Rome to Taormina Great Continental Railway Journeys

'I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that will take me

'across the heart of Europe.'

I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,

dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

'It told travellers where to go, what to see, and how to navigate

'the thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossing the Continent.

'Now, a century later,

'I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy,

'where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing.'

I want to rediscover that lost Europe, that in 1913 couldn't know

that its way of life would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.

'Italy is possessed of such concentrated beauty

'that it mesmerised the Edwardian traveller.

'But until 1861, Italy as we NOW know it didn't exist.

'It was a jumble of states controlled in part by the Pope

'and largely by great European powers who would relinquish control

'only through defeat in war.

'On this journey, I'm exploring Italy's deep south.

'I'll venture into the mighty Vesuvius...'

I don't want to be nervous

but I can't help noticing that there is a lot of vapour.

'..learn about the true art of pizza...'

You know Picasso?

-I do know Picasso.

-You make Picasso, please.

'..confront death and destruction in Messina...'

Modern estimates reckon that perhaps 60 or 80,000 were killed.

'..and be all at sea on my train...'

It's quite alarming that we are actually sailing

while the bow door is still coming down.

'..before taking my own Roman holiday.'

Ma, che bella citta - Roma!

I begin in Rome.

British tourists in 1913 were magnetised by its classical history

and its antiquities.

But they could reflect with pride that the British Empire covered

a much vaster area of the globe than the Caesars had ever dreamt of.

The city had become the capital

of the recently formed Kingdom of Italy.

It was also the Eternal City,

the centre of the Roman Catholic Church,

which many Protestant British viewed with suspicion.

From Rome, I'll head southwest through the Apennine Mountains

to Naples,

cross to the glamorous island of Capri.

Heading further south towards the toe of Italy,

I'll visit Messina, gateway to Sicily.

I'll end my journey in ancient Taormina.

Travel for pleasure to cultural centres like Rome

was once the preserve of aristocrats on their Grand Tour.

With the advent of the railways, the middle classes, too,

could afford to see the sights.

ANNOUNCEMENT OVER TANNOY

'We are now arriving at Roma Termini.'

Railways came late to the Italian peninsula

because it wasn't a country.

And Rome wasn't attached to other cities by rail

until the 1860s and 1870s.

This magnificent station was opened in 1950.

It's got this gravity-defying ceiling. It's made of concrete

and a lovely stone called travertine,

so it's that combination of futurism and Italian style.

And what better way to get a taste of Italian style,

'and 3,000 years of ancient history than this?'

Grazie!

This nippy little scooter has given generations of Italian teenagers

a taste of freedom.

Stefano, I love your Vespa. What age is it?

-It is from 1959.

-And it's a good way to see Rome?

This is the best way to see Rome.

Aren't you worried about the Roman drivers?

Ah, the Roman drivers, there are some secret rules

for driving in Rome, you have to know, it's not so terrible.

HORNS TOOT

This really is the perfect way to see Rome -

you see the beautiful sights sweeping by.

And you've no need to worry about the time because we get through

when all the other cars get stuck.

This bumpy cobbled avenue is the Via Conciliazione -

an avenue that gives us such a view

of the Basilica of St Peter's, the cathedral.

My Bradshaw's guide rather pedantically tells me

that it cost £10 million.

Never mind the expense, it's such a beautiful building.

'I can see why the Pope fought against Italian unification.

'He ruled directly over this glorious city.'

You imagine this place filled with pilgrims

and the Pope appearing at the window there.

I feel rather sacrilegious going through it on a Vespa.

So I guess lots of people still come to Rome today

inspired by that old movie, Roman Holiday.

And you would be Gregory Peck - ha! -

and sitting on the back was Audrey Hepburn.

Now I know just how she must have felt,

making a break for freedom on the back of this iconic scooter.

Ma, che bella citta - Roma!

Turin and then Florence had been provisional Italian capitals,

but in 1871, Rome was proclaimed capital of a fully united Italy.

The Edwardian visitor would have observed a Rome

intent on rebuilding and modernising.

I'm meeting Ettore Mazzola,

an expert in urban and architectural history.

-Ettore.

-Buongiorno.

Thank you for bringing me to this vantage spot.

We have the most fantastic panorama of Ancient Rome.

What do you call this particular place?

The Foro Romano is the heart of the Ancient Roman world.

Now, these antiquities really attracted

British travellers at the beginning of the 20th century.

When they came here, would they find this in good condition?

Well, on those days not everything was totally excavated.

The ground was arriving up to the top.

So they engaged in a large excavation of the site,

and in 1913 a large part of this was visible.

The Forum was the centre

of political, commercial and judicial life in Ancient Rome.

It dates back to the first century AD.

The largest building was the basilica.

According to the playwright Plautus, the area teemed with lawyers

and litigants, bankers and brokers, shopkeepers and strumpets.

Many people may be surprised to think now, that Rome wasn't

by any means the first capital of the united Italy.

Was it important that it should become the capital?

It was a rhetorical decision.

Rome was the capital of the Ancient Roman Empire,

the greatest empire of our history.

It was the place where used to be the Christianity

and of course the place of the Pope,

the last barrier to the unification of Italy.

