All language subtitles for BBC.Italy.Unpacked.Series.2.3of3.In.the.Heat.of.the.Day.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

'I'm Andrew Graham-Dixon,
and I'm an art historian.'

We're in the basement
of Italian history.

'And I'm Giorgio Locatelli,
and I'm a chef.'

Untuoso. Unctuous.

'We are both passionate
about my homeland, Italy.'

Come on, everybody, let's go!

'The rich flavour and classic dishes
of this land

'are in my culinary DNA.'

Pasta with an egg in it.

'And this country's rich layers of
art and history have captivated me

'since childhood.'

It actually brings out the naked
body all the more.

'In this series,

'we'll be travelling all the way
down the west coast of the country,

'from top to toe, stepping off the
tourist track wherever we go.'

This is so Italian.

'I want to show off some of my
country's most surprising food...'

It is hot!
HE GASPS

'..oftenmost born out of necessity,
but leaving a legacy that's

'still shaping Italian modern
cuisine around the world.'

Mmm...

'And the art, too, is fantastic,
exotic, deeply rooted in history.

'The final stretch of our journey
takes us to the Mezzogiorno.'

It's one of the most beautiful
places on Earth.

'Naples and the
South, Italy's "Wild West".'

'Here, invaders and foreign empires
have shaped the culture

'and cooking over millennia to make
this Italy's most exotic region.'

THEME MUSIC ENDS

PACY, RHYTHMIC MUSIC

Come on, everybody, let's go!

Driving your scooter in Naples, this
is the thing you want to do.

Ciao. Ciao.

HORN TOOTS

Our journey starts in one
of my favourite cities - Naples.

A wild, wonderful place, unlike
anywhere else in Italy or the world.

And the only way to really
experience it is on two wheels,

not four.

Let's try to not get robbed now.

Naples' identity is
born of centuries of foreign rule.

Greek, Roman, French
and Spanish empires have all

left their mark on a city that's
often compared to Cairo and Bombay.

Ah, look at that!
GIORGIO LAUGHS

That's called "Spaccanapoli"
because it cuts Napoli in half.

Visitors always used to say,
"Come to Naples for the monuments,

"for the architecture, for the
paintings, for the buildings,

"but above all you
come for the people."

For the people.

You come for the sense of real life,
street food, markets...

Look at that - teeming with life.

HORN TOOTS

Why are 200 beautiful Neapolitan
women going round the central

obelisk of the Piazza Gesu in a
circle? What's going on?

By Felliniesque coincidence we have
arrived in the middle of

a casting session for
the Naples Film Festival.

Look, they're waiting for us!
Yeah, we arrived! Yeah!

WOMEN SHOUT OUT

Neapolitans are famous
for their sense of theatre

and people have been coming here
to enjoy the vibrant

and raucous street life
for centuries.

In the 1700s, it became
the sensational climax to

the Grand Tour - the rite of passage
undertaken by

European aristocrats as part
of a classical education.

You would "see Naples
and die" as the saying went.

I'm taking Andrew to a place
that allows us

to glimpse that Naples - the one
that dazzled 18th

and 19th-century visitors,
including Goethe and Byron.

Come, we get to go up here.

What a place.

GIORGIO LAUGHS

Andrew, come and have a look at
this. This is crazy.

Nativity scenes - "presepe" -
have been popular in Italy

since the Middle Ages.

But in 18th-century Naples,
they evolved into

a unique art form - one that
still lives on today.

It is a particularity of the presepe
from Naples. And what is today

everyday business, becomes part of
the presepe.

So the nativity scene mushrooms
into all of this daily life -

the butcher, the baker,
the candlestick maker -

but that's never separated from the
presepe, from the nativity? No.

They live, you're sacred,

because you're part of these sacred
things that go around you.

So, we've got these real
people from the 18th century

who sort of have entered the scene.
I like this character.

He's a character straight out of
18th or 17th-century painting
from Naples.

A lot of them have these goitres...
Yeah, look at that.

..these lumps in their throat.
Yeah, look, the woman has it as
well. Look at that.

They were people who
lived on the land and then

they all crowded into the city,
and they were just fed on bread.

They suddenly lose
all their fresh vegetables.

There is no presepe without
Pulcinella eating the spaghetti,

which kind of represents
the poor people -

the "Lazzaroni" -

the people who eat pasta
with their hands.

You know, one of the Bourbon kings
was actually spotted doing this,

eating the spaghetti like that.

It's kind of like saying,
"It's shocking me."

"I am one with the people."
That's right. That was his message.

What I'm worried about is just
maybe the tomato sauce.

ANDREW LAUGHS

I think this is lacking in realism,
this sculpture, because surely

there should be...
A little bit of tomato sauce.

There is a little bit there, but...

ANDREW LAUGHS

This exotic, southern city with its
extremes of wealth

and poverty fascinated 18th-century
visitors

because it seemed right on the edge
of civilised Europe.

So, what did you order?
Una sorpresa!

