All language subtitles for Sicily Unpacked 1of3 Palermo 720p HDTV x264 AAC MVGroup org_Subtitles01.ENG

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

Is it a town, or is it
a piece of theatre?

'I'm Giorgio Locatelli,
and I'm a cook.'

The sultana is really tiny in this
recipe, like a little Sicilian!

'We both share a passion...'

This is real Baroque!
This is decadent.

'..a love...'

Oh, oh!

'..an obsession...'

I've never seen anything like that.

'Her name?

'Sicilia, the Mediterranean
island of Sicily.

'We've both been
her ardent suitors for years.

'I love how layers of history
have created a unique blend of
art and architecture here.'

It's like we're in the World Cup,
in archaeological terms. Yeah!

'And I adore the incredible flavour
and no-nonsense approach to food.'

Here you are, in ten square metre,
you can find all of these
ingredients in front of you.

'But it's only recently
we discovered

'that we share the same intense
passion for the island.

'So, we decided to team up
and travel here together.'

This really is the Naked Chef! Yes!

The real one.
He's the real Naked Chef!

'In sharing our knowledge and love
for the island with each other,

'we hope to uncover even more
of the secrets and treasures.

'The sadness...'

This was a hole in the nation.

This was a hole in the
heart of the nation.

'..and the pleasures of
our beloved Sicily.'

As a piece of sincere painting,
it's fantastic!

'From simple delicious food,
packed with incredible flavour...'

Perfection!

'..To the truly jaw-dropping
art and culture,

'a mirror to the exuberance

'and extraordinary history
of its people.'

APPLAUSE

'Our very first stop,
a place called Porto Paolo, on the
Southern coast of the island.'

For me to come here, I have the
same feeling that I'm going home

to my village in Northern Italy.

At the moment, I feel like... brrr!

My heart is beating,
know what I mean?

'It's a restaurant on the beach.
owned by my good friend Vittorio.

'It may not look like much, but it's
my favourite spot in all Sicily

'and the place I head first
every time I come here.

'It's an annual pilgrimage,
to remind me

'what real, honest food is all about,
Sicilian style.

'I hope Andrew likes it.'

What a beautiful place! Yes.

A shack by the seaside,
it looks like.

That's all it was when he started.

Vittorio!

Vittorio!

How are you?

Tonight we're going to drink, he
says. He's been preparing for you.

We are going to go and get some fish
to have for dinner tonight.

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

OK. We'll give him a call
to sort out,

we're going to go and buy
some fish, for dinner tonight.

We're going to get it from the boat.
There's the way he cooks.

Look, that's it, see? That's...
He cooks like that.

That's the way I want to cook
in my life, not in London with

the jacket and this and that,
this is the way you want to cook.

This really is the Naked Chef!

Yes, the real Naked Chef!
LAUGHTER

The seas around Sicily have
long been the richest ones

in the Mediterranean and today,
the Porto Sciacca boasts

one of the largest
fleets in all of Italy.

It was founded by the Greek
colonisers in ancient times,

but during the Arab occupation
of the 9th century,

it became an important stop on
the trade routes to North Africa.

Trade brought hundreds of years
of foreign influence and fish -

lots of fish, tons of the stuff

still comes through
the port every day.

So, this was two days' fishing.
These guys are going to go to Milan.

So, this will be in the market
tomorrow morning...in Milan.

The whole boat...? The whole boat -
whatever it catches today,

it goes on the van and goes
straight to Milan. Oh, that turbot!

Skate. Skate? Skate.

Look at that. Beautiful.

It just keeps coming. Look at that.

Look, little sharks.

What I love best about Sciacca
are the lively dockside auctions,
where the locals haggle for fish.

SHOUTING

Rough, rude and even
a little anarchic for me.

What's happening is this -
the two boats have come in
and have all the fish on top.

That guy's telling the price
of the boxes coming up.

Everybody looks at the box,
you buy by the box.

What is important - hold the
price up as much as you can.

So then, take out fish and stop a
little bit, so that everybody panics.

No more, no more.

It goes up in fives, so 40, 45, 50.

Are you saying it's 50 euros?
Yes, for that box.

For a crate of scampi!
For a crate of scampi.

What I don't understand...
Could I come here with 50 euros?

Well, if he doesn't know you,
he maybe not take your bid.

Pero, if you are there with the money
in your hands, he will take it.

SHOUTS

What I love about this
typically Sicilian market

is that although it's
doing big business -

a supplier to top restaurants
all over the country -

it's nothing fancy.

It's salty, genuine, unpretentious.

The fish is what's important here,
not the window dressing.

Sta sera va bene per mangiare?
This is what we'll eat tonight.

E questa le mangiamo, OK?
What is that?!

Tromba. Tromba.
MAKES TROMBONE NOISE

OK. OK?

I'm not sure if
I should be celebrating.

I'm kind of worried
about eating that.

What the hell is that, Giorgio?
I've never seen that before.

