Tammy Abraham will become the latest in a long line of British footballers to play in the Italian top division after he completed his £34million transfer from Chelsea to Roma.
The 23-year-old striker will play under former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho at the Stadio Olimpico, with the former Chelsea boss describing the signing as 'a real coup', while Abraham has already spoken about firing his new team to success and silverware.
Abraham will play in Roma's No 9 shirt during the forthcoming Serie A campaign and he will be desperate to emulate the achievements of some of the celebrated Brits living la dolce vita on our list here.
Paul Gascoigne
Lazio 1992-95
Gascoigne was the main catalyst for English interest in the Italian game. Two years after his tears on the pitch during England's World Cup semi-final defeat to West Germany in Turin, Lazio paid what was then a huge fee of £5.5million to bring Gazza in from Spurs.
An extrovert personality off the field and genius on it, Gascoigne is very much a one-off character and his transfer meant that suddenly millions of English fans were following Lazio's results very closely.
Indeed, Channel Four's decision to bid to broadcast Italian football coverage came after Gascoigne, working with TV production company Chrysalis on a documentary, remarked it would be a shame viewers back home couldn't watch him in Serie A.
On the field, his three seasons with Lazio were dogged by injury setbacks and inconsistent form - he played only 47 matches and scored just six goals.
Gazza struggled to settle in Italy, feeling alone and isolated, and failed to master the language to help his integration. He infamously greeted the Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti by saying 'your daughter has big tits.'
He endured a rocky relationship with the Italian press, who sought to unsettle him, though he didn't help himself by belching down a reporter's microphone on live television.
In the 1993 pre-season he was so out of shape that Lazio manager Dino Zoff demanded he shed two stone or lose his place in the team.
But there were occasional moments of glory. He became a legend to Lazio fans when he scored an 89th-minute equaliser, his first goal for the club, in the derby with Roma in 1992, joyously running to the fans with arms outstretched.
John Charles
Juventus, Roma 1957-63
Almost certainly the best British export to Italy of them all, Charles is still revered as 'the Gentle Giant' by Juventus fans and was just as comfortable at centre back as centre forward.
The Welshman commanded a British record fee of £65,000 when Juventus signed him from Leeds United in 1957 though that figure was almost double the previous record.
Played up front in a prolific 'Holy Trident' with Giampiero Boniperti and Omar Sivori, Charles scored an astonishing 108 goals in 155 matches for the club over five seasons.
In that time, he helped Juventus win the Scudetto three times and the Coppa Italia twice. He was the league's top scorer with 28 in 1957-58 and placed third in the 1959 Ballon d'Or.
Boniperti said of his strike partner: 'I would say he was from another world because of his human qualities. John was one of the most loyal and honest people I have ever met, a very special person.
'He managed to keep the whole team united, and any quarrels or arguments quietened down as soon as he appeared on the pitch or in the dressing room.'
It speaks volumes for the high esteem in which Juventus as a club held Charles that on the occasion of their centenary in 1997, he was voted their best-ever foreign player.
He returned to Leeds in 1962 but later returned to Italy for a shorter stint of just 11 games with Roma.
David Platt
Bari, Juventus, Sampdoria 1991-95
The antithesis in so many ways to Gascoigne, Platt whole-heartedly embraced the experience of living and playing in Italy and emerged from his four seasons in Serie A with credit.
The midfielder's career took on a higher trajectory after his brilliant volley for England against Belgium in the last-16 of the 1990 World Cup - a goal set up, ironically, by Gascoigne's free-kick.
'If I hadn't scored that goal, I might still have ended up playing in Italy but, realistically, I'm sure it was the catalyst,' Platt later recalled.
Italian clubs were wary of signing English players but Bari, just promoted back into the top flight and with an ambitious president in Vincenzo Matarrese were willing to pay Aston Villa £5.5m for him.
Platt's willingness to learn the language and ingratiate himself in Italian culture impressed, as did his dedication on the training ground.
'I wanted to become an Italian, speak like an Italian, to live and eat like an Italian,' Platt said. He was fluent in the language within a few months.
Mobbed by delighted fans at the airport, Platt didn't exactly lessen the burden on his shoulders by saying he wanted to become the 'Maradona of Bari'. That may explain why he was handed the No 10 shirt.
Sadly, Bari suffered relegation but Platt still managed to score 11 league goals - Bari only scored 26 all season - and attracted interest from some of Italy's more prestigious clubs.
In the summer of 1992, Platt chose the lure of Juventus over Sampdoria. The Turin club signed him as part of a spending spree that also included Dino Baggio, Gianluca Vialli, Andreas Moller and Fabrizio Ravanelli.
Though Juventus won the UEFA Cup, Platt didn't play as regularly as he'd hoped for and, on the suggestion of their skipper Roberto Mancini, he ended up signing for Sampdoria in a £5.2m deal.
With future England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson at the helm, Platt excelled and helped them finish third in the league and win the 1994 Coppa Italia.
By 1995, Platt was offered a move to Arsenal, the side who had knocked Sampdoria out of the Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals, and he took his chance. Italy was genuinely sad to see him go.
There was a postscript, however. Platt was appointed Sampdoria's manager in 1998 but his reign lasted only six matches amid an argument over his coaching qualifications.
Paul Ince
Inter Milan 1995-97
Ince was playing golf with Ryan Giggs when Alex Ferguson called to inform him Manchester United had accepted an offer from Inter Milan in the summer of 1995.
After being wowed by the suave and ambitious Inter president Massimo Moratti, the 'Guv'nor' was on his way to the San Siro in a £7.5m deal.
