover who is still a bachelor and lives with his eighty-year-old mother Carmen. Summer (missing her “bad boy” boyfriend in NYC) and Carmen (secretly planning a wedding against Luca’s wishes to MARCELINO, her one true love in Rome) impulsively steal Luca’s car and race off to Rome. Maggie and Luca quickly pursue allowing the two mismatched couples to spend some time together and develop a new understanding of each other.

After a rough divoce, Frances, a 35 year old book editor from San Francisco takes a tour of Tuscany at the urgings of her friends. On a whim she buys Bramasole, a run down villa in the Tuscan countryside and begins to piece her life together starting with the villa and finds that life sometimes has unexpected ways of giving her everything she wanted.

Ariane, a young French violinist, accepts the marriage proposal of Christen, an irresistible conductor. Only problem: she's a little bit ... married! Separated for two years with Nino, an Italian teacher with a strong character, she manages to convince him to follow her to Paris to divorce in 8 days flat. But their trip in the city of love looks much more eventful than expected...

Writer/director/actor Nanni Moretti offers a three-part film diary which takes a sharply satiric look at Italian life.

Casanova is a libertine, collecting seductions and sexual feats. But he is really interested in someone, and is he really an interesting person? Is he really alive?

The owner of an Italian natural food company has a heart attack and asks his son, Bernardo, to find the man who saved his life in World War II and bring him to his deathbed. He does so and finds the man in a sanitarium and must deal with his hijinks all the way back to Milan.

A former Greek diving champion and an eccentric German student take an adventurous road-trip of rediscovery from Bari to Bavaria.

An aimless young troublemaker, Alessandro, squanders his days gambling and getting into fights, and he often spends his nights in jail. With few prospects, he begrudgingly accepts a job as a companion to Giorgio, an elderly poet suffering from Alzheimer’s. On their daily walks, the two banter and become friends, and Alessandro quickly learns more about this forgotten poet as the old man’s memory drifts. After learning a secret from Giorgio’s past, Alessandro and his friends work to uncover the mystery of this tale, an unexpected history lesson and a touching coming-of-age adventure.

Widowed shopkeeper Cesira and her 13-year-old daughter Rosetta flee from the allied bombs in Rome during the second World War; they travel to the remote village where Cesira was born. During their journey and in the village and onward, the mother does everything she can to protect Rosetta. Meanwhile, a sensitive young intellectual, Michele, falls in love with Cesira.

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. Along the way, they end up knowing each other and entering each other's lives. A twist at the end puts everything into perspective.

A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey from Boston to Key West, recapturing their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end.

A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.

Samsara is a word that describes the ever turning wheel of life. It is a concept both intimate and vast - the perfect subject for filmmakers Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson, whose previous collaborations include Chronos and Baraka, and who, in the last 20 years, have travelled to over 58 countries together in the pursuit of unique imagery. Samsara takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation that will transform viewers in countries around the world as they are swept along a journey of the soul. Through powerful images pristinely photographed in 70mm and a dynamic music score, the film illuminates the links between humanity and the rest of the nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet.

It's the last week of June 2009. Andrea's parents left for a summer trip so he takes advantage of the situation to skip summer camp and make love for the first time with his girlfriend Eva. His choice triggers a series of events leading him to an on the road adventure along with his younger brother Tomaso, a huge fan of Michael Jackson, and Cesare, an old man met at a retirement home.

After Mason picks up hitchhiking Rosco with his truck, they are mistaken for two bank robbers by the traffic police. They manage to escape only to be confused for two secret agents while trying to take a flight at the airport.

In this live-action adaptation of the beloved fairytale, old woodcarver Geppetto fashions a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who magically comes to life. Pinocchio longs for adventure and is easily led astray, encountering magical beasts, fantastical spectacles, while making friends and foes along his journey. However, his dream is to become a real boy, which can only come true if he finally changes his ways.

After the events of the first movie, the "immatures" go on a trip to the Greek island of Paros.

Two lovers are stuck in stale relationships due to lean finances. But when one is duped into thinking he's suddenly rich, he takes very drastic action.

Life flows peacefully in Vinci: Leonardo is struggling with his incredible inventions, Lorenzo helps him and Gioconda observes them mockingly. When A mysterious storyteller comes to town and speaks of a hidden treasure, an adventure begins.

Two young lovers change the lives of their parents forever when the parents learn from the joyful experience of their kids, and allow themselves to again find their love.

In a world ravaged by a rabies virus that turns people into hungry cannibals, Alice a pregnant survivor, along with two other men, struggles to reach an island unaffected by the plague. Meanwhile a dangerous man is on the trail of a mysterious girl, and Alice soon discovers that zombies are not the only threat.

Now in the Far North (i.e. Milan!), Alberto has accepted to manage a program for efficiency improvement in the Italian Post. He devotes all his time and all his energy to this noble task and neglects his wife Silvia, which of course annoys her beyond limits. Things do not fare much better in Castellabate where it is rather Maria, Matta's wife, who gets on his nerves by always blaming him for his lack of ambition. One day, due to a misunderstanding, Mattia is transferred to... Milan! And on whose doorstep does he land? Alberto's of course!

A documentary that restores to the world, five hundred years after his death, the universal and sensitive genius of one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance: Raphael Sanzio. Guided by the art historian Luca Tomìo, we decided to start our journey from the Renaissance atmosphere of Raphael’s birthplace, the Duchy of Urbino, to retrace, from the very beginning, Raphael's artistic education. From a young age, he found himself confronted with giants of the Renaissance art such as Piero della Francesca and Antonio del Pollaiolo, in the workshop of his father Giovanni Santi, also an excellent painter of the Urbino court.

A look at the lives of Carlo, Giulia, and their friends some 10 years after the events of L'Ultimo bacio.

Amanzio Rastelli appointed several of his relations to managerial positions in his firm. They decided to think internationally and now business is heavily in debt. Luckily for the Rastellis, Bolta the accountant uses all the tricks of his art to cook the books, but catastrophe awaits.

Marcello, a small and gentle dog groomer, finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone, a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighborhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello will submit to an unexpected act of vengeance.

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Anna and Piero fighting routine of a long marriage, when Piero loses his memory, Anna reconstructs his way. For its part, the concierge Rocco and his friend Michele play in a group that emulates the Beatles and face opposition from their partners. Finally, Marcello and Paola are a divorced couple who, from time to time, pretend they are still together to avoid problems. They are victims of a relentless war of sexes.

After growing up in Switzerland, 13-year-old Marta returns to a city in southern Italy with her mother and older sister. Independent and inquisitive, she joins a catechism class at a local church. However, the games and religious pop songs she encounters there do not nearly satisfy her interest in faith. Struggling to find her place, Marta pushes the boundaries of the class, the priest, and the church.