Oh, look, you are picking
him up but you have to hold him down

because otherwise he floats away.
It's so light.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

I just noticed this rather beautiful
picture on the box that the sweets
came in.

It's an image of Naples in the
18th century, which is a vivid
reminder

of just why Naples was one of the
great tourist destinations for
centuries.

This beautiful half-moon shaped bay
which has now become rather

industrialised, but in those days
it was paradise on Earth.

There is Vesuvius smoking in the
background, that's still there.

When the English visitor came
here to Naples, what

they were utterly amazed by was
the people, the number of them,

their liveliness, the way that
they would shout rather than talk,

the way that they lived outside, not
indoors, the way that they were so
extrovert.

They way they ate spaghetti
with their hands - the Lazzaroni.

Exactly, the Lazzaroni!
On the one hand you can feel that

people like Goethe or Byron,
they are a little bit frightened,

but they are also thrilled, they see
these people, these southern

people of having a kind of freedom,
they are free from property.

They don't own anything.

They are free from cares
in the idealised version,

but also a bit dangerous.

The city, visited by the
Grand Tourists of the past

was characterised
by its extravagant Baroque art

and architecture - full of dramatic
effect and stark contrasts.

There's one chapel that shows off
the Neapolitan Baroque in all

its sensual glory.

The Cappella Sansevero.

So here we are...

Let's face the altar...

Just take it in.

This is one of the great Baroque
chapels ever created here in Naples,

ever created anywhere.

And it's all conceived by one man,
Raimondo di Sangro.

And it's said, here in Naples,
that that portrait of him,

which is Dorian Gray style,
decayed with time,

has done so because God is not happy
with him.

At the heart of the chapel are two
sense-stunning sculptures,

both on the theme
of the veiled body.

And again, he's commissioned
a representation of modesty.

Now, his mother died when he was
only one, so he never knew her

and never knew what she looked
like. Right.

He wanted, I think, to preserve her
memory for ever

as a remote, celestial, perfectly
innocent, perfectly formed being.

What would you think if that
was your mother?

As much as I love my mum...you know,

I will never commission something
like that,

you know what I mean? This is
a little bit hot to be your mum.

He didn't see it that way, for him
it was as an allegory of purity.

There were scandals. To put it...
Naples had a kind of nipple problem,
basically.

And, seriously, the nipple problem
was taken very, very seriously.

And he did get into trouble
over this.

This was seen as being sacrilegious.

In its next commission, the same
technique was applied

to a subject so sacred it was beyond
reproach.

The veiled Christ.

That is absolutely mesmerising.

It's something that

the ancient Greeks discovered, that
if you clothe a sculpted

body in a fabric, it actually brings
out the naked body all the more,

sometimes to make the eroticism
more pronounced.

But here, to make death all the
more solemn and powerful

and moving. It almost looks like the
marble is transparent and you can

see through the marble underneath
where the person is. It's such

a fine covering that you can still
see the holes, where the nails were.

Also the little...
The little finger.

You can actually see the little
finger there.

CHORAL MUSIC

There is a great suffering
in that body,

you feel it by
looking at it, don't you? Mm.

Wow!

It's worth it to come to Naples just
to see this.

In 1735, Naples became the capital
of an independent kingdom.

Its monarchy - an offshoot
of the Spanish Bourbon Empire -

set out to make Naples
a Mecca of culture and gastronomy.

Today Naples is famous for pizza
and pasta.

But the Bourbons left us some
incredibly rich and complex dishes.

This is a different
side of Naples, Andrew, I don't know

if you are going
to like it as much as the poor one.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

We've come to the magnificent
apartment of

Marquis Carlo de Gregorio Cattaneo
di Sant'Elia, whose family has been

part of the Neapolitan
aristocracy for over 200 years.

I'm going to cook them

a classic dish from the golden
age of the Bourbons.

So, I'm going to cook you this dish
that comes from the 1800 tradition

when the Bourbons were fed up with
the Southern Italian fare,

they didn't like it, they thought it
was like peasant food, it was

not rich enough for them.

It was not complicated enough.

So, this is one of the greatest
dishes, it's called "sartu",

it means "over everything".

OK, I got meatballs, I've got a
tomato sauce - the meat is cooked

with that - and then
I got some chicken liver.

So, the idea is to have an
envelope of rice,

all the stuffing goes in, close it
and then we bake it.

Out of all the ancient recipes
that you could've chosen to revive

or recreate, you had to choose one
that involved risotto, didn't you?!

That is so Milanese. No, I really
love it because of the similarities

between the words "sur tout" becomes
"sartu",

so to me, the Neapolitans, wherever
they take or borrow something

from the French, they can only make
it better.

You're going to love this,
you know.

I was reading that Queen Maria
Carolina, Marie Antoinette's

sister who married Ferdinand VII -
the guy who used to

eat spaghetti with his hands -

that she was the one who said, "Oh,
I don't like this food here."

And she sent all of the court's
chefs off to Paris.

And they arrived with all their airs
and graces. Les messieurs.

