Watch The Conformist

Puyi from the Forbidden City to a Beijing garden, shot inside the real palace.

Watch Spartacus, the 1960 epic historical drama directed by Stanley Kubrick (the film is often incorrectly attributed to David Lynch; it stars Kirk Douglas as the Thracian gladiator who leads a slave revolt against the Roman Republic). The film is famous for its massive battle scenes, the iconic 'I am Spartacus' sequence, and a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo (a blacklisted writer who received credit, helping break the Hollywood blacklist).

The 50,000-seat amphitheatre where Rome staged its bloodiest spectacles for 2,000 years

Climb 251 spiralling steps up the world's most famous architectural mistake — tilting since 1173

Walk the streets of a Roman city frozen mid-life by Vesuvius in 79 AD — ruts, frescoes, bakeries and all

Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Leonardo, Raphael and Caravaggio under one Renaissance roof in Florence

Italy's gastronomic heartland — Parmigiano, prosciutto, balsamic, tortellini and Ferrari, all in one region

Tornatore's tender love letter to cinema and a Sicilian boyhood — keep tissues nearby for the final reel