The canal city of Venice is among the hot destinations for Chinese tourists to Italy. [Photo by Guo Anfei/China Daily]

Zhang Huan cut France and Switzerland from the itineraries of the travel agency she started in 1998 to focus solely on Italy since 2000.

The Chinese entrepreneur believed the Mediterranean country's culture would lure a growing number of her compatriots in the coming years.

She was right.

Italy was the seventh-most popular destination for outbound Chinese in the first half of this year, China Travel Guide's website cites the China National Tourism Administration as reporting.

"More Chinese will be visiting Italy," China Tourism Future Research Association executive director Liu Simin says.

"Italy is similar to China in that it's an ancient cradle of civilization."

Most Italian buildings are old if not ancient. And Italy hosts 51 UNESCO World Heritage sites－the most of any nation in the world.

China ranks second, with 48.

Italy, which is known as "the boot" because of its shape, has the nearly 2,000-year-old Coliseum, 1,600-year-old canal city of Venice and the 800-year-old Tower of Pisa among its attractions.

But aside from such icons there are centuries-old ancient churches, bell towers and city walls.