And then the Neapolitan chefs, they
decided to take that word

and change it for themselves,
or they mispronounced it.

But the thing is that's fantastic,
"You think you are a monsieur,

"do you think? I'm not a
monsieur, I'm a monsu."

Monsu. Monsu.

The rice is over everything.
It's a lot of everything. And there
is a lot of everything.

I was going to
say to you, but you anticipate me.

Four-and-a-half hours, so far,
by the way.

Should we go and meet the people,
our guests?

I think you deserve a drink.

In 18th-century Naples, the Marchese
family was at the centre of power.

IN TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN:

This was the only time when
Naples was independent.

That's right.

We have take this Bourbon recipe
back to the right person, that could

be the maximum judge for it.

Wow!

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

The Marquise's family had their own
monsu as recently as the 1960s,

and sartu was often
served on special occasions.

GIORGIO SPEAKS ITALIAN

I really like it. I think...
I'm proud of myself.

Mmm...it's fantastic.

You get ten only if you are a real
monsu, so I'm not, I get nine.

You get nine. Passed the test.

'Oh, dear, only nine, I'd give it
ten! It's delicious rich, meaty,

'sausage-y, ricey, tomatoey.

'To tell the truth, I don't really
think either Giorgio or

'I feel quite at home here.

'Down to earth is more our style.

'Let's drink a couple of last toasts
and beat a quick retreat.'

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Before we leave Naples, I can't
resist taking Giorgio to see

one final masterpiece.

A work of art that, to me,

encapsulates the huge contrasts
we've encountered here.

I really want you to see
what I think of as Caravaggio's

greatest altarpiece, certainly
his most ambitious painting.

He came here the summer of 1606.
He has just murdered a man, there is

a price on his head,
so Caravaggio is in deep trouble.

But his arrival here coincides
with the establishment

of Pio Monte della Misericordia,
it's set up by seven noblemen to

alleviate the plight of the poor
here in Naples.

And they say to Caravaggio, "Paint
us a picture for our altarpiece."

And it's called "The
Seven Acts of Mercy"... Of Mercy.

Caravaggio's commission was to paint
a message of hope for the poor.

He set it in one of Naples'
crowded streets in the night.

I think, because
he has been asked to crowd

all seven acts of mercy into a
single, very vertical composition,

the result is a fantastic
distillation of what it must

have been like for him
arriving in Naples.

And he is walking through these
streets crowded with the poor,

crowded with lazzari.
He's carefully included every

period of human history, so you've
got ancient Roman history,

Simon and Pero -
father and daughter.

He was confined to jail, he was
starving

to death, and she saved his life
by feeding him from her own breast.

She wasn't allowed to take him food.

She is pure. She is pure Napoli.

She is Napoli, isn't she?
She is Napoli, even now.

You've got modern day, the...
holding up the torch,

you've got modern life again in
St Martin, the rich young man

like the rich young man who founded
this place,

giving away his wealth
in the form of his cloak.

Vestire gli ignudi. Vestire gli
ignudi. Clothing the naked,

then you've got Jesus Christ himself
as a pilgrim, coming to be housed.

So all human life is here, all
periods of human history are here.

And yet my impression is that just
as there is so little light in this

terrible pool of darkness, how hard
it is for people to be saved.

The old man has to struggle.
He has missed some of the milk,

it's caught in his beard.

The corpse is on its way to the
tomb,

but is that dead man or woman really
going to be saved?

To me, it's as if Caravaggio almost
felt that salvation was something

he could not touch or see any more.

And I think that angel is almost
like pressing down on these people.

Is he lifting them up?
Or is he pressing them down

into the pit of poverty?

Why is that hand of the angel like
that?

That hand is the hand of mercy.

Naples wouldn't be
merciful to Caravaggio.

Three years later,
after injuring a man in Malta,

he returned to the city
and was ambushed outside a tavern.

While the three accomplices
held Caravaggio down, the man

from Malta got his knife out
and cut Caravaggio's face off,

it's said.

So, see Naples and die - that was
certainly true for Caravaggio.

At least we've seen Naples -

wonderful, life-affirming city
that it is - and survived.

Now we're continuing our journey
south into the region of Campania.

Our route takes us along one of the
greatest coastal roads of the world.

It is spectacular, isn't it?

This road really is carved into...

it's almost like
the time has carved through,

we've come through with people.

This road was created in the 1830s.

Andrew, one mistake and you're out.

You're not letting me
do the guida sportiva?

Guida sportiva, be careful
cos it's wet. If we turn around

and end up down there, man,
we're going to be really...

Dead! ..going to be really dead,
so watch it.

Today, Amalfi -

the little town that gives its name
to this peninsula -

is a bustling tourist resort.

A thousand years ago,
it was a mighty maritime republic

rivalling Genoa and Pisa.

Such a tiny little...

That is pretty amazing, Andrew.

What a huge cathedral
for such a tiny place.

It is, isn't it? Except, of course,
Amalfi wasn't a tiny place.

