Zeffirellis Cinema Ambleside

If you’re going to attract people indoors to watch a film when your cinema is in the middle of some of the world’s most beautiful scenery, you need to have quite an offering. Zeffirelli’s, in the beautiful Lake District town of Ambleside, is well up to the challenge.

Describing itself as a ‘cinema, restaurant and more’, it ticks the first two boxes with aplomb. As the name, an homage to the director Franco Zeffirelli, suggests, the superb Italian restaurant is partnered with an independent, modern and lusciously decorated five-screen cinema that will satisfy your mainstream desires while championing diverse filmmaking and showing broadcasts of live performances from around the world.

If that’s not enough to distract you from the view, there’s also a jazz bar and occasional music festival.

• https://www.zeffirellis.com
• 015394 33845

• Millans Park, Ambleside LA22 9AD

If you're heading in by train, the closest station is Windermere. By bus, the 555 and 599 pass through Ambleside to Keswick and Grasmere to the north, and Kendal and Lancaster in the south.

There is on-street parking around Zeffirellis, and some paid car parks nearby.