I've never seen it as well.
LAUGHTER

HE SINGS

Back at the restaurant,
the kitchen is in full swing
for the evening service.

# ..Ci sono malattie inevitabili... #

Like Giorgio and I,
Vittorio isn't from Sicily.

But when he arrived
over 40 years ago,

he fell in love with it and stayed.

And in embracing the
native approach to food,

Vittorio has made
Sicilian culture his own.

Take the best ingredients, allow
their quality to shine through,

and present them with
as little fuss as possible.

Pasta fritta.

The most important thing
at Vittorio's is not to
ask for the menu.

They don't like the menu, or the idea
of being tied to a piece of paper.

It's not about writing about it.
It's about getting it,
cooking it and eating it.

Look at this,
the most amazing thing.

This is roast swordfish,

a little slice of orange
has been cut underneath.

So, that's raw marinated swordfish
with blood orange?

I'm going to give you some of these,
these are little tiny baby squid.

Yes. Fried. Again, this is what
we saw today in the market.

All we have here now
has been fished today.

Sitting here in front of all this,
amazing riches from the sea,

it strikes me that the Sicilians
have always had a bit of
a dual relationship with the sea.

On the one hand, it's where
the enemy comes from.

It's where the invaders come from,
the Spanish, the Arabs,
all these people

who've dominated and controlled
them. On the other hand,

it's the source of so much life,
such bounty.

In Sicily, so often, there's this
double aspect to something.

It's funny you say that because,
especially in a place like Sciacca,

you have a division
between the town -

all the houses you can
see from the port,

those are where the fisherman lives,
facing the sea.

And they speak one dialect.

The people the other side
of the Corso,

they are the people
who work the land.

The people who work the land say
the people of the sea are stupid.

Because you just go down,
put down the net and whatever
comes up, you take back.

"But we are clever. We have
irrigation, we grow things,
we tame nature."

So they see themselves as
belonging to a later stage -

the hunter-gatherers
are the sea guys

and we're the agricultural ones.

Yeah. We're more like civilised.

We get water to run where we want.

Do they ever marry each other, the
people from the land and the sea?

No!
So, real-life Romeo and Juliet?

Real-life Romeo and Juliet. Amazing.

Like opera. It's like a drama,
everything is there.

All elements of Ital...
Sicilian culture are in it.

'At last, the main course arrived.'

Voila! Aaaaah! Ha, ha!

Bravo! Madonna, che bello! Piacere.

There's no holds barred!
..E piccolo, lui.

'Simple boiled lobster.
Lobster with vegetables, herbs
and a dressing of oil or lemon.

'My kind of cooking.'

'Simple stuff, but one of the most
delicious meals I've ever eaten.'

Hmm, oh, che bello, eh?!

Cheers!

BOTH: Cheers! Cin-cin, dai!

What I love most about Sicily is how
rich and diverse in culture it is.

Every old town is like a three
course meal of history, beauty,

and atmosphere.

Just as delicious as the food,

just as heady as the local wines.

But the best place of all
to begin the feast?

The capital - Palermo.

Colourful.

Theatrical.

It's my favourite city,
anywhere in the world.

A cultural layer cake baked
over more than 1,000 years

by Sicily's diverse colonisers.

Every time I come here, I discover
something new to marvel at.

And this is perhaps my favourite
slice of that historical cake.

Tucked away on a back street
is this unassuming chapel -

the Oratory of Santa Cita.

It's the unlikely home
of a magnificent artwork

and I hope Giorgio will find it
every bit as tasty as I do.

This is the art equivalent of
going and having an ice cream,

or perhaps a glass of bubbly.

It's very light,
very beautiful, very fun.

Actually, I want you to
close your eyes.

Come on, close your eyes.

This is meant to be a treat.
I'm going to lead you this way.

I just want you to get
the full blast.

I'm going to take you here.

LAUGHTER

Now, OK...

Whoa!

What do you think?
That is incredible.

Can you believe that we just walk
off that street and here we are?

Yeah, you wouldn't expect
something like this. So...

rich and beautiful.

'This exuberant masterpiece
of Baroque sculpture was created
by a local artist

'in the second half
of the 17th century.

'But in true Sicilian style,

'the origins of the work
and the artist are simple.'

It's by this guy called
Giacomo Serpotta...

who was a poor artisan,

who lived in the area of the city

where they traditionally made
the statues for religious
processions and ceremonies,

but they also did all the
theatrical scenery and props.

What is it made of?
It's made of stucco. Stucco.

It looks like marble, doesn't it?
Yes.

See, that's interesting,
because his secret was,
he added a bit of marble dust.

Right. You create
an armature of wood and wire,

and then you make a paste,

and to this paste,
he added marble dust.

That meant that he could get
a kind of fineness of texture.

Whereas all the other stucco artists
were forced to paint their figures
to make them lifelike,

he actually created it
in the form itself.

So, it's not cast?
Everything is made one by one?