An Arab visitor came here
in the 9th century

and commented on
Amalfi being far grander,

far more opulent, far more populous

than little Naples
around the corner. No way! Yeah!

Amalfi was... I didn't know that.

Amalfi had population of 70,000
at its height,

comparable to the populations
of Rome, Paris or London.

This cathedral,
I mean, look at the size of it.

You've got this beautiful tower
with Romanesque arches

and at the top
are these Arab-style towers

decorated with Arab maiolica

and that's a key to

Amalfi's cultural and
economical centre of gravity.

They looked east, east and south.

BELL TOLLS

This wasn't just a city,
this was a republic.

And when they sacked Constantinople
with the Venetians,

the Amalfitani stole
the relics of St Andrew.

It was quite a common thing to do,

called a "sacre furta" -
"holy theft".

If you didn't have a saint
associated with your town,

which they didn't, steal
his relics and make them yours.

In 1343, the coastline was
devastated by a tsumani

which destroyed Amalfi's harbour.

The maritime republic
never recovered.

Before we head further south,
I'm taking Andrew on a small detour.

We can't leave the Amalfi coast
without visiting a restaurant

that draws in
connoisseurs of fine dining

from all over the world.

I want you to meet these guys

called Don Alfonso.

These are the guys we
want to cook a plate of pasta with.

He is the don of pasta.
You know... The main man.

If there is somebody that can
teach you something about pasta

or can teach even me something
about pasta, that's the guys.

This Michelin-starred chef gets
the inspiration for his recipes

from his beautiful kitchen garden
overlooking the island of Capri.

Dove siete? Qua!

GIORGIO LAUGHS AND CHATS IN ITALIAN

Ti ho portato Andrew guarda.

Very pleased.
Very pleased to meet you.

Look, no wonder
these tomatoes are good,

they are looking at Capri all day.

It's like being on holiday!

We send the tomato plants
on holiday in front of Capri

and then we eat them!

HE LAUGHS

The whole philosophy of this is,

when the chefs come to work for him,

the chefs have to work in the land
before they get into the kitchen.

That's right.

So it has really reinforced
this incredible tight feeling

that is between the food that grows
and what we transform into food.

Cosa cuciniamo
cosa facciamo da mangiare?

Facciamo il Vesuvio di rigatoni
usando questi pomodori.

Vesuvius of rigatoni?

That's right, with these tomatoes

And this eggplant. This aubergine.
From the garden, from the farm.

The restaurant is a family business

and Don Alfonso has now passed
the baton to the next generation.

The older son. Sono Andrea.

That's Ernesto, his older son.

Andrew, this is the temple.
This is a temple!

We are in the place.
This is the altar.

This is the altar, where,
you know...

Allora. Allora.

ERNESTO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

The pasta has been cooked.

Two minutes only.

I've never seen a pasta dish
made anything like this.

This is not a pasta dish,

this is a volcano, man, of pasta!
Questo e un vulcano!

We've talked a lot about this great
tradition of the monsu in Naples.

Si. They are the modern monsu,

they are the ones who have taken
the idea of serving a fantastic meal

to a level that was
never even talked about before.

Every five-star hotel now
has an Italian restaurant in it

so it is this complete dedication
to the land, to the ingredients,

to the natural flavours,

that has really given us
this big step forwards.

So, Andrew, look, we're going to
get it out. It smells good.

It smells fantastic, not good.

A little bit of Parmesan on top.
Perfect.

I love this. My God, the smell
is just, like, unbelievable.

Now this the mozzarella sauce.

It's like a mozzarella sauce,
like a mozzarella milk.

And basil sauce.

Colour of the Italian flags.

That's fantastic! Come on, taste it.

Me first.

You've got to get a polpettina.

THEY LAUGH

Mmm!

Did you get a polpettina?

Mmm!

Is that delicious?

This is a dish that I feel...
It's really delicious.

I really feel that it shows
all the goodness of this land.

Ernesto, buonissimo. Grazie.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

I'm so jealous that I haven't
invented a dish like that myself.

Just down the coast, there's a site

whose foreign origins predate
those of the Amalfi Republic

by over a thousand years.

I really wanted you to see Paestum

because so many people
come to this part of the world

and they go and visit Pompeii
and Herculaneum.

But for me, Paestum is much older

and I think
it's even more spectacular.

Look, here we are, here we are,

look, it's the oldest set
of fortifications this extensive

anywhere, anywhere. I mean,
look at that! That's ancient Greek.

For the ancients, Southern Italy
was known as "Magna Graecia" -

"Greater Greece".

The city of Poseidonia
was founded around 600 BC.

300 years later, it became part
of the expanding Roman Empire

and its name was changed to Paestum.

I really love this place.
Isn't it fantastic?

I mean, just the force of it -

it's like, "Grrr!"
Ancient Greece, ancient Greece

and what is so unusual here

is that they managed somehow
to leave it as it was,

you know, in the 18th century.
You would come across it,

nothing's spoilt it,
there's no shops.

