As the summer stretches out ahead of us, we've found ourselves indulging in a little wanderlust via our favourite films set in Italy. It transpires that few spaces capture our imagination quite like the Mediterranean kitchen.
In our minds, the homes used in films are as important as the casting. They can form a domestic backdrop that reveals more about the characters before a single line is spoken and often become unforgettable in their own right. And just as in everyday life, the kitchen is where the drama takes place.
In these cinematic Italian kitchens, there is a particular sort of relaxed, easygoing charm that stirs the senses. It’s perhaps best characterised by the apparent lack of pretentiousness. Cabinets and units are often freestanding and a bit dilapidated. There is clutter; crockery and utensils are left out and within easy reach, ready to be used, as they should be. Often, the kitchens open onto an outdoor terrace or garden where leisurely lunches drift into evening. You can usually spot a bowl of fruit ripening on the counter and a well-worn table for the family to gather around. It’s a vision of domestic life that feels both aspirational and familiar.
From the warmth of the Perlman family's timeworn Lombardian home in Call Me By Your Name, to the charm of Dickie Greenleaf's sun-bleached Mongibello house in The Talented Mr Ripley, here are five of our favourites.
Call Me By Your Name
There is something deeply appealing about a kitchen that prioritises living over perfection. With its mismatched cabinetry, stone worktops, freestanding units and appliances, the kitchen of the Perlman family's Lombardy villa in Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 Call Me By Your Name is charming in its authenticity. Unfussy and a little worn around the edges, with bog-standard white tiles and utensils hanging from almost every surface, it feels well used and well loved.
Stealing Beauty
Bernardo Bertolucci's coming-of-age drama Stealing Beauty channels a particular 1990s bohemian-intellectual vision of Tuscany. Filmed in and around a Chianti farmhouse, the kitchen and dining spaces are wrapped in honey-coloured stone, worn timber, and terracotta surfaces that capture warmth and informality.
A Bigger Splash
The mismatched tiles are the true protagonists of the kitchen in Luca Guadagnino's 2015 film A Bigger Splash. Filmed in a rustic villa on the island of Pantelleria, the patterned tiled surfaces are combined with open shelving and a marble pedestal table. Relaxed, practical and entirely unpretentious.
I Am Love
Milan's rationalist Villa Necchi – a 1930s masterpiece designed by architect Piero Portaluppi – serves as the backdrop for Luca Guadagnino's much-loved 2009 film I Am Love, which follows the lives of the wealthy Recchi family. In contrast to the more rustic kitchens in this round-up, its minimalist kitchen, defined by an orderly grid of mint-green tiles, offers a more rationalist interpretation of Mediterranean living: precise, controlled and almost clinical yet beautiful in its own utilitarian way.
The Talented Mr Ripley
Few films have done more to romanticise Italian living than Anthony Minghella's 1999 adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley. While the kitchen itself is relatively modest, the film's most memorable dining scene unfolds on the terrace of Dickie Greenleaf's sun-bleached home in the fictional fishing village of Mongibello, where breakfast is served against a backdrop of weathered white walls and sweeping sea views.