Italian ab initio interview for MML at Cambridge

I applied for French and Spanish (both post-A-level) at Cambridge but recently found out that they prefer bilingual students not to study a language that they already speak quite well (I speak French). I emailed the college that I applied to (Clare) and they said that I could switch to an ab initio language. I would choose Italian but am not sure whether I would be expected to have read / researched much Italian language / culture / literature. It's quite a confusing situation, as I've already written extensively about French literature in my PS and have not mentioned Italian at all. If I would be required to read up on Italian before interview, please could someone suggest some literature / films to get me started?