[Photo by Guo Anfei/China Daily]

Zhang recalls being stunned by St. Peter's Basilica.

"I stood there for nearly five hours," she recalls.

Soon after, she changed her company's name to Voglia d'Italia Tour and decided to focus exclusively on travel to Italy.

However, that wasn't only because of ancient culture. Modern fashion also played a part.

The company took about 1,000 Chinese to Italy in 2000. It booked 4,000 this year.

Wen Jing, a tour guide from China's Guizhou province who has worked in Italy since 2010, says that more hotels are joining the Chinese Friendly Italy association.

These hotels offer drinking-water heaters, since Chinese prefer to drink hot water; Chinese-language TV channels; and power adapters, since Chinese electronics' plugs don't match Italian power outlets.

Attractions in Milan, Rome and Florence have introduced Chinese-language booking services. And luxury stores have hired Mandarin-speaking staffers.

A measure of the country's cultural appeal to Chinese comes from its tradition of fashion that has produced brands such as Prada, Gucci and Armani, Zhang says. Many of these modern brands have long histories.

This has drawn more Chinese to the epicenter of this phenomenon, Milan, which Zhang says has seen a surge in Chinese visitors this year. Nearly 20 Chinese provinces staged promotional events related to the 2015 Milan Expo's China Pavilion, she says.

"Italy's antiquity and contemporary fashion are like yin and yang－a unity of opposites," she says.