The story is one of an architect that has lost his inspiration and goes looking for those motivations that pushed him as a youngster to take up the profession. Inspiring him was the baroque movement and all of its artifices: the Guarini in Turin and the Borromini in Rome. The film’s central story ends up being the love story that develops between architecture, artistic inspiration and feelings.

In director Vicente Aranda's adaptation of the classic opera, a French writer documents the seductive power of the beautiful Gypsy Carmen, who turns her charms on a young soldier, awakening his passions but ultimately leading to tragedy. Jose becomes obsessed with Carmen and finds himself unable to control his jealousy, which forces him to make a deadly decision in this fiery story of love and betrayal.

While the Civil War rages between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hit man and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.

Five carpoolers travel in a motorhome to reach a common destination. Night falls, and to avoid a dead animal carcass, they crash into a tree. When they come to their senses, they find themselves in the middle of nowhere. The road they were traveling on has disappeared and there is only a dense, impenetrable forest and a wooden house in the middle of a clearing, which they discover is the home of a spine-chilling cult.

Paul reflects on the summer he met Angèle and Frédéric as he watches his friend being laid to rest.

Based on the best-seller book 'The Little Prince', the movie tells the story of a little girl that lives with resignation in a world where efficiency and work are the only dogmas. Everything will change when accidentally she discovers her neighbor that will tell her about the story of the Little Prince that he once met.

During a dinner, a group of friends decide to share whatever text message or phone call they will receive during the evening - and all hell breaks loose.

Asterix crosses the channel to help second-cousin Anticlimax face down Julius Caesar and invading Romans.

Nicolas Philibert goes to America after killing a French aristocrat. On his return he tries to divorce his wife, Charlotte, but when he sees others trying to woo her his own interest is rekindled.

An animated retelling of the worst passenger ship disaster in history. In this version, love blossoms between the upper-class Sir William and the blue-collar Angelica, who is hoping to find romance in America. At the same time, there are also a number of animal passengers, including talking dogs, cats and mice, who are also looking forward to arriving in the New World.

A father, who calls himself "open" and tolerant and fights against any form of discrimination, reveals himself as not so liberal when his son announces the engagement to his partner. Overwhelmed by the news, he regresses into the most fierce opponent of same sex marriage, and tries to undermine his son's happiness with a series of embarrassing situations.

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.

When an American tourist is murdered in the south of France, the police must investigate. In this movie, the police inspector re-creates the girl's journeys through France until the murder is solved. Suspicions are narrowed down to four possible perpetrators early on, and flashbacks illuminate the roles each one played in the girl's vacation.

• 15 Romantic Italian Films That’ll Make You Love Italy Even More

Fall in love Italian-style with these beautifully romantic Italian films. Set in the Bel Paese (literally, ‘beautiful country’), you’ll fall in love with Italy all over again as you’re transported across the rolling hills of Tuscany, down the cobblestoned streets of Rome, and glistening waters of the Amalfi Coast.

Whether it’s date night, a night in with the girls, Valentine’s Day , or you’re excited for an upcoming trip to Italy, this list of romantic Italian films is the perfect companion.

While I was learning Italian , I binge-watched every Italian movie and series I could find. On top of that, I would spend two weeks of the year at the cinema for the Italian Film Festival in Melbourne. I watched one, sometimes two films after work every night. At some point, I was obsessed with each and every one of the films on this list for various reasons.

This list of romantic Italian movies includes a mix of both American and Italian films and features the beautiful landscapes and cities of Italy.

If you’re learning Italian , I highly encourage you to watch these films with Italian subtitles and keep a notepad handy so you can jot down any new vocabulary. For more language learning tips, check out these 10 best ways to learn a language and these tips from 11 Polyglots .

Here are my top 15 romantic Italian films you’ll want to see… again, and again, and again.

1. Only You

Released: 1994 languages: english (some spoken italian).

In this charming rom-com, we follow Faith (Marisa Tomei), a high school teacher and hopeless romantic who impulsively flies to Venice in order to track down the man she thinks she’s destined to marry. Along the way, she meets the very charming and handsome Peter Wright (Robert Downey Jr.) who does everything he can to win her over.

I absolutely adore this film. Ok, so it’s kind of corny, but in a good way. You see a bit of Venice, Tuscany, Rome and end up on the stunning Amalfi Coast. Some parts are spoken in Italian but the bulk of the film is in English. My favourite moment is when they first arrive in Venice to the tune of the beautiful ‘O Sole Mio .

Only You is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon .

2. Parlami d’amore (Tell me about love)

Released: 2008 languages: italian.

Parlami d’amore follows Sasha (Silvio Muccino) a twenty-something year old who’s desperately in love with Benedetta (Carolina Crescentini) who doesn’t seem know he even exists. After colliding with another car, Sasha meets Nicole, a French woman in her forties and living in Rome with her husband in a failing marriage. Sasha and Nicole start a friendship which becomes more sentimental as Nicole teaches Sasha how to seduce and win over Benedetta.

Set in Rome, I became mildly obsessed with this film ahead of moving to the Eternal City. Unlike Hollywood films that focus on showing you the famous monuments, the Roman director shows you Rome through the eyes of a local. From side streets, to popular local hangouts. The fact that Silvio Muccino is in it helps too 😛

Parlami d’amore is available on DVD 

3. Roman Holiday

Released: 1953 languages: english.

Who can forget this famous classic from Hollywood’s Golden Era? This 1950s film was nominated for ten Academy Awards and Audrey Hepburn won Best Actress for her role as a Princess Ann, a modern-day princess who sneaks out from her country’s embassy to go off and explore Rome on her own. Along the way, she meets Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an expat reporter who shows her the sights of Rome on the back of a Vespa.

Roman Holiday is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

4. Room with a View

Released: 1985 languages: english.

This British film is based on a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, Room with a View. Set at the beginning of the 20th century with Italy and England as the backdrop, we meet Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter), a young English girl who visits Florence with her older cousin and chaperon (Maggie Smith), where she meets an eccentric young man named George Emerson. Upon returning to English, Lucy struggles with her feelings for George and whether or not she should still marry her fiancé, Cecil. There’s a lot of comedic relief in this film which pokes fun at the cultural restraints of English society during the Edwardian Era. If you enjoy Jane Austen, you’ll love this film.

Room with a View is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

5. Manuale d’amore (Manual of Love)

Released: 2005 languages: italian.

This Italian blockbuster follows the lives of four different couples and the different stages of love. From the highs, the lows, to love young and old. Think ‘Love Actually’ but Italian-style. This romantic comedy film was so popular,  two sequels were made, Manuale d’amore 2 – Capitoli successivi (2007), and Manuale d’amore 3 (2011).

