Original subtitles

NARRATOR: join us on an extraordinary journey back in time...

...through a landscape forged by the earth's forces and ancient civilisations...

The best archaeological Roman monuments

are physically connected with the historic town.

...on a railway line that crosses seven World Heritage sites...

It became one of the centres of the ancient world. It has everything going for it.

...and forged its way through mountains...

This is a splendid engineering work,

the most famous in Sicily.

...ending at the volcano which dominates the whole island.

Take a look now. There's ash. It's coming out.

We'll meet the people who live and work along this very special train line.

It's wonderful, the landscape you can see,

can admire on Etna.

This is no ordinary railway journey.

This is one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world -

Sicily.

Sicily, an island almost frozen in time...

...where the remains of ancient civilisations can still be admired.

We'll start our train journey in southern Sicily...

...a sun-soaked land tucked away at the head of the lpari Valley.

It's early morning...

...and this 18th-century town of Comiso is slowly waking up.

TRAIN ANNOUNCEMENT IN ITALIAN

To whisk us away is the regional Minuetto.

Powered by two V8 diesel engines, it may look small

but packs a combined 1500 horsepower.

In charge of our train is 36-year-old Marco,

who's been working on this line for 16 years.

I am a train manager.

I give information to customers and control the tickets.

This train is modern.

Is 160 seats.

This line is used by tourists for three or four months,

and also the commuter passenger.

The train line is spectacular. ls the best of Sicily, in my opinion.

In the track you can see the best of baroque in Sicily.

Our journey will take us from Comiso

in the southeast corner of Sicily

to the top of Mount Etna.

To begin with, we'll stop at a castle,

then climb towards the city of Ragusa.

Our train then heads east to Modica and the coast

to the historic city of Siracusa.

Heading north, we skirt the Ionian Sea

to this area's capital, Catania, sitting under Mount Etna.

The final leg of the journey is the unique train

that circles the volcano,

and then a special trip to its summit.

The lpari Valley is a place rich with Sicily's famous olives, carobs and grapes.

Looking out over this peaceful limestone landscape,

this serene view has mostly remained unchanged

since the line was built 150 years ago.

That's part of its fascination for local history guide Simona.

From 1861 to 1893,

the very beginning of unification of Italy,

the landowners and the noble families debate a lot

about how to do the rail line in this side of Sicily.

They need a railway.

They need to reach Siracusa's port

in order to sell their product.

It was along this eight-mile stretch from Comiso to our first stop, Donnafugata,

that the line's construction took a rather unusual turn.

A local royal baron fancied his own bit of railway - and station.

A touch of luxury for him,

but a much more difficult route for the engineers.

The railway from Comiso to Ragusa

had to pass on the top of the canyon.

Francesca, who grew up near here,

knows much about this eccentric baron and his very own stop.

We are at Donnafugata train station.

It's a bit of a special kind of station because it is not in a town

but by a castle.

It's a residence for the Barons Arezzo di Donnafugata.

It's not actually a castle. It is a country mansion.

It was built as you see it today in the second half of the 19th century.

The reason why he transformed it into a neo-Gothic castle

was actually because, at that time, the Sicilian aristocracy

looked at England as an example.

The baron was intrigued by Hampton Court

and thought he'd emulate Henry VIII in rural Sicily,

including a replica of the king's aristocratic pastime.

We are heading to something that brings us back to Britain,

which is the maze.

Designed exactly as Hampton Court's Maze,

but it's not made of hedges.

It's made of stone.

The objective of the maze is to get to the centre.

SHE CHUCKLES

We got lost. SHE CHUCKLES

There we are. This is the centre.

Now we have to find our way back.

Oh! I made a mistake.

SHE LAUGHS

I made it.

Leaving these royal pleasures behind,

we head east towards an area of outstanding beauty.

And driving us there is Amedeo.

As our train heads south,

it now enters the heart of this hidden area of Sicily

with not just one but seven cities with World Heritage status.

We're gliding through Sicily on our historic railway voyage

to the dizzying heights of Mount Etna.

From Comiso we travelled eight miles to Donnafugata.

Now we continue uphill toward Ragusa,

the first of seven UNESCO World Heritage towns along our journey.

Then on to Modica,

and after 8O miles we'll reach Siracusa on the coast.

Only 45 minutes into our journey

and our train is climbing to over 1,600 feet...

...a mountainous region split by huge canyons

till it arrives in the ancient town of Ragusa.

