The Via Appia, the Appian Way, ran from Rome through the Pontine Marshes, Terracina, Capua and Beneventum to the port of Brindisi, and parts of it can still be walked. It was begun in 312 BC.
The seven stops follow the road in order, from the Porta Appia gate and the Tomb of Caecilia Metella to the Spartacus story at Capua, the defeat of Pyrrhus at Beneventum and the column by the harbour at Brindisi. Several locations are approximate, as the road crossed whole regions.
Julius Caesar's last decade runs from the siege of Alesia in Gaul through the Rubicon, Pharsalus in Greece and besieged Alexandria to the Curia of Pompey in Rome, where he died on the Ides of March, 44 BC.
Six stops follow the Gallic Wars, the civil war and the assassination. Where the exact site is debated, the pins say so.
Gone with the Wind is set in Georgia: Tara lies about five miles outside Jonesboro, and Scarlett O'Hara's Atlanta runs along Peachtree Street. The depot, Five Points and Oakland Cemetery are real Atlanta places the story names.
The route follows the novel from the eve of the Civil War through the depot and Five Points in the fall of Atlanta in 1864, and ends at the Margaret Mitchell House, where the book was written.
Agatha Christie's Devon runs from Burgh Island, the model for Soldier Island in And Then There Were None, to Churston, Dittisham and her own Greenway estate on the River Dart.
The route follows five stops through The A.B.C. Murders, And Then There Were None, Five Little Pigs, Towards Zero and Dead Man's Folly. Two stops share the Greenway pin, and Nasse House is fictional.
Jane Austen's life ran through four places in southern England: the Hampshire village of Steventon, the spa city of Bath, the cottage at Chawton and, at the end, Winchester Cathedral. Bath's Pump Room and Assembly Rooms also appear in her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
The route follows her from the rectory where she grew up in 1775 to her grave in 1817. The Steventon rectory is gone, so that pin is approximate; the other four places can all be visited today.
Philip Pullman's Jordan College is a fictional Oxford college that borrows from Exeter College, with the Gyptians moored in Jericho and the trilogy's last promise made on a bench in the Oxford Botanic Garden. Film and TV shot Jordan at Christ Church and New College.
The route follows Lyra from her home college to the canal and the garden, with the film and series stand-ins. Jordan itself is invented, so some pins mark real stand-ins.
Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited is set in Oxford, at a fictional country house played on screen by Castle Howard, in Venice and at London's Savoy Chapel. It follows Charles Ryder, who is drawn into the family of his friend Sebastian.
This route visits Hertford and Christ Church in Oxford, the Yorkshire house that played Brideshead, the Venice palace used by the 1981 serial, and the Savoy Chapel. Brideshead itself is fictional, so some pins mark filming stand-ins.
Selma Lagerlöf's Nils Holgersson flies over Sweden on a goose's back, from the castles of Skåne at Vittskövle and Glimmingehus to the cliffs of Kullaberg, Karlskrona, Öland and Stockholm's Skansen.
The novel takes a tiny boy across all the historical provinces of Sweden. This route follows six real places from its southern chapters to the capital, with the scene the book sets at each. Ottenby is approximate.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin is set on the Greek island of Cephalonia (Kefalonia) in the Second World War, and the 2001 film shot it around Sami, Antisamos Beach and Myrtos Beach.
The route follows the film's scenes from the opening feast at a ruined monastery to the seafront built as Argostoli, the Italian camp, the mine on the beach, a partisan hideout and the mountain ambush. Much of the film was made on sets that were dismantled afterwards, so some stops are approximate.
Zombie Land Saga is set across Saga Prefecture, from a mansion modelled on a real Karatsu building and Saga Castle to the hot springs of Ureshino and the Alpino hall in Karatsu.
In the anime, seven legendary girls from different eras are revived as zombies to form an idol group and revive Saga. This route follows their gigs and haunts, with the real venues behind them. Some places are fictional or only approximate, as noted.
Mimino, Georgiy Daneliya's 1977 comedy about a Georgian helicopter pilot, was filmed in the Tusheti village of Omalo, at the Hotel Rossiya, the Bolshoi Theatre and Butyrka prison in Moscow, and at Tegel airport in West Berlin.
The route follows Valentin Mizandari from his mountain home to Moscow's hotels, courts and airports, and on to the Berlin phone call that connects him to Tel Aviv. Several sites are only stand-ins for the story's places, and the Hotel Rossiya is gone.
Netflix's Lupin is set across Paris, from the Louvre and the Pont des Arts to Place Vendôme, with a Normandy detour to the cliffs of Étretat. Assane Diop, a modern gentleman thief inspired by Arsène Lupin, uses real landmarks as his stage.
The route follows six filming locations: the Louvre, the Musée Nissim de Camondo, the Pont des Arts, the Luxembourg Gardens, Étretat and Place Vendôme. Exact spots in Étretat are not named by the sources.
The village of Giancaldo in Cinema Paradiso was filmed mostly in Palazzo Adriano, Sicily: the square, the church that became the cinema and the houses of Totò and Alfredo are all real. The farewell scene was shot at Lascari-Gratteri station.
The route follows Salvatore from his boyhood home to the piazza, the church-cinema and the station where he leaves, then back to Alfredo's house thirty years later. The cinema facade was temporary, and the church interior stands in for the cinema.