Manuale d’amore is available on DVD on Amazon.

6. Under the Tuscan Sun

Released: 2003 languages: english (some spoken italian).

Under the Tuscan Sun reminds me of my mum, only because it was one of her favourites films I would make her watch when I was lusting over moving to Italy.

Set in Tuscany, Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) takes an impromptu trip to Tuscany after divorcing her husband who cheated on her. In the hope of turning around her fate, Frances impulsively buys a derelict villa in rural Tuscany and sets about renovating her new home and rebuilding her life. During a visit to Rome, she meets Marcello (Raoul Bova) who rekindles her love life. Sound like a cliche? Under the Tuscan Sun is actually based on the bestselling autobiography by Frances Mayes.

Under the Tuscan Sun is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

7. Il Postino (The Postman)

Released: 1994 languages: italian.

Located on the stunning island of Procida in the Gulf of Naples, the young and unemployed Mario (Massimo Troisi) is hired to be the personal postman to the famous Chilean writer Pablo Neruda who moved to the island and receives so much fan mail he needs his own postman. Soon, a friendship forms between the two men. Pablo teaches the shy and clumsy Mario the power and beauty of poetry which he uses to win over Beatrice, a waitress who works in the village cafe.

Il Postino is available on DVD on Amazon.

8. Ieri, oggi e domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)

Released: 1963 languages: italian.

This is Sofia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni at their very best. This romantic Italian comedy is broken into three parts which tell three stories of three different women and the men they attract. Loren and Mastroianni play all three couples.

Starting in Naples, Loren’s character, Adelina, sells black-market cigarettes while her unemployed husband avoids jails sentence by keeping her pregnant. In Milan, Loren plays Anna, a wealthy but bored woman who wears Dior and drives a Rolls Royce. She picks up a writer (Mastroianni) and dreams of running away with him. The final chapter is set in Rome, where call girl Mara causes a young seminarian to reconsider joining the church.

Ieri, oggi e domani is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

9. Pane e tulipani (Bread and Tulips)

Released: 2000 languages: italian.

After missing the bus back home after a family holiday, Italian housewife Rosalba decides to take this opportunity to rebel from her tedious household duties and decides to start a new life in Venice .   Pane e tulipani explores love in all its forms including romantic, family, and platonic relationships.

Pane e tulipani is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

10. Scusa ma ti chiamo amore (Sorry, If I Love You )

Alex Belli (Raoul Bova) plays a successful advertising executive who is unexpectedly dumped after his girlfriend leaves him after proposing. Niki is a confident 17-year-old girl who collides with Alex on her scooter on the streets of Rome. Despite their 20-year age gap, they begin fall for each other. The sequel to the film is Scusa ma ti voglio sposare (Sorry If I Want to Marry You).

Scusa ma ti chiamo amore is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

11. Tre metri sopra il cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven)

Released: 2004 languages: italian.

Steven Mancini, nicknamed “Step”, (Riccardo Scamarcio) is a thug with a violent past who falls for Roberta Gervasi aka “Babi”, a model student with a busy social life attending elite parties. Destiny brings Babi and Step together where they fall in love for the first time. Babi is introduced into a new world and nothing can seem to separate the two. Their relationship is put to the test when a mutual friend passes away.

If you enjoyed this film, don’t miss the hugely anticipated sequel, Ho voglia di te (I want you). This film is based on the book of the same title by Federico Moccia, the same author of Scusa ma ti chiamo amore.

Tre metri sopra il cielo is available on DVD on Amazon.

12. To Rome with Love

Released: 2012 languages: english.

Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love is a comedy that brings together four tales of love set in Rome. We meet John (Alec Baldwin) a well-known American architect who encounters Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) and finds himself reliving his youth as Jack develops feelings for his girlfriend’s friend (Ellen Page).

The brilliant Roberto Benigni plays Leopoldo an average middle-class Roman who suddenly becomes a huge celebrity. There there is a young provincial couple drawn to the city and find themselves caught up in separate romantic encounters. Finally, Woody Allen’s character is a once-famous opera director who tries to revive his career when he discovers a mortician with an incredible voice.

While this isn’t my favourite film on this list, I can’t help but watch for its incredible cinematography. Allen shows Rome at her absolute best, under the golden summer light.

To Rome with Love is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

13.  Dieci inverni (Ten Winters)

Released: 2009 languages: italian.

Dieci inverni is based on the novel by Valerio Mieli who also directed this film and went on to win the David di Donatello for Best New Director. Dieci inverni is about Silvestro (Michele Riondino) and Camilla (Isabella Ragonese), who after a chance encounter in Venice , fall in love. Over the next 10 winters, they meet and once again thrust back into each other’s arms.

Dieci inverni is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

14. Eat Pray Love

Released: 2010 languages: english (small parts in italian).

I couldn’t not put this one on the list. It’s such a feel-good film. Based on the true story of author Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts), who after divorcing her husband takes a year-long sabbatical to go on a soul searching adventure across three countries, Italy, India and Bali. I recommend reading the book first before seeing the film as it gives you a lot more context, as you would expect from a book.

Eay Pray Love is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

Released: 2010 Languages: Italian

Set in Sicily, we follow the story through the eyes of 13-year-old Renato as he follows the stunning Monica Bellucci play Malèna Scordia, a war widow who was every man’s obsession and the envy of every woman. This film is incredibly moving, well-directed, cast, and acted. You can’t fault it.  È fantastico!

Malena is available in streaming, DVD and Blu-ray formats on Amazon.

Want more inspiration? Get my guide to the top Italian Series on Netflix for Learning Italian

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Travelling to Italy? Don’t be treated like a tourist! Live your best travel experiences and learn Italian for less than the cost of eating at a tourist trap restaurant or a taxi driver who has “taken you for a ride”.  In addition to my free Italian travel phrase guides , I’ve made it even easier for you to master the Italian language so you can create lifelong memories as you mingle with locals , get local tips , avoid tourist traps , and make new friends . Who knows you, you might even be invited over for afternoon tea by a lovely Sicilian family, like I was! Read all about how speaking Italian changed my life  and check out The Intrepid Guide Languages courses here.

Here’s what my students are saying: 

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Wealth of Geeks

25 Must-See Movies: The Beginner's Guide To Italian Cinema

Posted: June 12, 2024 | Last updated: June 12, 2024

Modern art house cinema, and, indeed, much of the medium’s artistic styles can trace their origins to the groundbreaking work pioneered by the filmmakers of Italian cinema.

Making strides in the early silent era, the Italian film scene lay dormant stylistically, buoyed only by imitations of Hollywood comedies and fascist propaganda films promoted by the Mussolini government. It wouldn’t be until after the end of World War II that Italian cinema began to attract worldwide recognition, exploding in popularity from there on, thanks to the neorealism film movement.

