Take a dreamy getaway to Italy without leaving your couch with these wanderlust-inducing shows that capture the country’s stunning landscapes, mouthwatering cuisine, and irresistible way of life.
From the way the light hits those cobblestone streets, or how dinner stretches into a three-hour affair, Italy has this way of making us all want to pack our bags and never come home. Until we can make those dreams a reality, we’ve found the next best thing – binge-watching our way through the boot-shaped country. Here are seven TV shows set in Italy, that’ll let you live out your Italian fantasies all from the comfort of your couch.
We all know rich people behaving badly makes for great TV, but throw them into a fancy Sicilian hotel and things get next-level juicy. The show takes over a beautiful converted monastery in Taormina, where the drama unfolds against a backdrop that’s almost unfairly gorgeous – with crumbling palaces and moody Mount Etna looming in the distance. Between all the poolside backstabbing and fancy dinner parties, the show weaves in these fascinating bits of Sicilian folklore. The local spots they film at – from a picturesque beach in Cefalù to tiny backstreets in Noto – will have you googling flights faster than you can say “aperitivo.”
Forget everything you dozed through in history class. HBO’s Rome is the ancient world served up raw and real, following two regular soldiers who somehow keep stumbling into every major historical moment imaginable. The series was filmed in Cinecittà Studios in Rome where an entire ancient city was built from scratch. Every scene feels like you’re actually there, from the fancy marble temples down to the grimy street corners where the regular folks hung out. You’ve got all your greatest hits – Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony – but seeing everything through the eyes of these regular guys makes it feel way more real than any dusty textbook. The coolest part is all the random details about daily Roman life they throw in, including how people actually lived, ate, and partied back then.
When Aziz Ansari’s character Dev ditches New York to learn pasta-making in Modena, the show transforms into this dreamy love letter to small-town Italian life that’ll have you reconsidering all your life choices. Shot in black-and-white that would make those old Italian film directors proud, the show captures those perfect little moments that make Italy, well, Italy. Like the morning ritual of standing at the bar for espresso, or the endless conversations that happen after dinner when no one wants to leave the table. Between Dev’s pasta-making adventures and scooter rides through town, the show nails those tiny details that make living in Italy so special. The food scenes alone will have you drooling (seriously, watch with snacks), but it’s the way the show captures those unexpected friendships and random adventures that really gets you. What makes it work is how real it feels – none of that Under the Tuscan Sun fantasy stuff, just genuine moments in a place where even the mundane somehow feels magical.
Picture Renaissance Florence, but with a family drama that could give Succession a run for its money. The show follows the Medici family – clever bankers who turned art patronage into a power move. Between all the political scheming and family drama, it delivers a fascinating look at how one family kickstarted the Renaissance by throwing money at every artist who showed promise. The series features gorgeous shots of Florence back when it was just starting to show off, with the Duomo under construction, artists’ workshops buzzing with activity, and palaces that still make tourists’ jaws drop today. The location shooting in actual Florentine palaces and piazzas gives everything an extra punch of authenticity that really makes you feel like you’ve time-traveled.
Talk about a family that puts the “fun” in dysfunction – the Borgias were basically the original scandal-makers of Renaissance Rome. The Borgias leans hard into all the juicy stuff – poison, power plays, forbidden romance – but what makes it addictive is how it captures Rome when it was more than just ruins and tourist spots. The period detail in every costume and room looks like it could’ve been lifted straight from a Renaissance painting. The whole series is shot so beautifully that even the scheming looks glamorous.
Leave it to Stanley Tucci to create the food show that’ll have you rethinking everything you thought you knew about Italian cooking. He’s not just bouncing between tourist spots – he’s getting into kitchens with actual Italian grandmas, hanging out with cheese makers in their caves, and tracking down dishes you’ve probably never heard of. What makes this show special is how it connects food to everything else – politics, history, and family drama. Tucci has a perfect mix of respect for tradition and curiosity about how things are changing in modern Italy. He’s not afraid to get into the complicated stuff, like why that pesto in Liguria tastes different from anything you’ve had before, or how poverty shaped some of Italy’s most famous dishes. And he shows us how every region of Italy is like its own little world with its own rules about food.
Based on Elena Ferrante’s knockout novels, this show captures post-war Naples in all its gritty, complicated glory. Following two brilliant girls growing up in a tough neighborhood, it shows you an Italy that tourist brochures like to pretend doesn’t exist. The attention to detail in recreating 1950s Naples is mind-blowing – they built an entire neighborhood from scratch to get it right. This isn’t some prettified version of Italy, but rather a deep dive into how real people lived (and still live) in one of its most fascinating cities. Between the neighborhood drama and the girls’ intense friendship, you get an incredible portrait of a time when Italy was changing fast and not everyone was along for the ride.