Taking a house by the spectacular Lake Como and immersing himself in Italian language and culture, Ince proved a rare positive in a 1995-96 season that saw Inter finish a disappointing seventh.
Although he played alongside the likes of Roberto Carlos, Javier Zanetti, Youri Djorkaeff and Ivan Zamarano, Inter were miles behind their neighbours AC Milan, who won the Scudetto.
Ince's warrior-like spirit, good engine and eye for a defence-splitting pass earned him adulation and the hard-to-please Inter Ultras used to sing 'Come on Paul Ince, come on'.
Ince was initially irked that manager Ottavio Bianchi played him on the left wing of a 3-5-2 formation rather than his familiar central midfield role, but once Roy Hodgson came in, all changed for the better.
Inter finished third in 1996-97 and reached the final of the UEFA Cup, where they lost out on penalties to Schalke.
That summer, Ince decided to return to England and sign for Liverpool, leaving many Inter fans to wonder what might have been.
Gerry Hitchens
Inter Milan, Torino, Atalanta, Cagliari 1961-69
No other British player stayed for as long in Italy as Hitchens, a prolific centre forward who could easily have been part of Alf Ramsey's 1966 World Cup winners if he'd stayed in England.
But Hitchens loved the Italian way of life and playing his football in Serie A, where the centre forward from Staffordshire scored prolifically.
It was by playing for England against Italy in a Rome international in 1961 that Hitchens, then an Aston Villa player, first became noticed.
Inter Milan moved to sign him in the summer of 1961 for £85,000 - another to make the move to Italy that year was Torino's Denis Law - and they were handsomely rewarded with 16 league goals in his first season.
He moved on to Torino early the following season and was twice runner-up in the Coppa Italia while at the club.
Having played a handful of games for Inter prior to his move, Hitchens was eligible for a Serie A winners' medal in 1962-63. He was the last Englishman to win the Scudetto prior to Ashley Young at Inter last season.
Three years with Torino were followed by two at Atalanta and a short stint at Cagliari for this prime Italian convert.
Trevor Francis
Sampdoria, Atalanta 1982-87
Three years after Francis became Britain's first £1million footballer, he was sold by Manchester City to Sampdoria in a deal worth £700,000.
It wasn't the most prolific time of his career - 30 goals in 104 games over four seasons - but Francis is fondly remembered for helping Sampdoria lift the Italian Cup for the first time.
A team that also included Graeme Souness, Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli defeated AC Milan 3-1 on aggregate to win what was the club's first major honour.
Francis played a major role, scoring nine goals in their 11 cup games that season, the most prolific of his time in Italy.
Atalanta paid £800,000 for him in 1986 but a return of just three goals in 30 games saw him move back to the UK with Rangers.
Graeme Souness
Sampdoria 1984-86
It makes sense to stick with that same Sampdoria team at this point and the combative Scottish midfielder Souness, who spent two seasons in Genoa.
He arrived a European champion after Liverpool beat Roma on penalties in 1984 and though he was 31 at the time, Sampdoria thought nothing of paying £650,000 for his services.
Souness proved a necessary experienced head in a youthful side and scored in the first leg of their win over Milan in the Coppa Italia final.
He didn't score too many goals but had a knack of coming up with important ones. In the 1984-85 season, Souness scored a winner against Milan in the league and also scored against Roma and Juventus.
Souness later revealed the Italian way of playing suited him. 'I went there and found it easy,' he said. 'I found the football easy, it was a bit slower. There wasn't so much pressing.
'There, for a midfield player, you could get on the ball a lot easier because they would retreat and back off to their own half and let you have the ball.'
After two seasons of a three-year contract, Souness received an offer he couldn't refuse to become player-manager of Rangers, but his fondness for Italy never dwindled.
Joe Jordan
AC Milan, Hellas Verona 1981-84
When Joe Jordan, then on Tottenham's coaching staff, went eyeball-to-eyeball with AC Milan's midfielder enforcer Gennaro Gattuso in 2011, he was simply re-marking out old territory.
The Scot played for Milan during the early 1980s, during one of the club's darkest periods that saw them relegated into Serie B.
Jordan's 10 goals powered them back into the top flight and put the club on course for later glories.
The gap-toothed forward - Italian fans called him Lo Squalo (The Shark) - had signed from Manchester United in 1981 and he mustered just two goals in his first season against Italy's miserly defenders.
'They had pride in stopping you, not letting you turn or get shots off, making tackles and not letting you reach a header,' Jordan told Sportsmail in 2018.
Having helped Milan win promotion, Jordan moved on to Hellas Verona though he didn't score enough goals to hold down a regular place.
Chris Smalling
Roma 2019-
British players continue to make moves to Serie A and one of the most successful in recent years has been Smalling.
Joining Roma, first on loan in 2019 and then permanently in 2020, reinvigorated the defender’s career after he endured a difficult time at Manchester United.
There’s not too many Englishmen who can teach the Italians something about the art of defending but Smalling was a rock-solid presence for Roma during his loan, enough to persuade them to stump up £12m to buy him.
Injury issues ruined last season for the 31-year-old but he’ll hope for a successful campaign under Mourinho this time around.
Ashley Young
Inter Milan 2019-2021
The third and latest Englishman to win the Scudetto after Jimmy Greaves in 1962 and Hitchens in 1963.
Moving to Inter proved a wise choice for Young post-Manchester United and he has played a regular part in the side over the last two seasons at the age of 35/36.
The former England wide man has now returned to Aston Villa for a second spell but his two years in Italy can certainly be judged a success.