Between the celebrated work of the neorealists and the surreal fantasies of Federico Fellini, the Italian film scene enthralls audiences with its vivid imagination and pioneering filmmakers. From stylish horror to the spaghetti western, Italian cinema spans diverse genres and has won fans all over the world, influencing the advancement of their respective genres.

Wealth of Geeks recognizes the proud work of these Italian filmmakers and presents a short guide on all Italian cinema has to offer, spanning a century from 1914 to 2013.

1. Cabiria (1914)

Ask noted film director and archivist Martin Scorsese what the most influential film of the early silent period was, and he’ll point to this epic Italian adventure. Director Giovanni Pastrone elevates the melodramatic story of a kidnapped Roman girl during the Second Punic War to heights previously deemed unimaginable in the early film industry. Much of his innovation stems from his use of the camera, radically utilizing what became known as the tracking shot to convey flow and freeing the image from the static, theatrical staging of prior works. 

Directors Cecil B. DeMille and D. W. Griffith received the most academic study for the early film industry’s strides toward cinematic storytelling in America, deservedly so for what was to come. Yet, Giovanni Pastrone deserves just as much credit, if not more so, for helping introduce these pivotal innovations.

2. Thaïs (1917)

Before the Germans took the world by storm in the 1920s with the German Expressionist movement, the Italians were the first world cinema industry to dabble in their own stylistic avant-garde movement: Italian Futurism.

However, unlike the many examples of German Expressionist classics, such as Nosferatu and Metropolis , almost all Italian Futurist films became lost. The sole surviving example of this movement lies in this curiosity from 1917, Thaïs . The striking set design belies its conventional romantic tragedy story about a countess seducing a count, yet one can see the strong influence the film has had on future films.

With the Italian cinema crippled after the First World War, only able to recover by the end of the 1920s, Thaïs offers a glimpse into what might have been. Yet its legacy of strong visual design continues to live on in the movements that came about in its wake.

3. Rome, Open City (1945)

Much of Italian cinema in the 1930s can be divided into two forms: propaganda fluff pieces extolling the virtues of Benito Mussolini’s fascist government or Telefoni Bianchi , comedy films made to imitate the American screwball comedies of the period. Director Roberto Rossellini ’s Rome, Open City , born shortly after the German occupation of Italy, serves as a rebuke to both these trends and, in doing so, saw Italian cinema attract worldwide critical attention.

Working with little funds and film stock to tell the story of a Catholic priest assisting the Italian resistance, Rossellini employed mainly non-professional actors to round out his mainstream lead actors. In addition to focusing primarily on-location shooting, due to the unavailability of the Cinecittà Studios space, Rome, Open City helped set the tenets of the Italian neorealist movement out of circumstance.

First negatively received in an Italy eager for escapism following the traumas of the war, Rome, Open City quickly earned accolades worldwide for its on-location realism and sense of immediacy. Seen in retrospect as a pivotal moment in Italian cinema, the film turned critical attention to the future works of both Rossellini and one of the film’s co-writers, Federico Fellini. 

4. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

No film has defined the Italian neorealist movement quite like Vittorio de Sica’s devastating Bicycle Thieves . Much like the earlier Rome, Open City , Bicycle Thieves shot almost entirely on-location and employed almost entirely amateur actors, particularly its leading man Lamberto Maggiorani.

Maggiorani portrays Antonio Ricci, a struggling Roman man who gains employment putting up advertising posters but finds his job at risk when his bicycle is stolen. With his young son Bruno in tow, Ricci scours Rome for his bicycle, ultimately leading to him taking desperate action when all hope seems lost.

Greeted with warm praise at the time of its release, Bicycle Thieves became the signature film of the Italian neorealist movement. Still celebrated for its downtrodden look at post-war Rome and the tender relationship between its onscreen father and son, the film became a guiding influence for British director Ken Loach and Indian director Satyajit Ray, both of whom would become world-renowned in their own right.

5. Germany, Year Zero (1948)

The end of Rossellini’s trilogy of war films and a direct companion piece to Rome, Open City , Germany, Year Zero conveys the utter destruction of Berlin in the immediate years after World War II. Edmund Köhler struggles to survive in the bombed-out ruins of Germany, the youngest of a poverty-stricken family still reeling from the effects of the war and the Axis government.

At the time of its release, critics viewed Germany, Year Zero as pessimistic, if not outright nihilistic, decrying Rossellini’s decision to use more studio artifice than previously. Admittedly, the film isn’t one of the most highly regarded among the neorealist films, especially compared to the likes of Rome, Open City and Bicycle Thieves . However, Germany, Year Zero offers a rare glimpse of what life in Berlin was like at the end of the most destructive fighting the world had yet seen.

6. Miracle in Milan (1951)

One would think that Vittorio de Sica’s follow-up to Bicycle Thieves would involve another gripping, neorealist tale. Instead, the director concocted this delightful urban fantasy comedy three years after that international hit, Miracle in Milan .

In a fairy tale underpinned by the neorealist style, an optimistic orphan organizes a shantytown community on the outskirts of Milan, only for the makeshift family to come under threat when oil is discovered. While still retaining much of the trademarks of the neorealist movement, particularly its use of amateur actors, Miracle in Milan embraces fantasy more owing to Charlie Chaplin than Roberto Rossellini.

From the opening of a baby found in a cabbage patch to the film’s magical escape on broomsticks, Miracle in Milan exudes fantastical wonder in its poverty-stricken setting. While far more light-hearted than typical neorealist fare, especially for its comedic satire, Miracle in Milan never loses sight of its social critique during the proceedings.

7. Umberto D. (1952)

Often seen as the final Italian neorealist film, Vittorio de Sica’s Umberto D. faced harsh criticism in its native country during its postwar economic turnaround. Like de Sica’s most famous works, the film continues to focus on the downtrodden of Italian society, in this case, the eponymous Umberto, a struggling pensioner with only his dog Flike as his closest companion.

In sharp contrast to the ruins of Rome and the struggle many felt in the immediate years after World War II, Umberto D. illustrates that even in times of great economic prosperity and modernity, there’ll always be those who continue to struggle and fall by the societal wayside. 

While elements of neorealism would continue throughout the 1950s, now tinted to reflect a more optimistic outlook on Italian life, Umberto D. serves as a fitting end to the film movement’s pristine years.

8. La Strada (1954)

After years of working as a screenwriter and directing a few romantic comedies previously, Federico Fellini began attracting attention on his own merits with the poetic La Strada .