This is my stop. Bye-bye.

Following an earthquake in 1693,

the old town was completely rebuilt in this dramatic baroque style.

Towering over the old town is the magnificent Church of St George,

a treasure box made of stone.

It's no wonder the city is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

However, one of its greatest building achievements

is not on top of the city's hills but below them.

We're about to encounter a lesser known masterpiece,

built 140 years ago.

It's a true hidden gem of Sicilian railway engineering.

My favourite part of the train line is the helicoidal track from Modica to Ragusa.

It's important for us because it's a special piece of engineering.

For the next mile, our train is travelling down inside a mountain.

To cope with the incredibly steep 700ft slope,

the engineers had to reduce the gradient

by taking the railway in a complete circle through the rock.

Built when most locals travelled by horse and cart,

it's an extraordinary feat of ingenuity and hard work.

One that Emanuele has spent the last 40 years writing about.

The big challenge was building these tunnels by hands.

There were not sophisticated tools.

They collected all the people to break stones by hands.

It was on the 18th ofjune 1893

that this incredible spiral tunnel section of the railway was finally opened.

It's coming. That's it. Here we are.

It's a 668 train.

The beginning of the spiral track.

It goes straightaway a big circle of 300 as a radius...

...and it goes out from that black hole of the tunnel.

Ah, here we are.

That's it.

Ciao!

This is a splendid engineering work,

the most famous in Sicily

and even in Italy.

Sadly, the main engineer, Giuseppe Mazzarella, never got to enjoy its success.

He was worried about the two curved tunnels meeting up.

His 92-year-old great-granddaughter, Concetta,

recounts what happened on the brink of his triumph.

The tunnel was not without its dangers, though.

Emanuele was very close to his father, a train driver,

and in the clays of steam this was a dangerous career to be in.

In 1963,

a big heavy train was in the middle of this spiral tunnel,

and the train stayed for hours because they couldn't move.

They were dying because of carbon monoxide.

Another train came down slowly to help them out.

When the train was out, people were collapsing.

The person who went bravely with his steam engine

was my father.

That's it.

He stayed in the hospital for one week.

I was really proud of it.

That's why...

you know, humbly talking,

that's why these books.

Emanuele, so proud of his father's heroic rescue,

is still moved by the memory.

It's a tremendous piece of railway here in Sicily.

As we climb up through these Sicilian mountains,

the construction challenges did not stop at Ragusa.

Over the next seven miles,

steep-sided ravines forced the engineers to build six large bridges...

...a staggering 43 small bridges...

...and carve 13 tunnels.

BOY SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

As we escape the final mile-long tunnel...

TRAIN WHISTLE

...we reach the town of Modica.

Like Ragusa, Modica was also destroyed by the devastating earthquake of 1693.

It, too, rose up from the rubble,

and now it's not just these buildings that have been around for centuries.

The Spanish left something else behind 500 years ago.

I'm Pierpaolo Ruta.

I'm the sixth generation of the Bonajuto family,

and I live in Modica, Sicily.

I am a chocolate maker.

When Spanish people arrived in South America

and discovered this kind of product

that was made smashing cocoa seeds on stones,

chocolate at that time was very, very bitter,

never mixed with sugar.

And many Spanish researchers think that Sicily was very important

for the meeting of sugar and cocoa seeds.

And one person who mastered this divine concoction was Francesco.

Pierpaolo's great-great-grandfather

created this chocolate factory 150 years ago.

We are melting the cocoa mass at about 45 degrees Celsius.

As you can see, the chocolate is still grainy

and the sugar never melts inside the bars.

And that's why we have to shake the chocolate into the moulds.

RATTLING This is the music of my childhood,

and it is the smell of my childhood.

This is the smell of my grandfather.

It's very important for me for keeping this kind of tradition.

Today this tiny chocolate shop attracts tourists from all over the world,

selling a staggering 800,000 chocolate bars a year.

That's 30 tonnes of deliciousness.

Imagine that you were living in the 16th century.

Tasting the first chocolate was very similar to this kind of chocolate.

With our sweet tooth satisfied, our train ventures east again...

...on a route where you are never too young to delight in a bit of train spotting.

BOY:

BOY:

What better than a father and son day trip?

FATHER:

8O miles from our start...

...we've finally reached the glorious coast...

...as we slowly roll into the station at Siracusa.

It's a place bathed in ancient history,

the perfect stomping ground for British archaeologist Michael,

who's made it his second home.