Yeah. He had a workshop.

He finished every
single figure himself.

The other reason I thought
you'd like it, it seems to me,

that's it's also...

It's almost like a culinary art,

the creation of stucco.

It is like a massive cake,

from the inside!

The thing he was really
famous for and where you get
the full theatricality,

is these putti - the little babies
which are everywhere. Yeah.

And they get smaller as they go up,

which gives you the impression
that it's really tall.

Well, it's basically
a theatrical curtain -

and into that theatrical curtain,

he's carved a series of almost
like little theatre boxes.

And each one tells a story.

On the side walls, we have the
stories of the life of Christ.

Ah, yes. Exactly.
SPEAKS ITALIAN

But if you look at each one,
you look at the scene, for example,

you've got baby Jesus
asleep in the manger.

And above, look, the putto,
he's sleeping. Look at that.

Serpotta is a guy from the streets.
We know his dad died in prison,

left the family with no money.

This was Serpotta's first
commission on a grand scale.

The first time he was given a
chance to do something like this

with his street artist know-how.

And did he pull it off, or what?

He did, definitely. He really did.

So, you like it? I love it.

'The scene in Serpotta's stucco boxes

'reminds me how theatrical
Sicilian culture can be.

'There is one kind of theatre
that epitomises Sicily more than
anything else I can think of.

'The art of puppetry.

'I remember taking my daughter,
Margarita, to see a show
when she was a child.

'And I loved it.
I thought Andrew would, too.'

APPLAUSE

'UNESCO-protected,
the Cuticchio Theatre is recognised
as the best on the island.'

'Many of the ancient stories are
the ones that inspired the Crusaders,

'but they have been Sicilian-ised.

'The characters include
Knights in Spanish Armour,

'Arab Saracen and Norman Nobleman,
all of whom invaded the island.

'They are tales of vendetta,
passion and brutal conflict.

'A reminder that this island was born
as much out of blood as sunshine.'

APPLAUSE

'Before leaving, I want a word with
the puppet master, Mimmo Cuticchio.

'His family have been puppeteers
for over three generations.'

It's my first time. I thought
it was absolutely fantastic, one of
the best things I've ever seen.

It's a combination of visual art,
sculpture, theatre, literature...

Also, you're acting.

Yes, it is like a silent film.
They've got strong faces.

I have to say,
he scares me a little bit.

It reminds me of Mangiafuoco,
the guy in Pinocchio!

We've certainly been scared tonight.
Grazie.

We will. Grazie. Grazie.

Grazie. Grazie. Buon viaggio.
Arrivederci.

'Palermo became the capital of
Sicily in the year 902,

'when Muslim Arab colonisers
first consolidated their grip
on the island.'

They say it was one of the most
beautiful cities in Europe.

I think they said the three great
cities at the time were
Cordoba, Damascus and Palermo.

And they said that in Palermo,
they had 1,000 mosques.

'To see what's left of that,
we're off to the Kalsa,

'now the ancient Arab
quarter of Palermo,

'but once the very city itself.

'To get there, we've got to brave
the very modern traffic.'

There's so little left
of the Arab city.

You really have to scratch
quite deep to get any traces.

'But if you look hard enough,
they are there.'

They love their horses, don't they?
That's an Arab influence.

They're obsessed with horses
in Sicily.

CAR HORN BEEPS

You are really expressing your
Palermitano in your driving!

I'm trying to blend in.

'I'm introducing Andrew
to the flavour of Arabsis

'with a dish of sardine pasta -

'a Sicilian classic with
a pinch of North Africa.'

Buongiorno, Signor Franco.
Buongiorno!

'Signor Franco Trattoria is shut
during the day, so we have arranged

'to borrow his kitchen to
prepare the dish for lunch.'

The most important ingredient
for pasta de sarde

is the wild mountain fennel.

It's only used in Sicily,
nowhere else.

So, this is what we see everywhere,
by the roadside,

it grows in profusion? Yes.

So, the idea is we are going to put
some of that in the boiling water,

which we seasoned.

We put a little bit of the fennel.

When we cook the pasta,
it'll take up all the flavour.

OK? As that one is infusing, we are
going to start to cook that sauce.

We're going to put a little bit
of the anchovies in it. OK?

It is nice to use anchovies
instead of salt. I love anchovies.

Can I eat some of your ingredients?

Don't eat anything! Don't spoil your
appetite and say you're not hungry.

One little bit of anchovy.
That's OK.

OK, the next thing
I am going to put in, sultanas.

The sultana is really tiny and
aggressive, like a little Sicilian.

As this is cooking gently, I'm going
to add a little bit more oil...

..in order to keep the
temperature low.

I let it cook.

I want the onions and the sultanas
and everything else

to take in the flavour
of the anchovies.

This is stratto, which is like...
It's like a tomato paste.

You can taste it. Instead of being
cooked down, this is sun-dried.

So, they made this paste,
lay down big...

It's almost like a sweet. Delicious.