These buildings are
2,600, 2,500 years old.

This was built before the Parthenon.

Before the Parthenon.
This is ancient, ancient, ancient,

but you can also, I think, feel
the strength of the early Greeks.

A great statement, isn't it?

They expelled young men
from the city states

and said, "Go and found
a settlement. You can't come back

"for ten years.
If you come back, we'll kill you."

So this is what they did.

I'm really impressed by the scale
and beauty of these temples.

For the ancient Greeks,
these temples, dedicated to Hera

and Poseidon,
were places of worship.

But to 18th-century visitors it was
the structures themselves that

became objects of veneration.

Imagine that you've just
come from Naples,

you've seen all of that Baroque
architecture,

you've experienced the general
debauchery of the city

and suddenly you're confronted
by the majestic simplicity

of the ancient Greeks. And people
who came here

were just bowled over by it.

Goethe said this was like a
strike of lightning hitting his
mind.

Winckelmann, the most influential
architectural theorist of

the time said, "This is the pure
water of antiquity."

And of course they didn't know Greek
art,

they didn't know Greek
architecture, not really,

because Greece was controlled by the
Ottoman Empire,

so it was off limits.

Paestum was this...
it was this bolt from the blue.

It's really outstanding.

It's not just the architecture
here that's inspiring.

In 1968, the excavation of a tomb
led to a discovery that

transformed our knowledge
of Greek painting.

As far as I know,
these are the oldest surviving wall

paintings from ancient Greek
culture, therefore

they are the oldest surviving wall
paintings in all of Western art.

It's been dated around 480BC.

These pieces formed
an enclosed tomb... Right.

..painted inside to be like a room
or be like a world,

so that the deceased could have
with him for ever,

the things or the people he wanted.

Over here, we've got the scene
of the ancient Greek symposium.

This is a homoerotic world -
no women.

If you're going to be in love,
you'll be in love with a man,

so there are two men embracing.
Those guys look so muscly,

they really look like body-builders.

That's the ancient Greek six-pack
right there, isn't it?

But the most striking thing,

and the largest image, is the one
that was created for the roof.

The ceiling. Yes, the ceiling.

This is what he would have

imagined himself looking up at
for all eternity.

This extraordinary
image of a diver in mid-air

and he's heading down towards
the sea.

And he is this sort of diagram
of energy coming down to enter

the great nothingness of the sea.

And this plant is coming up. And
it seems to me like, if he is diving

down, the plant is diving up, and
somehow he is becoming the plant.

Everything is becoming everything
else, that life is

a form of becoming in death,

and that when you're gone,
yes, you're gone,

but you're not completely gone,
you end up coming up in another way.

But I don't know. I don't know. I
just think it is a wonderful image.

Oh, Andrew, if you don't know,
nobody knows then.

Well, I'm sure someone will work
it out in the end!

Paestum was the last stop on the
Grand Tour.

Even today,
few tourists venture further south

unless it's to go to Sicily.

So, they miss
out on the Mezzogiorno's wildest

and most mysterious region.

Now we're going to get
into the Mezzogiorno. Calabria.

Calabria.

It had a reputation in the 18th
century, it was known as a place

where civilised people
just don't go -

ruled by brigands.

I think it's probably changed a bit
since then.

The Calabrian landscape is defined
by its spectacular mountain ranges.

In the 1860s, much of this
wilderness

was controlled by brigands,

southerners who resisted
the unification of Italy,

because they saw
it as a northern idea.

We've arrived in the Valli
Cupe, in the Sila Mountains.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN ITALIAN

Carmine
has offered to be our guide.

Why are we going into this
rather beautiful Fiat Panda?

Because the car is too low, that
one, to go anywhere and

because Carmine is a super driver.

You're going to have an experience
now, Andrew.

This is like... This
is an experience for you.

Carmine knows this
piece of the Calabrian

wilderness like the back
of his hand.

He told us that Thomas Aquinas'
mother once lived in these ruins,

just before making an intriguing
adjustment to his car.

Now he's putting the 4x4s,
now he's going to go fast.

Hang on for your dear life,
my dear friends.

THEY LAUGH

IN ITALIAN

OK. OK.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Is this basically
a Calabrian driving lesson?

This is a Calabrian life lesson.

HE TOOTS THE HORN
This is super, I love this.

It's OK? Perfect!
GO! GO! Go, Carmine!

You're a doctor of botanics?

He published two books about herbs
and things like that,

that's how we get to know him.

This amazing smell of different
herbs, I can smell oregano,

I can smell mint, yeah?

Lentisco, yes.

It's like a pepper, yes?

Lentisco is like a wild pepper and
it's really,

really good to serve with meat.

As we are going across, we are
obviously crushing some stuff.

Carmine isn't just a botanist,
he is also a local historian,

and in the
heart of the valley, he points out

the ancient hideout of the bandits
who used to terrorise the area.

OK, so the briganti used to steal
things. So then they would

take their bounty back here, so
they will discuss how to share it so

this area here is still
called "Parlare" which means "talk".