I've been researching and teaching the history and culture of Siracusa

for the last 15 years.

Siracusa was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.

It's a place replete with history, with archaeology.

It's an absolutely beautiful place to live today because it has beautiful architecture.

The food here is amazing, the wine is superb.

The sea is a delight to swim in. It has everything going for it.

Its strategic position on a trade crossroads in the Mediterranean

made Siracusa one of the most desirable cities to conquer in Sicily.

But it's Siracusa's half-mile-long island, called Ortigia,

that really holds a special place in Michael's heart -

and has an incredible secret.

We're coming up through the palaces of the city

into the cathedral square of Siracusa,

one of the most beautiful squares in all of Italy.

The shape is so unusual.

You see a long, straight line on this side.

Follows the route of an ancient Greek road laid out 2,700 years ago.

On this side you have a beautiful, gentle curve,

the buildings all beautifully laid out, one against the other.

From the facade, this appears to be a beautiful example of a baroque church.

But in fact this building started life

as an ancient Greek temple in the fifth century BC

dedicated to the goddess Athena.

Around us would have stood some of the greatest works of art of the ancient world.

This was one of the richest, most spectacular temples

that the Greeks ever made on the island of Sicily.

In the sixth century AD, after 1,000 years of use as a Greek temple,

the Christians took this building and turned it into a church.

But then in the ninth century AD,

the island was seized by Muslims coming from north Africa

and was probably turned into a mosque.

When the Muslim kingdom was in turn conquered by the Norman knights,

this became once more a cathedral,

dedicated to the Roman Catholic church.

To have three different religions worship on one site over 3,000 years

is extraordinary.

Siracusa is a magnificent ancient Greek city in Italy.

Now our train heads towards Sicily's biggest natural wonder,

Mount Etna,

a volcano that has destroyed the island as well as built it.

And we'll explore the city brave enough to sit directly on its slopes.

From here we have a special view.

One of the best preserved Roman monuments in Catania.

We're on a serene and beautiful journey through Sicily,

heading to the highest, most active volcano in Europe.

After 140 miles of rocky ravines

and the glorious baroque buildings of the southeast,

we're now exploring the dark lava fields of the north.

After Siracusa, we'll glide along the shimmering Ionian coast,

crossing the old salt lakes of Augusta,

and after 20 miles we'll reach the city of Catania.

Its unique microclimate makes it the perfect growing ground for blood oranges,

brought to this area more than 200 years ago.

TRAIN WHISTLE

After travelling for over three hours from Comiso to Catania,

our ride on this little diesel-powered Minuetto is about to come to an end.

Waiting at the station is Eleonora, professor of archaeology,

passionate about her city, and our charming guide for today.

My name is Eleonora Pappalardo.

I live in Catania,

which is my city since the time I was born.

Catania is important for its strategic position just near the sea

and for the richness of its territory.

Catania's long history can be traced back 3,000 years.

It was such a desirable place that it's been conquered by many,

from the Greeks and the Romans to the Spanish and the Arabs.

Casting its formidable shadow over the entire city

is the magnificent and very active Mount Etna.

There's a strong link between the long history of Catania

and its volcano, Etna,

which has, through the millennia, forged the landscape

and provided also material for constructions.

Which is why this place is known as the Dark City.

The Sicilians didn't just build this city out of lava.

They gave it some extra style by accentuating the lava with white limestone.

Here you can have the idea of the Dark City

because inside we are just surrounded by buildings made of lava stone blocks.

You can immerse yourself in the colours and sounds

typical of this city.

HE SHOUTS IN ITALIAN

MARKET HUBBUB

These ancient arches

have sheltered Sicily's largest open-air fish market for 400 years.

MARKET HUBBUB

It's good. It's perfect.

Grazie.

It's a Sicilian sushi.

For the men and women living in Etna's shadow,

the earth can often move.

For us, it's also normal sometimes

to suddenly feel the earth trembling at our feet.

It can happen that we get up in the morning, we open the window

and we find everything around us black, covered by volcanic ashes.

But for us it's quite normal.

We clean everything and we start our day.

Mount Etna isn't the only great presence from the past.

Built over 2,000 years ago and almost entirely of lava stones,

this impressive Roman amphitheatre could host 17,000 spectators.

What we are seeing here

is just one-tenth of the original structure,

the rest running underground,

hidden by the modern city.

Lucky for us, Eleonora knows how best to view Catania's layers of history.