I'm going to put like
a spoonful of that...

Then... These are the sardines?
The sardines, they go in.

Whose idea was it to put these
ingredients together? OK.

There is a story that says when the
Arabs arrived in Mazara del Vallo,

they found themselves with something
like 1,000 men, the army.

So, the guys in command asked them
to do some food for these people

when they arrived. These were all
the actual ingredients they found.

The smell is incredible,
isn't it? OK.

I am going to put my pasta in now.
Bang!

Now, there is one more thing. Some
people does it, some people don't.

But, you know, I like to put it in.
It's a little bit of saffron.

This is also Arabic.
That's why, sort of, you know...

I don't know, you give it
a base on the flavour.

What is the characteristic
that makes it

particularly expressive
of Arabic-Sicilian cuisine?

Is it the combination?

It's the combination of the flavour,
the ingredients and the culture.

There's no other pasta that is
made with sultanas in it.

So, that sweetness and that
edge of the sweet and sour

that they use, that's very Arab.
That's something.

And that sweet-sour combination,

you don't really find that in
Northern Italian pasta recipes?

Never. That's only in Sicily
that this is found.

OK, get in the pasta.

Really nice.

OK, we have to wait. There's one
more very important thing to do now,

which is la mollica,
bread crumbs and olive oil,

give you that little extra flavour.
OK, we should go.

You haven't even opened the wine,
what is the matter with you?

By the time you've served the pasta,
the wine will be open.

I always find when
I'm serving pasta at home,

all the best stuff
gets left at the bottom

and I have to go around
everyone's plates again.

Just get stuck in? Just do it.

Mmm. It's a great smell.

This is going to be ugly.

It's not very easy to eat
elegantly, Giorgio.

No, no elegant people eat this.

This is meant to be for the workers,
the people from the port,

people who can only afford sardines.

Almost my favourite plate of pasta
that I ever ate. Yeah? Really.

I love it. It's so unusual.

The sweet and sour and
everything. Prego.

After a lunch like that,
it only seems right to take Giorgio

to see one of the few remaining
Arabic buildings in Palermo,

a palace called the Zisa.

Built in the 12th century,

it comes from the Arabic word
el-Aziz, "magnificent".

Although it was commissioned
by a Norman King, William I,

it's in the Arabic tradition.

The architects were instructed
to create a pleasure palace

which indulged the King's passion
for hunting and women.

This honeycomb vaulting...
It really is impressive.
It's very Arabic.

You see it in Alhambra. Also,
these tiles are like Islamic tiles.
That's right.

This is actually a palace
built for a Norman King,

but although he was a Christian,
he lived here like a sultan.

He had five wives. That's good!

I love this.
That's a little fountain coming down.

I can imagine the little noise
that it would make,

to jump, like if it was
in a little torrent.

And then carry on,
until it goes out there.

They'll have a gazebo
in the middle.

Then the water would be around it,
like a swimming pool sort of style.

And fish would be kept in it.
It was called a piscera.

So when they want a fish for lunch,

out a fish comes and
off it goes on the table.

So, this decoration
keeps the palace cool,

creates the sense almost of
living in an indoor garden.

But you've also got the
added benefit of fresh fish.

You have to think about the Arabs,
they introduced irrigation.

So, the use of water...
They were masterful on getting
the water where they wanted.

Water inside the building, that's a
typical thing of the Arabs. The Arabs
always have fountains inside.

I think of this space as a microcosm
of what happens to Arab culture

after the Arabs have gone.

It still stays embedded
in the system.

'Nowhere is the Arab legacy
more keenly felt

'than in the great fruit market.

'Palermo has four of them.

'Established by the Arabs
over 1,000 years ago,

'they still feel like a kasbah.

'But as well as being great traders,
the Arabs were agriculturists,

'which enabled new fruits and
vegetables to flourish on the island.

'This is the most famous
of Palermo's markets.

'the Vucciria - the name
literally means "hubbub",

'in reference to all the shouting
that goes on in here.

'I want to buy ingredients
for dinner tonight,

'but I haven't decided what to cook.

'So, like any Sicilian, I will go for
the freshest, the tastiest option.'

Buongiorno.

'The fish seller insisted
the sardines are the best.'

'Even though we had them yesterday,
they are back on the menu tonight.'

SPEAKS ITALIAN

'Andrew loves them,
so he will be happy.'

Look at the beautiful colour.
They're like silver. Yes.

He is going to clean them for us.

That's what he does,
he takes the heads off. Seven steps.

Picks the sardine up, look.
Heads off. Down...

Just the hands.
He's not looking at what he's doing.

Just feels it with his fingers.

He feels the bone and
the bone comes off.

See, here you go.
One, two, three, four.

... five, six, seven. Done.

I'll tell you the tragedy, Giorgio,

when I do this at home...

it takes me two minutes.

'What's really new about
tonight's menu is caponata,

'a delicious vegetable relish you'll
find in every house across Sicily.