You can still hear the briganti.

They call those woods
the talking woods, cos you can

still hear them. That's right,
they're arguing about...

Carmine also wants to show us the
bandits' hidden trail,

a track so rugged,
even he can't drive down it.

Wow, Andrew! That is
incredible! Look at this...

No way! No! There is

something of the Wild West about it!

So menacing, isn't it?
It is kind of menacing.

HE REPLIES IN ITALIAN
It's 7km long!

7km long! It sliced
the mountain through. Si.

This has been
discovered about 10 years ago.

So it was like a secret
passageway for the briganti to

move around, so obviously normal
people wouldn't use it because

if you met the briganti, then you
are finished,

nobody would come by here.

When we are talking about
this place being wild, this is it!

This is what Calabria is all
about. Wild men.

So, when you're a child in
Calabria do you play like brigands

and peasants instead of cowboys and
Indians.

Can you translate for me?

The brigands of old still
exist in Calabria.

They're called 'Ndrangheta -

a fearsome local Mafia - and they've
tarnished the region to such

an extent that many
tourists are scared to come here.

But Carmine wants to change that.
He wants to alert the world to

Calabria's rich, cultural heritage
and vast areas of unspoiled nature.

Next stop, his favourite
tree in the forest - the Good Giant.

Wow! That is fantastic!

I've never seen a chestnut...

You know,
I've only ever seen oak trees
this big, never a chestnut tree!

Wow!

600 years old!

600 years old,
this is like a monument,

this is not a tree!

So this tree on its own,
produces 400 kilos

of chestnuts a year and that's
why they call it the Good Giant.

Obviously the chestnut
comes in a very low season, it's

the last gift, it's the one that is
going to get you through the winter.

Not only would
they eat the chestnuts

roasted like that, they would
dry them

in the pastillaro, which is this
purpose-built house. And then

it would be turned into flour.
They bake bread.

They make
chestnut bread? They make pasta.

I've never heard of chestnut
bread.

When you're starving, I'm
telling you, you find out things

that you could never imagine.
And these people were starving.

There was nothing else to eat,
there was produce of the land,

plentiful in certain seasons,
but a really hard, long winter.

If you had chestnuts, you had life.
You can survive the winter.

If you didn't have the
chestnuts, that's it, you would die.

That's the way it was.
So, that's why the veneration of the

chestnut tree? That's why. It's
the big boss looking down on us.

Before we leave Carmine's corner
of Calabria, he wants to give us

a taste of his hospitality.
He has invited us

to an evening feast
at his family home.

And luckily we've got a couple
of hours for our stomachs to get

over the 4x4 experience.

I keep banging my head on the roof!
Really? That's good.

Maybe you mature a little bit!

Carmine is such a mild-mannered
gentleman scholar!

Behind the wheel he's quite
transformed!

Calabrian cuisine is as varied
and as generous as the land.

I'm curious to see what Carmine

and his family will be
serving up tonight.

I'm expecting a lot of meat,
they don't eat much fish here,

even though they live
so close to the sea.

I wouldn't be surprised to see quite
a lot of Greek influence,

but let's see.

THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR

CARMINE GREETS THEM IN ITALIAN

What have we got here?

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

So, it is between a pizza
and a pitta bread,

because the Greeks were here.
They ruled this place.

This is so typical
of the cuisine of Calabria.

And there is this
mixture of vegetables and pork.

The pork lasted the winter
and vegetables will last the summer.

From humble ingredients comes
an extraordinary bounty

and a rich cuisine.

I love this method.
She's rolling it around a stick.

This is the only way to allow
the pasta to have

the space in the middle
so it cooks evenly.

The sauce will run through
and the cooking will be even

because the boiling water comes
through the thing.

When you are talking about
ergonomics

and you think about Italians being
so good at designing cars

and designing beautiful stuff,

this is where it all started.

Andrew, come
and have a look at this.

We have to come down here to
get the pinata.

Wow, this shows the Greek influence
in their food. Cooking in

an amphora? So chickpeas, salt,
water, in an amphora that is put

next to the fire, for at least four
hours. I want you to taste it before

they go up. He's going to take
them out now.

Mmm. Good? Really tender.

It's the custom for every guest to
contribute something and my

dish is simple fried potatoes and
wild mushrooms from Carmine's woods.

Just saute them like that.
Carmine is a biologist,

so the mushrooms are safe?
I hope so!

It seems to me that

you are always most at home in this
kind of situation. You see, Andrew,

I feel affinity with this food.
There is the produce of the land

and the produce of the experience
of the people over the years.

This is nothing scientific,
this is not pretentious.

This is transforming
something

into something edible, with
the best that they can do.

That's it.

A Calabrian feast is like a banquet
of different dishes

and flavours. And to enjoy it you'd
better have a healthy appetite.

Make sure there is
enough to go round.

It comes at you from all angles.
It's like Carmine's driving!

Boof! Baff! Baff! Boof!

Then there is some chilli sauce on
the side,

and there's pasta and cheese,
it's all happening at the same time.