Behind every door, or special hotel,

is another spectacular archaeological wonder.

From here we have a special view.

In Catania, the best archaeological Roman monuments

are physically connected with the historic town.

Up to 1950, all the area of the theatre

was completely covered by private houses.

The theatre over via Vittorio Emanuele

is one of the best preserved Roman monuments in Catania.

It's clear Catania has embraced its volcano.

But its people took it one step further.

This towering 11,000ft giant may loom over the city...

...but to serve the people who live on the volcano,

they constructed its very own railway,

the Circumetnea.

This special 70-mile train line circles Etna

and is a vital link for 15 towns and villages to the capital.

It's an essential lifeline to the people who live and work under and on this great mountain.

We're about to explore it in all its glory.

It's the last stage of our spectacular journey through Sicily.

We have travelled from the rural beauty and dramatic baroque cities of the south...

...to the extraordinary architecture of Catania.

We've left the main line

and we'll be travelling on the very special railway that circles Mount Etna,

the Circumetnea.

From Borgo station,

the line travels 70 miles around the active volcano,

climbing 3,000ft towards Randazzo and Etna's wine region

before reaching the end of the line at Riposto.

Getting ready at Borgo station is the legendary Fiat train,

built 50 years ago.

Also still going strong after more than three decades working on our train

is Antonello.

Interestingly, it was a Cornish entrepreneur, Robert Trewhella,

who built the line in 1889.

It takes two hours to almost circle the volcano,

crossing from lunar-like landscapes...

...to the fertile farm regions famous for their pistachios and wine.

Created 500,000 years ago

by the collision of the African and the Eurasian tectonic plates,

Mount Etna now covers an astonishing area of nearly 750 square miles.

Also on board the ADE diesel-powered train

are English teacher Francesca and her husband Santino.

It's wonderful, the landscape you can see,

can admire on Etna.

All the eruptions destroy some stretches of the railway.

The Circumetnea still is threatened by its fierce host

and has been destroyed three times.

The most recent eruption, on the 17th of March 1981...

...stopped just one mile outside the town of Randazzo,

interrupting the railway and destroying houses on its course.

TRAIN WHISTLE

We've now come to the end of our train journey.

And at Randazzo, you can enjoy Etna's very own vintage,

a unique, slightly smoky-tasting wine

from one of the 140 local vineyards.

WOMAN: Salute!

After that, there's only one thing left to do.

Just a few miles from the railway,

you can climb to the very top of this majestic mountain.

Nature photographer Giuseppe, who's lived his entire life on Etna,

has been exploring and documenting this incredible volcano since he was four years old.

Today is a good day to go up,

also because there's an activity of Mount Etna from the southeast crater.

So there's an emission of ash.

Explosion during the night, it's possible to see the red glowing.

Special 4x4 trucks

take us on the final climb to the summit,

crossing three recent lava flows.

So now we are on 2,900 metres,

very close to the summit, the crater's rumbling.

This is the southeast crater.

It is the youngest of all the summit craters on Mount Etna.

Despite the volcano emitting 5,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide every day,

there seems to be no shortage of intrepid tourists.

We have a lot of people today.

In a normal period we have 400 people that can turn around the summit craters.

This is one of the most famous places for people,

and also for the cinema production.

Take a look now. There's ash. It's coming out.

So now maybe there's a new face on the southeast crater with the emission of ash.

LOW RUMBLING Still rumbling.

To capture these spectacular explosions takes time, patience...

...and nerve.

I have many favourite moments, but there's one for sure really important,

and it's on top of the southeast crater, viewing the sunset.

There was a huge pressure of gases that melted the rocks.

Never seen, never described before and was really nice.

We stayed about for two hours there in silence,

enjoying this marvellous show.

And great footage, for sure.

Documenting Etna can be a risky business.

During the 2017 eruptions,

Giuseppe pushed his luck to the limit.

We were really close, about one metre from the lava flow,

with poisonous gases everywhere,

very high temperature - close to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

So it was a big challenge for us trying to save the equipment,

to try to shoot new footage,

and enjoy also.

Very big reward, for sure.

It's this great passion for the volcano

and the breath-taking pictures

that keep Giuseppe coming back time and time again.

Our train journey has travelled around the southeast corner of Sicily,

crossing challenging valleys,

a route that highlights the rich history of the island

in some of the most breath-taking landscapes.

The trip from Comiso to Mount Etna

is a beautifuljourney, created by man...

and nature.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media