'All I need is a few
simple ingredients.'

All the ingredients are here, look,

it already looks like
the recipe's done,

we don't need a recipe,
isn't it? Grazie, grazie.

TRADERS CALLING OUT

'All this food has given us
an appetite for art.

'The Vucciria market was
immortalised in a painting

'by Sicily's most celebrated
modern artist, Renato Guttuso.

'Painted from memory in 1974,
when Guttuso was living in Rome,

'it captures all the colour
and detail of the real market.'

I think it's a picture that appeals
to all the senses. It does.

The style is sort of, as it were,

a piece of the past that's frozen -
it's like a time machine.

Here he is, painting in a
kind of ancient, folkloric style

in the 1970s,
10 years before his death,

and there's that market
that we saw this morning,

and how much has changed
in that market? Nothing.

They've still got those light bulbs,

that profusion of
fruit and vegetables.

Even the clothes seem the same.

The packaging, also.

Do you remember seeing the guy
doing the twist of paper?

It's down, every last detail,
nothing has changed.

The details are incredible, as well.

The fish, they are completely
in rigor mortis, really standing up.

I had never seen that before,
and you explained to me

it's cos the fish are so fresh,
they're still in rigor mortis.

A lot of art critics
and art historians

turn their nose up a bit
at his late work,

because they say, "How can
this painter, who knew Picasso,

"how can he continue to paint
in this old-fashioned,

"folkloric, anecdotal way?
This isn't serious art."

But if you take that away
and you just look at it

as a place of sincere painting,
it's fantastic.

What is amazing is this
verticality that he has.

It goes on and on and on and on,
there is no end, it just goes on.

It really gives you the impression
the road is going up.

He's fish-eyed it, hasn't he?

'But the painting also hints at the
darker side of Sicilian history,

'a Sicily of ancient feuds
and modern violence.'

The more you look at it,
the more you see.

There seems to be a vendetta
brewing between the fishmonger -

who's holding the swordfish
almost like a blade,

the blade of the swordfish -
and the cheese seller.

And I notice there's a
little pentimento in the
cheese seller's hand -

a pentimento is where you've
painted something out -

and if you look closely
I think he originally had a knife,

so I wonder if they're
looking at each other,

do you think it's the origin
of a vendetta or something?

Could the woman
in the middle be...

Maybe there was a love story
between some of them,

because he's really crossing.

Everything else seems to be vertical,

this is the only moment that
you have something going horizontal,

that look between themselves.

Because you don't know
what the woman is doing,

she's walking up with
this big bag in her hand.

I think Guttuso actually
said that the line

that connects those guys' eyes,
he called it the line of death.

And the line up through
the centre of the picture
is the line of life,

and between them, they make a cross.

It's so visceral, isn't it?

It's so Sicily, and there's
a secret story going on, as well.

I cannot think about
any other picture

that just fulfils me
more than this one.

Obviously, it's about food, and...

It's almost edible!

..my life is all about food.

This is like something
is jumping at you,

it's just the richness of that,

the vibrancy of the colour
and the vegetables,

you can almost smell it.

I think this is a picture you'd like

for your personal
collection, isn't it?

I would love to have
this in my collection.

'As Giorgio prepares dinner,

'I leaf through an old cookbook
my mother gave me -

'Italian Food, by Elizabeth David.

'I've always loved the book for
its graphic, vivid illustrations,

'sketched, in fact, by
the painter of the Vucciria,

'Renato Guttuso.

'But David's beautiful capturing
of the strong, earthy flavours

'of Mediterranean cooking in words
is just as vivid as the pictures.

'David was the first writer to
introduce a war-weary British public

'to the gutsy flavours of
Italian cooking back in the 1950s.

'And she even includes
a recipe for caponata,

'the Sicilian dish
Giorgio's preparing.'

The first time I ate caponata,
I was in the Army

and there was this Sicilian guy,
and he went home to Sicily

and he came back with this jar
of caponata that his mum made.

He brought them in, got this bread
and we just put the caponata

on top of the bed and
we ate it like that.

And I thought, wow!

This was like blow me
completely away!

Little restaurants by the sea
always have the caponata,

but each one is different,
so basically everybody

makes their own caponata,
they find their own balance.

And you will find,
if you talk to them,

they think theirs is the best,
and this is so beautiful.

So, whose are we making now?
Are we making yours?

We're making your caponata, OK?
Oh, I see.

So, here is the base.

We've got the aubergine
and the onions.

We're going to mix them together.

You want a bit of courgette in it?
Definitely courgette.

I will put them all in.

Would you like the peppers in it?
Definitely.

We want all the colours
of the market.

I want all the colours
of the painting.

Your olives? Yeah.
We shall put them all in.

Yeah, we didn't do too many.

I like it when you sort of
discover the olives,

you have a few mouthfuls
where you don't get one.

You want to every now and again,
"Dah!" found an olive.