Nevertheless the family of the King was not that happy to be in Rome.

They were calling Rome the filthy, dirty and stinky Rome.

Because, compared to the beautiful French architecture in Turin,

home to the royal family, Rome must have felt like one big ruin.

And so they didn't like the old higgledy-piggledy chaos of Rome.

Indeed. They were absolutely opposed to that.

The King's love of modernity

propelled Rome towards a face-lift.

Major new structures were taking shape.

Well, we are in the very heart of Rome,

and this enormous building, this monument to Victor Emmanuel II,

why was it built here in Rome?

It was built, of course, to celebrate the unification of Italy.

And it was built because when, in 1878,

the King died, they decided immediately to celebrate

the first King of Italy with a super-symbolic monument.

It also emphasised the seismic power shift from the Church to the State.

To accommodate it, a vast medieval district around the Capitoline Hill

had to be demolished.

It was planned in order to hide the monstrosity

of the filthy, dirty Rome.

And what do you think of it?

I think it's a great building still today. As you can see, there are

millions of tourists that are coming here taking photos

of one of the most representative buildings of the period,

across the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

But not everyone is as complimentary.

Romans in particular have variously named it the Typewriter,

the Wedding Cake and the Urinal.

I wonder what today's travellers make of it?

-Hello! How are you?

-Hello! We're fine! It is Mr Portillo!

Very lovely to see you both.

Look, here you are at the Monument of Victor Emanuel II,

which is very large, very prominent in Rome.

I wonder what you think of it.

-Wonderful.

-Marvellous.

-Wonderful.

The sheer scale, it's massive.

Everything is almost... you could say overdone.

As you say, it's brash, but it's exciting to look at.

I like it, but it's not as pretty as the rest of them.

-How are you enjoying Rome?

-Wonderful.

-Excellent.

Anyone pinching your bottom?

-No.

-No, unfortunately not!

You enjoy the city.

It's absolutely evident that one of the most popular places

in Rome for tourists today, as ever, is the Trevi Fountain.

With the tradition that if you throw three coins into the fountain

you'll return to Rome, you'll meet a partner and you'll marry.

The fountain dates back to 1762

and was designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi.

It's the largest baroque fountain in Rome.

The name Trevi refers to "tre vie",

three roads that converge at the fountain.

And you know what they say - when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

And if the coin doesn't work, well, there's always the selfie.

Rome had once been the capital of a vast empire.

But that didn't make it easy, after 1871,

to unite the very different people

who inhabit the Italian peninsula.

A country can be drawn on a map or conjured up in political rhetoric...

..but the regions of Italy are hugely divergent

and independent minded.

I'm leaving the Roman traffic behind

to head to the stylish Piazza di Spagna.

I'm so glad that I wore my sunglasses -

it just makes me look like a local.

No-one would guess that the fellow in the yellow jacket clutching

a red 1913 handbook was anything other than a Roman.

According to my faithful guide, the Spanish Steps are a good spot

to practise the Italian tradition of the passeggiata - or promenade.

I'm strolling with a purpose, and towards a destination.

Here is the house referenced in my Bradshaw's guide.

"At the foot of the steps in the Piazza di Spagna is the house

"where John Keats died in 1821,

"now used as the Keats And Shelley Museum."

I suppose we are all drawn to the Romantic poets,

with their love of nature and their appreciation of antiquity

and their tragically short lives.

BELL CHIMES

I'm meeting Giuseppe Albano -

the curator of a charming museum dedicated to their memory.

-Well, it is the most spectacular view.

-Absolutely.

What was it that brought John Keats here?

Well, John Keats, like many of his fellow Romantics,

and indeed many generations before him, was very much inspired by Italy.

Rome, of course, was the Holy Grail of the Grand Tour,

a phenomenon which had begun in the century before Keats.

But Keats specifically came here because of his tuberculosis.

He was suffering very heavily. He had already lost his mother

and his younger brother to the disease and he was hoping

that the milder climate, the Roman sunshine would alleviate his health.

It was a vain hope because he died just three-and-a-half months

-after arriving.

-And as he looked from this house,

the Rome that he saw,

would it have been very different from what we see today?

A different Rome, no, not at all.

Some of the buildings have been heightened, some of them

had extensions put on in the 20th century, but essentially the skyline

remains the same, the Spanish Steps were here.

This area became known

in the 19th century as the English ghetto

because so many writers and artists were attracted from England,

drawn by the area's bohemianism.

There aren't many people less poetic than I am,

but this would inspire anybody.

Well, it did inspire Keats, and he liked looking at the views very much.

Unfortunately he was too ill to write, however,

which is the real tragedy.

Born in 1795, John Keats is one of the great Romantic poets,

along with his contemporaries, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley.

They, unlike Keats, were rebellious and radical,

like the rock stars of their day.

For example, it's rumoured that Byron made love to his mistress,

the 17-year-old Teresa Guiccioli, for days on end.

Poetry in motion, I suppose.

Keats's work found popularity

only three decades after his untimely death,

and followers of my guide were fascinated by his tragic story.

As my Bradshaw's tells me,

this house became a museum to both Keats and Shelley.