Following a traveling strongman and the girl companion he mistreats so callously, La Strada broke from the earlier neorealist style that Fellini steeped himself in and retreated to an earlier stylistic flourish more suited to the burgeoning filmmaker. Giulietta Masina, one of the most expressive actresses of postwar Italian cinema, stars as Gelsomina, perfectly capturing the character’s simple-mindedness and gentle disposition.

La Strada generated intense scrutiny upon its premiere, with a notable episode involving future filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli at the Venice Film Festival. Yet the film continued to earn acclaim as time passed, ultimately becoming a meditation on the trials and tribulations of life itself, both its whimsical highs and tragic lows.

9. Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

Made at the height of Italy’s postwar economic boom and in the shadow of southern migration to the country’s north, Rocco and His Brothers illustrates the utter disintegration of a once-close-knit family in the suburbs of industrial Milan. Luchino Visconti invokes neorealist tenants with his on-location shooting to capture encroaching modernity and working-class focus, yet on a grander scale than those earlier works. The film helped cement French actor Alan Delon, who portrays the titular Rocco, as an international star, imbuing the character with tender sensitivity and family loyalty.

Rocco and His Brothers garnered some controversy upon its release, particularly over the portrayal of a murder scene, yet its family dynamics and portrait of working-class Milan ensured its place in the canon of Italian cinema. Noted admirers of the work include Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, both of whom have cited Rocco as an instrumental influence on their own directorial careers.

10. La Dolce Vita (1960)

One of the greatest films of all time and a watershed for Italian cinema at the dawn of the 1960s, La Dolce Vita launched Fellini as an internationally renowned filmmaker with his sly satirical damnation of celebrity stardom.

Marcello Mastroianni portrays Marcello Rubini, a notorious celebrity journalist, over a hectic week in his star-adjacent career. An episodic romp through the high-class world of Rome’s rich and famous, La Dolce Vita uncovers some of the darkness found amidst the alluring glitz and glamour. Caught in the midst is Rubini himself, attracted to the excess of celebrity culture but eager for more substantial love and happiness.

La Dolce Vita continues to exert its influence both in the cinematic realm and the real world, with one of the film’s supporting characters lending his name to all future celebrity tabloid journalists forevermore: the paparazzo .

11. L’Avventura (1960)

Michelangelo Antonioni can best be described as a mood-driven filmmaker, often eschewing traditional narrative pacing for films focusing on aloofness, characterization, and visual composition.

L’Avventura set off this moodier introspection, providing the template for future tales of isolation and disaffected modernity. The film concerns itself with the disappearance of a young woman during a vacation amidst the Mediterranean, kicking off a search led by her boyfriend and her best friend.  The film, admittedly, may frustrate viewers for its slower pace compared to most films on this list, something L’Avventura itself suffered upon first release.

However, if one is patient, they’ll find that L’Avventura offers an elegant portrait of disaffected individuals desperately searching for meaning in their lives, be it love or companionship. Antonioni would launch two further films to complete a trilogy speaking to modern culture malaise: 1961’s La Notte and 1962’s L’Eclisse , both highly regarded in modernist cinema.

12. The Leopard (1963)

One of the most opulent and fittingly epic Italian films ever made, Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard recreates a crucial turning point in modern Italian history on the scale that it richly deserves.

American actor Burt Lancaster stars as the aging prince Don Fabrizio Corbera during the turbulent Italian Unification era, the Risorgimento ,  struggling to hold onto his class and family amid changing societal winds. Not unlike in Visconti’s earlier Rocco and His Brothers , a family transforms during a tumultuous period, this time in the transition from the old aristocracy to the newly democratic Italy.

Alan Delon returns from Rocco as Corbera’s nephew Tancredi, an opportunistic young man representing the upstart new generation. Yet the film belongs entirely to Lancaster, representing a fading prestige in the face of the rising bourgeoisie. Widely celebrated as Visconti’s masterpiece, The Leopard invokes a bygone era with lavish attention to detail.

13. 8½ (1963)

No film looms larger over Italian cinema, if not most of international cinema, than Federico Fellini’s magnum opus, 8½ . La Dolce Vita’s Marcello Mastroianni returns as Anselmi, an acclaimed film director suffering from director’s block and unable to figure out how to make his upcoming sci-fi movie while facing difficulties in his personal life.

Lying somewhere between cinematic autobiography, comedy-drama, and avant-garde fantasy, 8½ sees Fellini filter his artistic stream of consciousness through Anselmi’s cinematic crisis. Balancing dream logic, carnivalesque flights of fantasy, and cold reality in equal measure, the film finds Fellini’s signature exuberance emerging fully formed.

In the years following 8½‘s release, countless directors worldwide would craft their own self-reflective films, each semi-autobiographical and grappling with the filmmaking process. Yet amidst the likes of All That Jazz and Day for Night , none have entirely captured the exuberance and dreamlike flow of Fellini’s original.

14. Blood and Black Lace (1964)

If Alfred Hitchcock earned the title the “Master of Suspense” in America and the United Kingdom, Mario Bava became the “Master of Macabre” with his pioneering work in the burgeoning Italian horror genre.

Though he set the tenants of what would become giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much , the following year’s Blood and Black Lace crystallized the sub-genre into its quintessential form. Combining horror, thriller, and mystery into hyper-stylized form, the film finds a Roman fashion house plagued by a mysterious masked killer hellbent on obtaining a scandalous diary.

Eschewing traditional mystery tropes for lurid murder set-pieces, Blood and Black Lace found its inspiration from the yellow-covered pulp novels popular at the time, bringing Italian stylish flair to crime fiction. Though giallo didn’t start as a movement until a few years later, Bava’s film can find its descendants in future Italian horror thrillers and burgeoning American slashers.

15. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

If American westerns had the might of John Ford as their standard-bearer, then the Italian spaghetti westerns had arguably the sub-genre’s master: Sergio Leone. Taking Kurosawa’s Yojimbo , already inspired by Westerns, and fitting it back into its original genre influence, A Fistful of Dollars became Leone’s great worldwide debut. Despite a successful lawsuit by Toho alleging that the similarities were so apparent that Fistful was an unlicensed remake of Yojimbo , Leone successfully made his mark.

With a darker sensibility to the westerns proceeding it, the story of a nameless gunslinger pitting two rival gangs against one another made an international star out of Clint Eastwood as the eponymous “Man with No Name.” Fistful’s success would kickstart the acclaimed Dollars Trilogy, following up with the under-appreciated For a Few Dollars More and culminating in the genre-defining The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly .

16. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

An Italian-Algerian co-production, The Battle of Algiers recounts in shockingly vivid detail the Algerian War of Independence, focusing on the National Liberation Front’s activities in the titular city.

Inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist films and shot in documentary style, the film employs primarily non-professional actors to tell an engrossing moment in the struggle for Algerian independence from French rule, specifically focusing on the activities of revolutionary fighter Ali la Pointe. Yet just as much focus lies on the French paratroopers, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu, who resort to torture and assassination to break the escalating insurgency. 

Drawing a divisive reception for its depictions of violence and urban warfare, especially in France, The Battle of Algiers received retrospective accolades for its historical poignancy and for providing a case study in modern war. Startlingly relevant today with its depictions of foreign occupation and guerilla resistance, The Battle of Algiers has lost none of its poignancy over the last six decades.

17. The Great Silence (1968)

Though Leone’s name remains synonymous with the spaghetti western, one other director made his mark in the genre to great success: Sergio Corbucci. After earning distinction with his own Yojimbo -riff, 1966’s Django , Corbucci worked on what became his magnum opus two years after, the deeply melancholic and subversive The Great Silence . Set in snow-swept Utah at the turn of the century, a mute gunslinger attempts to thwart bounty hunters plaguing a struggling town of sympathetic thieves.

Already changing genre conventions with its shift to a snowbound winter setting, The Great Silence turns Western cliches on their head at various points, particularly the rivalry between gunslingers Silence and Loco. The latter, played by a fittingly unhinged Klaus Kinski, proves particularly vicious, fitting the film’s harsh, morally dubious world where even the concept of “good” struggles to endure. Recognized as a seminal example of spaghetti westerns, The Great Silence’s legacy lives on in future revisionist westerns McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Hateful Eight .

18. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Following the conclusion of the Dollars Trilogy , Leone began work on what would eventually become the gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America , intending to cease working on further westerns. However, American distributor Paramount Pictures enticed Leone with additional funds and the availability of celebrated Hollywood actor Peter Fonda to make one further western.

This culminated in Leone’s signature opus, Once Upon a Time in the West , the fable of two gunslingers working together to protect a widowed homesteader from the machinations of a railroad tycoon’s sadistic hired gun.

Peter Fonda’s Frank ranks as one of the genre’s most bone-chilling villains, the actor subverting his type as a heroic figure in his Hollywood output from his first scene. Yet perhaps Once Upon a Time’s greater legacy, often relegated to a fortuitous footnote, lies in its credited story writers, both of whom would garner acclaim themselves in the years ahead, not unlike Federico Fellini before them; one was Bernardo Bertolucci and the other Dario Argento.

19. Danger: Diabolik (1968)

Comic book-based film adaptations weren’t strictly relegated to American superhero fare, with plenty of examples found in France and Italy in the decade prior to Richard Donner’s Superman .

One such example lies in Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik , a crime action saga based on the anti-hero thief of the same name created by the Giussani sisters. After suffering several humiliating setbacks from the super thief Diabolik and his girlfriend Eva Kant, the dogged Inspector Ginko forces a gangster to assist him in capturing his long-running adversary.

Taking inspiration from the booming James Bond series and the Eurospy craze of the period, Bava injects his flare for brightly colored visuals and puts them on full display in this film. Heists become increasingly audacious, and American actor John Phillip Law cuts a charismatic figure as the mysterious Diabolik. Danger: Diabolik’s inventive design, action set pieces, and comic-book aesthetic would color the works of other genre fare of the period and influence British director Edgar Wright’s work on the cult classic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World .

20. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970)

After previously working as both a screenwriter and a film critic, Dario Argento stepped behind the camera with his debut feature, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , exploding the Italian giallo genre into wider popularity. American actor Tony Musante portrays Sam Dalmas, a writer in Rome with his English girlfriend, who becomes tangled in the case of a serial killer targeting young women after witnessing the latest attack.

Drawing from Mario Bava’s previous horror mysteries, particularly the killer’s signature attire from Blood and Black Lace , Argento’s film became a well-received critical/commercial hit upon its release, a feat that had previously eluded Bava’s giallos .  

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage set off a chain of imitators, popularizing the formula of the Italian giallo throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s. Argento himself would become renowned worldwide for his horror thrillers, earning the title of “Master of Horror” in Italy and proving influential in the fluorescent slashers that would dominate America in the next decade.

21. Suspiria (1977)

When looking for an example of giallo , cinephiles often cite Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Suspiria . Elevating the visceral set pieces found in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Blood and Black Lace with a supernatural edge, the film remains unlike any other in horror cinema. As an American student settles down at a prestigious ballet school in Germany, a series of gruesome murders leads her to a witch’s coven using the school as a front for their rituals.

Suspiria encountered censorship for its theatrical release in America to ensure an R-rating and received a mixed critical reception in 1977. Yet, the film found reevaluated plaudits in the decades since, becoming Argento’s most successful American release and inspiring a unique but lackluster reimagining in 2018. Entrancing, vibrant, and gruesome at once, Suspiria remains a vivid nightmare that could only come from Argento’s lurid imagination.

22. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

A tender love letter to the magic of the cinema, Cinema Paradiso sees a famed Italian film director reminisce about his childhood in Sicily and his years-long relationship with the projectionist of his local movie theater, the Cinema Paradiso.

Credited with resurrecting the Italian film industry at the tail-end of the 1980s, the film combines coming-of-age drama and tender comedy, told against the backdrop of Italy in the second half of the 20th century. The relationship between young Salvatore and the curmudgeon projectionist Alfredo remains one of the most heartwarming friendships depicted onscreen, tinted with warm nostalgia and collected pragmatism.

Bursting with charm, youthful energy, and memories tempered by experience, Cinema Paradiso remains highly regarded as a classic, with particular praise for its mesmerizing ending montage of cinematic romances. The film stands as a compelling reminder of why audiences love the movies and a homage to the Italian cinema itself.

23. Life Is Beautiful (1997)

By 1997, actor and comedian Robert Benigni had worked as a veteran of the Italian film scene for the better part of twenty years, slowly honing his skills as a director in pure comedic work. Yet his World War II dramedy Life Is Beautiful would be the first that attracted worldwide acclaim. In addition to directing and co-writing, Benigni leads as Orefice, a Jewish bookstore owner living through World War II Italy and struggling to protect his young son from the horrors of the Holocaust.

While some may see Life is Beautiful as making light of the terror unleashed in the Holocaust and not giving the tragedy the solemnity it requires, the film deftly swings between its warm comedy and heartbreaking drama. When viewed as a tragic family melodrama, with a father entertaining his son and finding that small sliver of hope in a hopeless situation, the film showcases Benigni at the height of his artistic powers.

24. Gomorrah (2008)

Italian cinema has always had a streak for crime cinema, most famously in the mid-1970s with the emergence of the poliziotteschi genre during the Years of Lead period. Yet, Italian gangster culture has never been portrayed with such stark, modern realism as in this 2008 crime drama by director Matteo Garrone.