The Crown rarely filmed where its story is set: Lancaster House played Buckingham Palace, Ely and Winchester cathedrals played Westminster Abbey and St Paul's, Cobham Hall played Eton, and Downing Street was built at Elstree Studios.
This route visits five of those stand-ins, from season one to season five, and says what each one played.
Bridget Jones's Diary is set and filmed around Borough Market in south London, with Shad Thames, the Royal Courts of Justice and Cornhill on the way. The film moves Bridget from Holland Park to a flat above the Globe pub, where the story begins.
This route follows the film's story through eight London and country locations: the book launch at the ICA, the first date at Shad Thames, the mini-break at Stoke Park, the anniversary party at Syon House and the snowy finale. The film was shot over six weeks in and around London in 2000.
Crocodile Dundee follows a Northern Territory bushman from the billabongs of Kakadu to the Plaza Hotel and the subways of Manhattan. Its Walkabout Creek is really the pub at McKinlay, Queensland; its outback is Anbangbang Billabong and Gunlom Falls; its New York runs from Newark airport to Columbus Circle.
The route follows reporter Sue Charlton and Mick Dundee from the outback to New York, one filming location per scene. A few places stand in for others, and the captions say where.
The Hunger Games was filmed almost entirely in North Carolina: District 12 is the abandoned Henry River Mill Village, the arena is DuPont State Forest with Triple Falls, and the Capitol parade rolls through Charlotte. The sequels moved to Atlanta, where Swan House, the Goat Farm Arts Center and the Marriott Marquis stand in for Snow's mansion, the District 12 Justice Building and the Capitol tribute center.
This route follows the story from the reaping to the Hanging Tree, with eight real places and what each one plays in the films. Some sites, such as Henry River Mill Village, are private, so check the guidance before you go.
When Harry Met Sally... begins with a drive out of the University of Chicago and settles into Manhattan, from the Washington Square Arch and Central Park to Katz's Delicatessen, where Sally makes her famous point.
The route follows the pair from graduation in 1977 to a New Year's Eve declaration at the Puck Building, with seven stops: Cobb Gate, the Washington Square Arch, the Loeb Boathouse, the Temple of Dendur, Katz's, Cafe Luxembourg and the Puck Building. Stops follow the film's scene order, not a single journey.
Sex and the City is set in Manhattan, and the 2008 film follows Carrie Bradshaw from her Perry Street stoop to the New York Public Library, Bemelmans Bar, Bryant Park and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Carrie's fictional address is on the Upper East Side, but the real brownstone is in Greenwich Village. This route follows the film's wedding, break-up and reunions through places that were actually used, from a Chelsea restaurant and a Central Park pavilion to a Brooklyn courthouse that plays City Hall.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is set in 1936 Peru and Egypt, but it was shot on Kauaʻi, in Tunisia and in the U-boat pens of La Rochelle. Kairouan stood in for Cairo, the canyon outside Tozeur became the truck chase, and Hawaii played the Peruvian jungle.
This route follows the film's story order through six filming places, from Hulēʻia and the Nā Pali Coast on Kauaʻi and the Stockton campus used for Jones's school to Kairouan, the Sidi Bouhlel canyon and La Rochelle. Several spots are only approximate and some are closed to the public.
The Handmaid's Tale was filmed in Toronto, Hamilton and Cambridge, Ontario: the Waterford house, the hanging wall at Mill Race Park and the Royal York's Jezebel's stand in for Gilead and Boston.
The route follows the first season in order: the Waterford house, the Red Center, June's flashback at Ripley's Aquarium, the wall, the Main Street Bridge, the Grand Café, the Lower Bay subway, the handmaids lined up at LIUNA Station and the banquet at the Royal York.
Bandit Petersburg (Бандитский Петербург), the 2000–07 crime saga, is set and filmed in St Petersburg: the courtyard at Bolshaya Monetnaya 11, the Benois House on Kamennoostrovsky Prospect and the Kresty prison are among its most recognisable addresses.
This route follows the city of Film 2, The Lawyer (2000), from Chelishev's old courtyard and the police headquarters on the Petrograd side to Antibiotic's Fontanka restaurant, Zvantsev's flat in the Benois House, the gates of Kresty and the Angleterre restaurant where the film ends. All seven stops are real places; one is an active police building and one a working hotel.
Poldark's Cornwall is real Cornwall: the 2015 adaptation filmed Nampara, Wheal Leisure and Truro at St Agnes Head, Botallack and Charlestown, with Trenwith played by Chavenage House near Tetbury.
This route follows eight locations from the 2015 adaptation, from the cliffs above St Agnes and the engine houses of Botallack to the beaches of the Lizard and the north coast. Most are open to the public, but they are working landscapes and nature reserves as much as film sets, so expect footpaths, tides and weather.
The Vampire Diaries' Mystic Falls is Covington, Georgia, where the clock tower, the Mystic Grill, Elena's house and the Lockwood Mansion are real places about 35 miles east of Atlanta.
The route follows the show around Covington's square and Floyd Street, north to the demolished Glenridge Hall that served as the Salvatore boarding house, and east to Oxford College, which played Whitmore. Most stops are public streets or a working restaurant; the grand houses are private and seen from the road or on a tour.