You're cooking with
all your senses -

with your nose, with your hands,
with your eyes...

The whole thing is coming together
absolutely beautiful.

Some tomato salsa...

I want the tomato,
but I don't know how much.

It needs a bit of sugar.

How does it look to you?
It looks good. OK.

'But what about those sardines?

'Let's see what else he can do
with these everyday fish.'

Look, I do one,
you have to do the other one.

So, we're going to put a
little bit of breadcrumbs,

a little bit of olive oil, and put
them in the oven and that is it.

We want the tail to stay up, Andrew,
and to be really tight,

otherwise they're going
to explode out.

So, you don't want any of the
stuffing to come out the side?
That's right.

Perfect, look,
and what we're going to,

we take one toothpick
and we go like, two at a time.

What's the essence of the
stuffing again? It's breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs, a little bit
of orange juice,

a little bit of lemon juice,
some pine kernels...

What I like about that market
is the immediacy of it,

and I was talking to
the fish guy, and saying,

"You don't seem to have much
fish today," and he said,

"No, there was a storm yesterday,
so it wasn't very good fishing,
but the sardines were good."

They were so beautiful,
the sardines there. Yeah, they were.

This is very Sicilian,

they don't go out the house with the
idea of the recipe in their pocket.

They buy with their eyes,

they buy something that really
turns them on at that moment.

It's really, really important.

Can't wait.

Maybe we'll have to have
a glass of wine.

OK, here we are.

Perfect, absolutely cooked.

Beautiful.

They're like little birds, isn't it?

That's why they're like beccafico.

That smells good.
Can I give you some caponata? Great.

Don't forget, you've got the...

I won't forget,
I'm not going to eat the toothpick.

Are they nice?

It's fantastic.

It goes well with the caponata, wow.

That's nice.

What I like about that is that
is the whole market on a plate,

we've just chosen the nicest fish
they had that day.

But coming back to Elizabeth David,
I think, OK, an Englishwoman,

when was she doing this?
The 1950s,

when Mediterranean cuisine was
really not known in England.

I think of England in the 1950s,
I think the landscape is grey,

the city is grey
and the food is brown.

And if someone in that
generation comes to Italy...

She fell in love with it.

You can see that in the book.

It was not a matter of technicality.

That's why the book stands out,
after 50 years.

That's why it is difficult to
write a book for English people

that is better than that.

It's like a love letter to Italy.

And I love the fact that
she got our man Guttuso,

the painter of the market,

who captured all the colours
and flavours in a painting,

she got him to do the illustrations.

Cheers. Salute.

Us.

'Sicily's had many rulers
over the years,

'and in 1072, after two centuries,

'the Arabs surrendered control
of Palermo to a new colonial power.

'The Normans were already
ruling much of Europe,

'and soon the whole island
was under their control.

'In 1130, the son of the first
Norman ruler of Sicily,

'Roger II, crowned himself king.

'And I want to show Giorgio
his personal place of worship -

'the Palatine Chapel.'

So, what do you think?

Andrew, this is incredible!

'Built in 1132, it's the work of
Byzantine Greek and Arab craftsmen.'

What is the function of this room?
It's a chapel,

built for a Norman King -

King Roger.

Arguably, it's the most fine
surviving mediaeval

ensemble of art and architecture
anywhere in the world.

The other thing that's
amazing about this chapel

is that it's been in continuous use
as a chapel since the 12th century.

It's incredible, isn't it?
Look at that.

It's like an Arab ceiling, isn't it?

It's an incredible
sort of piece of work,

all made out of cedar wood.

It's called a stalactite technique,

and it had only been invented
in the Arab world 100 years before.

You've got Byzantine mosaics,

incredible Italian...look at
this floor, this stonework.

And these walls -
wonderful decoration.

The Normans were very conscious
that they didn't have

much visual culture of their own,

so their tendency was to be magpies,

to take the absolute best they could
find in each place they conquered,

and, of course, Sicily
had such a rich variety

of different heritages that they
could create something like this.

So, if it had been made somewhere
else in northern Italy,

it wouldn't have all the
Arab influence in it.

The Normans ruled England.

In fact, they were taking over
England just about the same time

as they were taking over Sicily.

They didn't create anything
like this there,

because they didn't have
the materials to draw on.

In a way, what you get here is

both aspects of what I think of as
the Byzantine Mosaic tradition.

On the one hand, you get
the vault of heaven -

Christ looking down on you.

With the angels surrounding him.

But then, the other side is
this storytelling tradition

that has a huge influence
on Italian fresco tradition.

The Nativity, the baptism of Christ.

Isn't it beautiful, the baptism?

I love the way they do the water.

Yes, just on top of it,

you can see the rippling of the
water, the image coming out.

And the angel with the towel
is fantastic.

I think this bit is
truly stunning, isn't it?

I think when you're here, you can
feel very much how this church

or this chapel pulls in
two different directions.

