Italy is a stunning location for movies. It’s a dream vacation for many travelers who love art, culture, and cuisine. The landscape features beautiful architecture filled with rich history, and vibrant colors and aromas. But what are some of the most well-known movies set in Italy?
From wine and coffee to pasta and cheese, Italy is known for its outstanding food, but also its landscape. The Amalfi Coast shows a charming town filled with colorful cliffs, and their Colosseum is the perfect backdrop for ancient Roman Empire fights and trials.
Home to romance and ancient history, these are the best movies set in Italy that are a must-see if you want to experience the country from the comfort of your living room.
5. Letters to Juliet, Hulu and Prime Video (2010)
The 2010 romantic comedy-drama stars Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero. Letters to Juliet was inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book sharing the same name by Lise Eve Friedman and Ceil Jann Friendman, which chronicles the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare’s most famous romantic character.
The film however follows Sophie who travels to Verona where she finds an old unanswered letter asking for love advice. She answers it and when the recipient shows up along with her grumpy grandson, they head off to find the old long lost love while a young love sparks.
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4. Call Me By Your Name, Prime Video (2017)
Romantic movies are the best genre for a place like Italy. Another one of the best movies set in Italy is Call Me by Your Name, a coming-of-age romantic drama starring Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, and Victoire Du Bois. This is the first installment in Luca Guadagnino’s Desire trilogy which also features I Am Love and A Big Splash.
This movie in particular is set in 1983 and follows the romantic relationship between Elio, a 17-year-old student, and Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate student assistant to Elio’s father Samuel, an archaeology professor.
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3. Gladiator, Paramount and Prime Video (2000)
Thanks to wonderful sites like the Colosseum, movies like Gladiator can be made in the beautiful country of Italy. Gladiator is one of the best action movies of all time and is also one of the best movies set in Italy. The epic historical drama stars Russel Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Tomas Arana, and many more.
In the film, Crowe plays Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed and forced into slavery. As a slave, Crowe is a gladiator who rises through the ranks in order to avenge the murders of his family and the Emporer.
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2. Life is Beautiful, Prime Video (1997)
The 1997 comedy-drama is another one of the best movies set in Italy and is inspired by the book In the End, I Beat Hitler, by Rubino Romeo Salmoni and Benigni’s father, who spent two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in World War II. Life Is Beautiful stars Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi.
Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The movie received widespread acclaim and is the second highest-grossing foreign language film in the U.S.
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1. The Godfather, Paramount and Prime Video (1972)
Of course, the number one spot for the best movies set in Italy has to go to The Godfather, the 1972 epic gangster film based on Mario Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel sharing the same name. Along with the movie having some of the best movie quotes in any action film, it has some stunning backdrops and scenery.
This is the first out of the trilogy that follows the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone from 1945 to 1955. It also focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone, from a reluctant family outsider to a ruthless mafia boss.