Where was Gladiator filmed?

This sweeping epic of betrayal and revenge in ancient Rome remains a touchstone of the genre, and its landscapes are a big reason it still sends fans travelling. The film moves between a golden, sunlit homeland and a harsh desert frontier, and both halves of that world were filmed in places you can actually visit.

The hero's idyllic home is the Val d'Orcia in Tuscany, Italy, its rolling wheat fields and lone cypresses standing in for the Elysium he longs to return to. The desert province where he first fights is Aït Benhaddou near Ouarzazate, Morocco, a fortified mud-brick ksar rising straight from the sands. Two destinations, two utterly different moods.

That contrast makes for a tempting set-jetting pairing across two countries. Fans can soak up the Val d'Orcia on a slow drive through southern Tuscany, then chase the film's harsher side to the Moroccan desert around Ouarzazate, long a hub for epic filmmaking. Each rewards unhurried exploration in its own right.