At the far end, you feel under the
eye of God, but at this end,

where Roger would have sat enthroned
with Christ's power, as it were,

being beamed down
directly onto his head,

you feel that this space is very
much an assertion of kingship.

Divine right to rule. Yeah.

But what I love...
Just look at this.

The quality. Isn't that fantastic?

In the Islamic world,

they weren't allowed to express
God through the figure,

so they had to express
the idea of God,

the power of God,
the perfection of God,

through this wonderful geometry,
through this colour,
this patterning.

So, that also is a way of
Roger expressing his power.

It's like he's taking power
from different cultures.

But he doesn't forget to put
himself in the middle of that.

That's his coat of arms coming out,

so the power from above, from God,

and the political power,
the ruler from this side.

I think that's what
this space is about,

and I also think that ambiguity is
partly what makes it so compelling.

ORGAN BEGINS TO PLAY

'But this intoxicating building
isn't just a museum.

'As a working church, it's
the most popular place to get
married in Palermo today.

'One of the things I love most
about Sicily is the fact that

'the people really inhabit
their own rich history,

'and the Palatine Chapel's
no exception.

'History isn't merely heritage here,

'something to be preserved
behind glass.

'It's alive, present, highly visible
in the fabric of everyday life.'

HE BLESSES THE BRIDAL COUPLE

'But the greatest threat to
in recent times

'is also quintessentially Sicilian...

'The Mafia.

In the early '60s, the Mafia
infiltrated the city council

'and managed to have many of
Palermo's great historic
buildings demolished.

'Why?

'To replace them with
shoddy concrete tower blocks

'as a way of laundering their
drug money in a catastrophe

'that some called
"the sack of Palermo".

'But the Mafia organisation
would eventually be challenged.

'In the 1980s, a Palermitan judge
called Giovanni Falcone

'began investigating the
Sicilian crime network.

'He wasn't prepared to be bought,

'so the Mafia had him murdered on
the motorway that runs into Palermo.

'The date of the murder
was 23rd May 1992.

'It is imprinted in the memory
of every Italian.

'The spot where Falcone, his wife
and the bodyguards were killed,

'near the suburb of Capaci,
is marked with a memorial.

'For us Italians,
it is almost a sacred place.'

You can see the place.

Right there,
so clearly in front of you.

Can you see that?

Yeah.

See, they have a little
space to stop, because
people want to stop here.

People ring their horn as they go by.

They mark it with a horn?

With a horn, yeah.
People still remember.

People will never forget that.

It was a tragedy.

I want to show Andrew the place,
high above the motorway,

from where the Mafia assassin
Giovanni Brusca
committed the murders.

Falcone had been working in Rome

and flew in to spend
the weekend in Palermo.

He was driving from the airport
when the murders happened.

Andrew, you can see,
that's Punta Raisi, the airport.

Giovanni Falcone fly in.
He's having a day off.

So, there's two teams.

One team, then, is up here.

The day before, they laid down
the explosive, down there.

And they have a remote.

The other team is at the airport,
and is coming behind Falcone.

They are travelling
in this convoy of three cars

and Falcone's on the second car.

He travels next to them.

And he gives them a signal
to tell them

what was the speed
that they're having.

He tells them they're going
at 120 kilometres an hour.

Why is that important?

In order to get it right,

to blow it at the moment it's going
over where they place the explosive.

So, they disappear for a second
and they come around the bend.

Giovanni Brusca
is holding the remote.

And the other guy loses it
completely and starts to shout.

"Press the button,
press the button now. Press it now!"

Giovanni holds it, holds it,
holds it, holds it.

He knows there is a little relay,

because he's tried this
system before.

So, he waits until the car
comes to the second bend there,

and then he presses it.

First car is gone,

and the car of Giovanni Falcone
is right in the middle.

Hell, practically hell happened
there. The road was a hole.

But not only...
The significance of that,

it was like a front of war
to the state.

This was not just
a hole in the ground.

This was a hole in the nation,
a hole in the heart of the nation.

If these guys can be
killed like that,

nobody who serves the state is safe.

This is the great message
that they were trying to put on.

So, is it fair to say that this
moment marked the beginning,

even here in Sicily, of a popular
revulsion against the Mafia?

Definitely.
The people really understood

that they could not allow
something like that to happen.

But Falcone's death would kick-start
a popular revolt against the Mafia.

The Sicily I love so much began
to find a voice, to fight back.

In 2004, the Addiopizzo collective
was born in Palermo,

an organisation of businesses
who refused to pay the pizzo -

protection money to the Mafia.

Now, over 700 businesses across
Sicily are part of the movement.

And one of the first to take a stand

was the owner of the Antica
Focacceria, Vincenzo Conticello.

When he reported the Mafia demands
for bribes to the police,

the Mafia repeatedly
vandalised the restaurant

and threatened to kill him.

Buongiorno.

It got so bad that Vincenzo
had to leave Palermo

and now lives under
24-hour police protection.

Grazie.