Based on the investigative tome by Roberto Saviano, the film describes five episodes dealing with ordinary life within organized crime in Naples, Italy. Painting an unromantic, true-to-life vision of contemporary mafia culture, Gomorrah shows how desperate men and boys are caught in a vicious cycle of systemic corruption perpetuated by the Camorra. 

The film illustrates the large, international scale of the modern Italian mafia, showing its tentacles in high fashion, construction, and waste management. As riveting as American crime epics yet without the myth-making romance in that interpretation, Gomorrah tears down the gangster film with cruel reality.

25. The Great Beauty (2013)

Made in the Felliniesque style of La Dolce Vita , The Great Beauty remains director Paolo Sorrentino’s most well-known work in modern Italian cinema. The film concerns an aging writer who, coasting on the success of his one literary triumph in Rome’s high society, suddenly comes to grips with his past and takes stock of old regrets and lost loves. Sorrentino skillfully invokes the works of the old master and updates them to the present day concerning the societal circles of the well-to-do in the era of Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy.

Yet the film refuses to rest on merely leading man Toni Servillo, with just as much care paid to his circle of friends and the Romans he encounters. Beautifully shot and constructed, The Great Beauty acts as the canon of Italian cinema in microcosm, invoking the works of Rossellini, Fellini, and di Sicca in equal measure.

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‘The French Italian’ Is the Funniest New York Movie in Years

THE BIG APPLE

The comedy, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, nails one of the most hilarious aspects of living in the so-called “greatest city in the world.”

Coleman Spilde

Entertainment Critic

Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

New Yorkers know that living in the city comes with a certain amount of unavoidable noise. The construction, shouting, car horns, and bumping bass are obnoxious but relatively small concessions we make to live in the greatest city in the world. But it’s when that noise starts to creep into the home that things become an issue.

When clamor and commotion leak into our living spaces, New Yorkers become even more acutely aware of how much money we’re doling out for rent each month—and don’t even get me started on the fact that you have to take out a small loan just to afford to eat a bowl of cereal. We remember all the subway delays, price hikes, and droplets of sweat that have fallen down our bodies just to get from one place to the next. Our modest apartments have to be the one place where we can forget about all of New York’s worst parts, and that’s a near-impossible task when someone else’s noise makes it impossible to relax.

That dreadful anxiety is drolly recreated in writer-director Rachel Wolther’s debut feature The French Italian , which had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. When Upper West Side yuppie couple Valerie (Cat Cohen) and Doug (Aristotle Athari) find their peace and quiet disturbed by their downstairs neighbor’s new girlfriend, Mary ( Chloe Cherry ), they’re curious about the situation. They’ve barely even seen Mary’s boyfriend, let alone heard him. But once Mary moves in, glass bongs go flying, backyard arguments echo through the windows, and all-day karaoke becomes the new norm. If all of this weren’t obnoxious enough already, the 200-year-old brownstone that everyone lives in has zero insulation, making every last off-key high note feel like it’s coming from inside Val and Doug’s bedroom.

Like the best screwball comedies, this unfortunate series of events sets off a chain reaction of increasingly absurd proceedings, as Valerie and Doug figure out how to not just put a stop to the noise, but get their revenge. The French Italian takes the couple’s attempts at retaliation to giddily outsized extremes, that are tempered just enough for the film to remain believable. Time and again, Wolther demonstrates that she has her finger on the pulse of cringe millennial behavior, finding novel ways to skewer her peers that don’t fall back on trite self-deprecation. Cohen and Athari are just as game to send up their privileged familiars, and together with Wolther, the trio pierce the inanity of a problem every city-dweller must face, and turn The French Italian into one of the most instantly memorable New York comedies in years.

The noise issue eventually becomes so bad for Valerie and Doug that the two of them give up their beautiful rent-stabilized apartment to move upstate while they figure out their next move. It’s an undeniably doltish move, as echoed by all of their friends at a party when they recount the story, fashioning themselves as the victims. But instead of politely asking their neighbors to keep it down, the two lovebirds opt for flight over fight. Wendy (future character actor MVP Ruby McCollister)—a friend of a friend who meets Doug and Valerie while they tell their story at the party—is fascinated by their ordeal. She not only has the social media chops to find and stalk Mary’s Instagram, but the chutzpah to reach out to her.

As it turns out, Mary is a young actress looking for work, and Wendy, Doug, and Valerie all hatch a drunken plan to call Mary for a fake audition, where they’ll meet and confront her. But given that Doug and Valerie were already so confrontation-averse when they lived one floor above Mary, they’re barely able to eke out more than a few stilted words from their tormentor, let alone an apology. Wolther does a fantastic job of setting her characters up to look like absolute buffoons while being careful not to pop the bubble of their egomania. Even showing the video of Mary’s audition to friends who can barely muster the strength to laugh along isn’t enough to deflate their self-satisfaction.

Doug and Valerie are riding the high of their prank, but become desperate to take it further. Before they know it, Wendy has booked a private space to rehearse this fake play that Mary was supposedly auditioning for, and the triad of conceited New Yorkers are ready to turn their practical joke into a full-blown piece of self-reflexive theater. For all of the big steps that Wolther takes to get her characters to this stage—and the stage—the movement toward their ultimate endgame feels completely natural. Nobody moves to New York without making some extra space for a bigger head, and Valerie and Doug’s sudden sprint toward becoming playwrights is entirely in-line with the cockiness that so many artists are armed with as they move about the city.

While Wolther milks her clever premise for all the jokes it’s worth, much of The French Italian ’s humor is derived from Wendy, Valerie, and Doug’s individual neuroses. For a 90-minute comedy, there’s an impressive amount of specific character writing baked into its script. Valerie and Doug are keenly written as the archetypal Upper West Side young couple, right down to their obsession with Zabar’s, which plays a pivotal role in the naming of their play. And while Wolther’s screenplay is just a tad more impressive than her directorial flair, there are notable gags to back up this fledgling talent, like when Doug and Valerie spot a rat on their block, jump out of frame to avoid it, and the camera swerves too, bringing us along in their fear.

Little touches like these transform this unpretentious comedy (about very pretentious people) into a film that is as uniquely confident as any big studio comedy to hit theaters in recent years. The French Italian works up to its delightfully ludicrous grand finale with a steady pace, keeping the jokes flying as each member of its ensemble cast earns their time in the proverbial and literal spotlights. Nothing is so joyful as watching every character get their eventual comeuppance, except maybe the arrival of an assured, noteworthy new comedic voice in Wolther. Though her shrewdly written characters might be unlikeable, The French Italian never is. This is a comedy worth making so much noise over that you simply won’t care who hears it.

