The English Patient: Tunisia and Tuscany

In October 1944 Italy, the nurse Hana is caring for a dying, severely burned patient who speaks with an English accent and says he cannot remember his name. She gains permission to settle in a bombed-out monastery with him. In the film this refuge is the Tuscan monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena, a focal point of the story. The monastery was founded in 1332–1334 by Bernardo Tolomei as a hermitage for the Benedictines, and its refectory houses frescoes by il Sodoma (1502–1503).

Hana's wartime Italy was filmed in Tuscany, and the film's village is Pienza. In October 1944 Italy she is caring for her dying, severely burned patient at the nearby monastery of Sant'Anna in Camprena, which belongs to Pienza's surroundings.

Location precision: The film's village is Pienza, but the guide names no single street or building; the pin marks the town.

In Italy, Hana studies the frescoes in a chapel. The film used the Bacci Chapel in the Basilica of San Francesco at Arezzo, which is especially renowned for the fresco cycle Legends of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca. The frescoes were painted between 1453 and 1466 and have recently been restored.

Visitor guidance: Reservations are required to view the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco.

Almásy and Katharine return to Cairo and begin an affair. In the film, Cairo's Shepheard's Hotel was portrayed by the Grand Hotel des Bains, a former luxury hotel on the Lido of Venice in northern Italy. The hotel is also tied to Thomas Mann, whose stay there in 1911 inspired his novella Death in Venice.

Almásy discovers the location of the ancient Cave of Swimmers, containing cave paintings, and later carries the injured Katharine there. The film's cave is located deep inside a rocky crevice at the summit of a hill outside the desert town of Degache, 12 km east of Tozeur. Camera and sound equipment had to be carried from the base camp by donkey train. The real rock shelter, which is mentioned in Michael Ondaatje's novel, is elsewhere.

Location precision: The film's cave entrance is on a hill outside Degache; the pin marks the town, not the hilltop.

Hana overhears Almásy telling Caravaggio about packing camp in 1941 when Geoffrey arrives in the biplane. The film's desert camp is in the western Tunisian desert near Nefta, an oasis north of the Chott el Djerid, beneath the strange rock formation called Onk Jemal.

Location precision: The camp is a film set in the western Tunisian desert; the pin marks the oasis of Nefta, not the exact spot.

Visitor guidance: A guided desert safari with a four-wheel drive vehicle is the only practical way to reach the area.

Almásy walks three days across the desert to British-held El Tag. He asks for help to rescue Katharine, but a young officer detains him on suspicion of being a spy. The film's huge shimmering salt lake is Chott el Djerid, a large salt lake in central Tunisia and the dry lake you need to cross to reach Nefta.

Location precision: The film's walk across the desert is not tied to one spot; the pin marks the Chott el Djerid salt lake near the filming locations.