Valentina Lomeo, who works here,

remembers the threats
and intimidation very well.

Vincenzo found his cat
and then his dog died.

And...

They killed his cat and his dog?
Yes.

Just one process after another. Yes.

To scare him. And then
he found his car broken and open.

So, they say to him,

"We will find you."

The implication is if they kill
your cat and they kill your dog,

that's a way of saying, "Well, next,
maybe your child, maybe your wife".

It's true.
So, he's a very brave man.

Yeah, he's a very, very brave man.

But he...

He discovered that he was
a brave man in that moment.

This is an incredible story.
It makes me want to cry, man.

Where is Vincenzo now?

I can't say where is Vincenzo,

but he always stays
in a different place.

So, you can't say where he is,
because he's still in danger? Yeah.

I don't feel well
with this situation.

But I'm very proud about Vincenzo.

What he has done is good for me,

for my work, for my Sicily.

It's taken the efforts of
Vincenzo and others like him

to make it possible for
a new generation of Sicilians

to imagine a future
free from the Mafia,

even if it's not yet a reality.

Buongiorno. Ciao. Ciao.
Piacere, Giorgio.

Ciao. Andrew.

'Laboratorio Saccardi are
the most talked about artists
in Palermo right now,

'with a growing
international reputation.

'And they're not scared of offending
the Cosa Nostra, or Caravaggio.'

I like this, look. This is
my special subject, Caravaggio.

But this is the Caravaggio
that got stolen,

I think in the '60s,
by the Mafia, to order,

from the Oratory of
San Lorenzo here.

And this is Laboratorio Saccardi's
joke on this theft.

So, sort of, you know,
the celebration of the Nativity.

"Mafia art collection."

I didn't know that it was possible
to do satires on the Mafia.

Yeah, well, I like this.

This is, what do you say,
a work in progress.

"Sicania" is the old name of Sicily.

"Rising" is because of
this strength of renewal,

just rising out of...

So there's a lot of grass as well.

It's been a real pleasure
to meet you, guys.

Bye. Bye-bye. Ciao.

So, it's our last night in Palermo,

and we're spending it
back at the Vucciria.

In evenings, when the
market traders close shop,

the area is transformed into
an outdoor living room,

where Palermitans come to unwind.

And I want to stop
at the Taverna Azzurra.

Drink.

After you.

It's not somewhere you find
in many guidebooks.

I wanted to bring Andrew to a place

where Sicilians of all ages
and backgrounds spend an evening.

All we need now is two glasses
of the local aperitif.

Grazie.

So, I was thinking that Palermo,
this chaotic town,

feels like a kind of
microcosm of Sicily itself.

It's like if you took all Sicily
and squeezed it like an orange,

that would be Palermo.

Yeah, the juices. Yeah.

The other thing about this
place is, it seems to me,

that more and more
you travel in the world,

the more everywhere becomes
the same as everywhere else.

It's almost like the experience
of travel has been homogenised.

Sanitised. Sanitised.

You know, you go in the coach,
to the museum, to the
air-conditioned restaurant,

you eat the same
international cuisine.

That's right. But you come to
Sicily and it's different.

They think that everybody should
comply to their style of life.

If you had to pick one thing
out from this journey,

what would be the one thing
that stands out for you?

Definitely the Vucciria was something
that left me completely breathless.

The market. Yes, the market
and the painting. And the painting!

The one you wanted to take home.
The painting. Maybe one day.

Just an incredible piece of art,
isn't it?

And what did you like best?
I'd say two things.

I'd say the Cuticchio puppet
theatre. I was blown away by it.

And the other thing, which
you're going to have to do again
when we get back to London,

if you can with the ingredients,
is the pasta con le sarde.

It was really - I wasn't
exaggerating - the best plate
of pasta I've ever had.

Ever? Seriously.
Let's drink to that, man.

Drink to Palermo.
What have you chosen, that we're
going to drink to Palermo with?

This is called "sangue",
which means "blood". Blood?

So, this is the blood of Palermo.

Cheers. Alla salute. Alla salute.

It's an aperitif.
Are you playing a joke on me?

You think I'm...

That's not an aperitif.
That's dynamite.

I did just feel another hair
grow on my chest.

'Next week, we travel to the south

'and discover the legacy
of the Spanish coloniser

'who ruled the island
for over 400 years.

'We'll celebrate Easter in
the true Sicilian style,

'following spectacular processions,

and share a traditional
Easter lunch with a family.'

I sit at the top of the table.
Yeah, why not?

'It's a tale of two Sicilies -

'one of great wealth and
privilege for the nobles...'

I think the richer you were, the
more you got a place up the hill.

The whole town, the theatre of
the town, seems to be up the hill.

'..and one of poverty and hardship
for ordinary people.'

At its height of population,
20,000 people lived in these caves.

'But true to form, the Sicilians
always found ways of creating
great culture out of simple things.'

Oh, my God!

Grazie. Delizioso!