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When an American chef travels to a quaint village in Italy for inspiration, she falls in love with the flavors, culture, gelato, and the Italian gentleman who helps her discover it all. When an American chef travels to a quaint village in Italy for inspiration, she falls in love with the flavors, culture, gelato, and the Italian gentleman who helps her discover it all. When an American chef travels to a quaint village in Italy for inspiration, she falls in love with the flavors, culture, gelato, and the Italian gentleman who helps her discover it all.

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• Trivia The final movie of four in Hallmark Channel's June 2024 Passport to Love, the moniker in that the four movies are primarily set outside of the United States. The other three in chronological order and their settings are For Love & Honey (2024) (Malta), Savoring Paris (2024) (Paris), and A Greek Recipe for Romance (2024) (Greece).
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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘From Tomorrow’ On Hulu, About A Doctor And A Cop Trying To Prevent A Tragic Future Event

• science fiction

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Acolyte’ On Disney+, A ‘Star Wars’ Prequel About A Former Padawan Looking Into Suspicious Jedi Deaths

Stream it or skip it: ‘doctor who’ on disney+, where a new doctor and companion take the tardis on time-traveling adventures, stream it or skip it: ‘dark matter’ on apple tv+, where a man gets abducted into an alternate version of his life, stream it or skip it: ‘the big door prize’ season 2 on apple tv+, where the people of deerfield look to the morpho machine to figure out what’s next in their lives.

In all of our years doing this work, we have never, ever run into an international show that’s only available in dubbed English and not its native language. But, thanks to Hulu, there’s a first time for everything. A new science fiction show from Spain is only available in English, but the show’s problems go beyond a clunky dubbing job.

FROM TOMORROW : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “Bizkaia, 1955.” At night, a boy goes through a rocky area with his dog. He and the dog see a meteor strike. He sees something behind a gate that is strange.

The Gist: “Bizkaia, 2024.” Gaby (Marta Hazas) and her husband David (Jaime Zatarain) are moving into a new house with their daughter Emma (Denisse Peña) and son Teo (Amets Otxoa). David is upset that a floor tile in their kitchen pantry was left off, exposing a mysterious rock underneath. After he leaves for a business trip, she sees the rock and almost touches it, but is called away.

That night, after making sure her kids are OK, Gaby goes into the pantry to find something that was packed away. She accidentally touches the rock with her foot, and is transported to some point in the near future. An emergency physician, she sees herself in her medic uniform on a call, seeing Emma unconscious and possibly gravely hurt on the ground. She then sees a vision of her mother before coming back to the present.

Gaby is so shaken by this vision that, when she gets to the hospital for work the next day, she requests an emergency CT scan of her brain. Her friend Aranxta (Nuria Herrero) gets the head of neurology, Esther (Valeria Alonso) to read the scan — the two are dating — and everything is clear. Gaby is about to explain the vision when she’s called out on an emergency.

The call takes her to the campus of Geocorp, the corporation started by her father Aurelio (Ramón Barea). Apparently, two teens were trying to scale an electric fence to a restricted area and one of them burned his hands. Gaby is none too happy when the teen with the burned hands is Mikel (Gabriel Guevara), who is dating Emma. He and the other teen were there during the school day to try to investigate or disrupt something that Geocorp is doing that is harming the environment.

At the scene, Gaby sees Andrés (Álex González), a police detective with whom she’s an acquaintance. Gaby apparently treated his late wife three years prior, right before she died, and he’s never forgotten Gaby’s compassion. When he overhears ger tell Aranxta about her vision, his interest is piqued, to the point where he disables her car in order to drive her to her new house.

While Gaby is dealing with the vision, she’s more preoccupied by the fact that Emma was the other teen with Mikel when they tried to scale the fence at Geocorp, whose CEO is Gaby’s brother Nacho (Pablo Derqui). As the family gathers to celebrate Aurelio’s birthday, we find out that Aurelio was the boy who saw the meteor crash in 1955, and he founded Geocorp to study the “unique mineral” that’s underground in the region.

Gaby ends up having another vision, this time showing men in hazmat suits pulling her away from Emma. Later that night, she sees Andrés stalking outside her house and demands to know why he’s there. That’s when he reveals his late wife had the same visions she did. But what he doesn’t tell her is that earlier that night, he saw some suspicious things going on a Geocorp.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? From Tomorrow (original title: Desde el mañana ) has a bit of a Sliders -esque feel. It’s a sci-fi mystery like, say, Outer Range , but much lighter in tone.

Our Take: We’re not really all that sure about what kind of show From Tomorrow wants to be. At times, it’s dark and foreboding, at times it has scenes that could fit on a medical show like Grey’s Anatomy . There’s weirdly-toned jokey lines and a soundtrack that sometimes veers from dramatic, spooky tones to something out of Virgin River . All of this is fed through a really clunky English dub, which is the only way viewers can watch the show, because Hulu doesn’t provide the show in its native Spanish.

The story is chock full of coincidences and happenstances in the first episode, which is no way to set up a story. Gaby is called to her family’s corporate campus and happens upon the husband of a woman he treated three years ago. And, oh by the way, the kid she treats at that scene is her daughter’s mysterious boyfriend. Either they live in a tiny town or that’s just too many coincidences to believe.

It’s not difficult to figure out where the story is going: Gaby and Andrés team up to figure out just what is going on with these visions, what the rocks under the house are made of, and what they can do to save Emma from the fate Gaby saw. In the process, Gaby’s father and brother will be implicated in whatever mysterious goings-on are happening at Geocorp.

We usually don’t harp on language in a show, but for the longest time we thought that From Tomorrow wasn’t necessarily a family show, but at least one that’s family-friendly. Then f-bombs start dropping, among other out-of-left-field dirty lines, in the second half of the episode, and we wondered why they were even necessary. Do they want the show to seem more realistic? Again, it speaks to its muddled tone and indecision on what kind of show it wants to be.

To be honest, the English dub is way more potty-mouthed than the English subtitles are, which to us speaks to just how much the English dub took us completely out of the show’s story.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Aurelio, dressed in a hazmat suit, opens a locked gate in a restricted area.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the subtitle translators, who seemed to use a whole lot more restraint than the translators who wrote the script for the actors who dubbed the show into English.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Emma asks her mother if Mikel is ok, Gaby says, “Well, he won’t be able to jerk off for awhile,” to which Emma replies, “Don’t you worry about that. I’ll do it for him.” That was both in the dub and the subtitles. Yeesh. Our Call: SKIP IT. Even if we watched From Tomorrow in its native Spanish, we would still be rolling our eyes at the plot contrivances and shifts in tone. But the horrible English dub just makes things even harder to watch.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

• From Tomorrow
• Stream It Or Skip It

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