If you look for truthfulness,
come to Calabria!

Aaawww! That is
the chestnut bread!

APPLAUSE

If this was
the bread that they have to eat

because there was nothing else to
eat, they were quite lucky!

THEY CHEER AND LAUGH

THEY CLAP AND SING

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

After the fall of Rome, Calabria was
ruled by the Byzantine Empire

for the best part of 600 years.

We're looking at this beautiful
landscape, very dry,

very mountainous.

It reminds me
of parts of Greece, particularly

this part of Calabria is a little
piece of the greater Greek world.

In Italy, they spoke Greek
here till the 1600s, that was its

principal language.

And I think the
reason we're coming here is

I wanted to show you this
place that, to me,

really is like a little piece
of Byzantine Greece,

here in Calabria.

In the 7th century,
the valley of Stilo became a refuge

for Greek monks who fled the East to
escape religious persecution.

They call this bit of Calabria
"Mount Athos in Italy", but here

you've got one of the few remaining
relics

of Byzantine Greek Christianity.

10th century, I mean, really early,

difficult to find these
churches nowadays. I visited

a beautiful one in Macedonia,
I've never seen one in Italy.

Isn't it beautiful?

Unfortunately the fresco that
would've once been

in the dome has gone.

I love these angels,
very eastern faces don't you think?

They look Greek, but you still see
those faces in cafes

and on the streets. You still
see them. And over here,

they've dated this column,
apparently this is 4th-century BC.

So this column they've taken
from a Greek temple, and they've

re-used it and you almost get
the different slices of history.

Because down here, you've got

a Roman capital. So, that
should be on top? It should be

on top. You've got Roman, Greek,

and here is an Arabic inscription
which says "there is

"only one true God" and that dates
from when the Arabs had a great

deal of power here and they probably
used this building as an oratory.

It's almost like an X
marks the spot,

one of the very few surviving
remains of this astonishing

upsurge of eastern Christianity,
here in this corner of Calabria.

It's astonishing how this church has
witnessed the passage of

so many different religions.
To me it's another beautiful

and revealing
chapter of the history of Calabria.

Oh, please, Andrew!

Look at this! Norman cathedral,
Arab details. Back in time, we are.

Coming to dinner. I'm going
to cook you something for tonight.

I'm hungry. Again.

It's going to be your... It's
going to be fantastic, you will see.

Two days I am working at it.

I love these little alleys. Do you?

There, undo that. This is
what you're going to eat tonight.

What is it?! It's like a kind
of prehistoric creature.

Funny enough, we are in a piece
of land that has got

the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side,
the Ionian in the other side.

What the people eat on
the land is this.

What is it? Stockfish.

It's married with potato,
Tropea onions -

the most famous red onions in the

world, this one. Bit of parsley,
tomato sauce which is local as well.

The fish gets kind of salt for 48
hours. So here is what it becomes.

So, that is this?
This is rehydrated, you see?

So, we have got some olive oil,
which is

obviously local olive oil,
which is fantastic.

We get the onions to go in the pan,
and this goes on the fire, OK?

So, let's go.

We're going to break it in like
that, with it. A little bit.

And then the other,
we're going to add it after.

The onions have grown in the very
sandy terrain,

because apparently where Tropea was,
there was like a volcano

and then the sand from Africa
has been brought in by the wind

and filled up the volcano. So you
have a very special, sandy terrain,

and so the onions are sweet.

We don't put any salt, because the
fish is already salty enough.

Some water from the Aspromonte,

this is the water that
comes from this mountain.

So it is beautiful.
Get the fish now.

Get the fish. You idiot!

THEY LAUGH
You're incredible, I love it. OK.

We are going to put the potato on
top of it. You don't put any salt?

No salt at all.
So that really is straightforward.

Should we go and contemplate
the beauties of the landscape?

Now we can. Is it boiling?
I want to hear it going like that.

Raaargh!

After enjoying a passeggiata,

I think it's time to
check on the stoccafisso.

The smell of food wafting up.
Our food should be ready in a

minute. Do you think it's ready
yet? I think so. Let's go

and have a meal. Let's go and have
something.

Look at this, one little square
after another little square.

Such a pretty place, isn't it?

Wow. Stoccafisso.
Bubbling away. Just add the parsley

at the end of the cooking.
That looks perfect.

So, what do we start with?
A bit of fish and...

You start as you want. OK. I'm
responsible for what's in the pan.

You are responsible to put
it in your mouth. It could've done

with a little salt...

It's true. It could've done
with a tiny bit of salt.

I've been really careful because
I was really scared about the salt.

It's really, really lovely
and it's simple.

That's lovely. I have to say that
personally,

this is my kind of food.
I prefer this.

That's why we travel together.
Chin-chin.

To Calabria. To Calabria.

Our final destination,
on the toe of Italy,

is the city of Reggio Calabria.

Reggio has been repeatedly destroyed
by earthquakes and the way

it's been rebuilt hasn't always
represented Italy at its finest.

