40 Films That Will Transport You to Italy
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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.
This article has been updated since its original publish date.
THE CLASSICS
EverettLove 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
EverettSwept 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.
Watch now: Stream with Kino Film Collection
EverettLa 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
EverettL'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.
Watch now: Stream on Max, The Criterion Channel
EverettMamma 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
Everett8 ½ (1963)
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
EverettBicycle 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
Watch now: Streaming on Max, The Criterion Channel
EverettRome, 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
EverettLa 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
EverettThe 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
EverettSuspiria (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
EverettThe 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
EverettAmarcord (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.
Watch now: Stream on Max, The Criterion Channel
EverettIt 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
EverettUmberto 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
Watch now: Stream on Max, The Criterion Channel
EverettCinema 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
EverettJuliet 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.
Watch now: Stream on Max
EverettThe 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
EverettIndiana 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
NEONLa 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
EverettLike 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.
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettGomorrah (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
EverettA 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
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettMalena (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.
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettThe 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.
Watch now: Stream on Max
EverettI 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.
EverettStealing 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.
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettCall 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
Everett**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.
Watch now: Stream on The Criterion Channel
EverettJourney 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.
Watch now: Stream on The Criterion Channel
EverettRoman 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
EverettUnder 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
EverettThe 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.
Watch now: Stream on Disney+
EverettThe 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.
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettA 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
IFC Films/EverettCertified 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.
Watch now: Stream on The Criterion Channel
EverettNational 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.
Watch now: Rent from $4 on Amazon
EverettOnly 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
Skouras Pictures/Everett**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.
Watch now: Stream on The Criterion Channel
EverettDon'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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