It's not the best architecture,
is it? No, it's just gone wild.

Reggio might not
be as picturesque as Naples,

but it is home to two of the
greatest works of art in the world.

So you wouldn't imagine it from
the setting - Regional Government

Building for Reggio Calabria - but
inside... A bit scary, isn't it?

The Riace Bronzes are a pair
of truly exceptional

ancient Greek sculptures, currently
undergoing restoration

by Nuncio Schepis, a wonderfully
warm conservator,

who has welcomed us into his den.

Welcome. Just have a look,
Giorgio, at the Bronzi di Riace.

I cannot believe I'm so close to it.

They're two warriors,
they were found by a scuba diver,

who was diving just off the coast
and he saw a hand sticking up

from the sand and his first thought
was,

there was a dead body down
there.

Of course. So he dived down,
touched the hand and realised it

was bronze and this was sticking
out like that! They're

the greatest surviving sculptures of
true ancient Greece. And in such an

amazing state of preservation. Look
a this. The six-pack. The heroic

marshal - military six-pack. He was
once holding a weapon. We don't know

the origin of the sculpture, but
I like to think, they were perhaps

one of this
famous group of eight bronze heroes,

created as a great monument to the
Greek victory

at the Battle of Marathon.

Interesting that they
should've been found

here in Reggio Calabria,
because during the period

when the Romans took over
Magna Grecia, of course Romans loved

Greek art and to have managed to
get their hands on these,

that would have been fantastic.
So I wonder if the boat that lost

these sculptures off the coast here
was actually on its way to Rome?

What makes these sculptures

so remarkable was the technology
pioneered to create them.

The so-called "lost wax" method.

So this shows you how
they created the sculpture,

it's hollow inside. Bronze was
immensely expensive material,

so what they did was they made

the model of the foot and of the
leg, they would create

that from clay, they would then
paint wax inside,

fill it with earth,
pack it with earth from the outside

and then pour the bronze.
The wax would melt

and you are left with the
form that you've modelled, but now

it's made of bronze. Yeah.
But so many bronze sculptures

are gone. Bronze sculptures got
melted down, turned into cannons.

Into weapons. So much
was lost. That's one of the miracles

of this discovery is, you know,
just the fact that it's still here!

If you really look at the detail,
under this missing hair, you can see

the ear. They even bothered to
create the ear,

that was going to be covered by the
hair. I can't believe this fact

that he has the ears, underneath of
his hair.

Did you notice the tooth? The teeth,
I noticed the teeth are made of
silver.

They are covered in silver. Those are
the only teeth

of any bronze sculpture
from ancient Greece, right? Right.

Right. You can actually see
they've got eyelashes. Eyelashes.

Rare. Yes, little eyelashes
made of points. Actually they use

the lamina. They attach each little
piece, they make each hair.

Each eyelash? Each eyelash. It's
like the past is looking at us.

At you. You feel like you look
at them and they look at you.

It's like they want to protect you.
Like guardians. Yeah.

So, what do you think? Are you
pleased to see them? I'm so pleased

that we've come here. Thank you for
that.

It's really fantastic. Like what
Nuncio says,

they have a personality.
It's a person there, it's not just

a statue, it is something that is
alive. You can see the blood running

through their veins. Good
finale to the trip? I think it's

the best finale we could ever have.
Yeah, for me this is the top.

Our journey that began in Genoa,

over a thousand kilometres to the
north, is at an end.

We have reached the tip.
Sicily. Beloved Sicily is there.

Look at that.
Very close to the foot. Yes.

But there is one thing, there is
one thing that you cannot miss here.

It's called 'Nduja.
50% pork, 50% chilli.

The antibiotics property
of the chilli are used to cook,

to cure the actual pork, so that
means there is no salt in it.

Ching! Close your eyes.

Close your eyes.

And that is Calabria coming to you.
It's hot. Oh. It's hot.

They're extremely warm people,
and generous and, you know... Mad.

I think it is a bit like Sicily,
the story here.

The Calabrians are beginning to
realise what they have

got in terms of art and architecture
and antiquities and cuisine.

And they're beginning to...
And nature. Exactly.

They're beginning to put that
together.

Do you remember where we started?

We started in Genoa and travelling
around Liguria, the pesto

and it's all green, and the people
are rather reserved and quiet.

Very English. And as we've gone on
and on and on further south.

The Tuscans. Remember Livorno?

It becomes louder and louder
and louder and hotter and hotter

and hotter. Hotter,
we're getting close to Africa here.

I think on this journey,
I've been more conscious than ever

of the vast differences between
the different regions of Italy.

The difference between the people is
so enormous,

and you need to understand that.

A Milanese is
an Italian like a Neapolitan,

but they are two different animals,
you know? Completely. Cheers.

Andrew, we reach the bottom,

but now what is left to do is to go
up to the Adriatic side. More?!

You want to go around the Adriatic?!
Yes! All the way up to Venice!

That's more than 1,000 miles.
That's OK.