How did this happen?

The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association was founded first of all

to purchase the house in which Keats died, but also to help protect

the tombs of the poets - both Keats and Shelley -

because they are both buried here in Rome.

Keats died in 1821, aged just 25,

and Shelley a year later, at only 29.

When, in 1903, the house was in danger of being turned into a hotel,

the great and the good fought to save it.

And this is the room in which John Keats died here in Rome

of tuberculosis, on 23rd February 1821.

You can see the ceiling which inspired him to say,

with its flower motifs,

that he could almost feel the flowers growing above his own grave.

Ah, a Romantic poet to the very end.

Until the 1860s, it would have been impossible

for travellers to take a train south.

Railway mania came late to Italy.

Largely because, prior to unification,

there was no political will

to connect the jumble of independent states.

In the years before the First World War,

Britain sought a southern European ally and courted Italy.

Selling trains was a commercial opportunity

which could also create a diplomatic bond.

The pitch was well-timed. The Italians were investing heavily

in public works and were in the market for railways.

According to my Bradshaw's, Naples is the City of Sirens.

Verily "un pezzo di cielo caduto in terra."

A bit of heaven that has tumbled to Earth.

Now, you might think that a ludicrous Neapolitan exaggeration,

but only if you've never been there.

Naples sits beside a staggeringly beautiful natural harbour,

in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The Greeks, Oscans, Romans, Goths,

Byzantines, Normans, Germans

and Britons have all succumbed to its charm.

Bradshaw's has an unbeatable description of this view.

"Naples situated at the base and on the slopes of an amphitheatre

"of hills, on the west side of a magnificent bay,

"is one of the most beautifully situated cities in the world,

"justifying the adage 'vedi Napoli e poi morire' -

"see Naples and then die!"

It is really stunning, but I do hope to survive the experience.

The city of Naples was the most populated in Italy

and one of the largest in Europe.

Visitors might have felt ill at ease

in a city of such pitiable poverty.

A quarter of its half-million inhabitants lived in abject squalor.

The region lagged behind northern Europe

but had experienced some modernisation under King Ferdinand,

who embraced new technology, such as electric telegraphy

and the building in 1839 of Italy's first railway

from Naples to his palace at Portici.

'I'm meeting Professor Augusto Vitale,

'an industrial heritage expert,

'outside the abandoned railway station that once served this line.'

It's interesting that the first railway was built in southern Italy,

which I think of being a rural community, not industrial.

Why was it built in southern Italy?

Well, Naples was the head of a very large and poor country,

but it collected hundreds of thousands of people here,

it was a big market.

And there was a very rich touristic market going to Pompeii

and to the islands and to the Vesuvius.

But before passengers could take the train,

French engineer Louis Bayard had to overcome

the technical challenge of constructing 33 bridges.

By the 3rd of October 1839, the 7.5km track was ready

for the first train ever to run on Italian soil.

Tell me about the inauguration of Italy's first railway.

It was a big event,

because for the first time the people said the smoking machine

going on the iron tracks,

and the attractions were the locomotives

that came from Longridge, Starbuck & Co of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The King was there?

Of course. He took place on the royal carriage,

and after him, 15 carriages with troops and with dignitaries.

On their 11-minute journey, the inaugural passengers

were entertained by the band of the Royal Guard.

How successful did the railway turn out to be?

Well, it was a big success.

In the first year, they had more than one million passengers

going up and down from Castella to Naples.

Giuseppe Garibaldi,

one of the founding fathers of Italian unification,

fought against the foreign powers' controlling of southern Italy

and arrived in Naples by train on 7th September 1860.

-Un caffe, per favore.

-Vuole lasciare anche un caffe sospeso?

-Un caffe sospeso?

-Si.

-Ah, si. Si, per favore.

Ah, this is an interesting local custom.

When you buy a coffee, they ask you

whether you'd also like to LEAVE a coffee

for some deserving person who may come in later.

So I've bought somebody else's coffee, I don't know who it is.

But I pop that in the caffe sospeso box and then the next person in

can claim a coffee.

The tradition began in the working-class cafes of Naples,

where someone who had experienced good luck would order a sospeso.

Strong and hot.

-Molto caldo?

-Molto caldo! It really is hot.

Good as it is, it wasn't the Italian coffee

or even the railways

that drew Bradshaw's travellers to Naples in 1913.

The real attraction was the ascent of Vesuvius

and the Roman cities entombed by its ashes.

This railway is called the Circumvesuviana,

which means that it goes around the base of the volcano, Vesuvius.

It runs along the tracks of the very first railway in Italy

and it takes people to Pompeii and to Herculaneum -

the towns that were destroyed by the volcano in AD79.

And judging by the many languages that I can hear being spoken

on the train today, it attracts people now from all over the world,

to visit these historic sights and, of course, the volcano.

Vesuvius was infamous for being

one of history's most destructive volcanoes,

and early 20th-century travellers

were drawn to see it with their own eyes.

It had and has the potential to unleash its fearful might again,

as it did as recently as 1944.

But if Edwardians dared the ascent, then so must I.

Luigi.

Most people walk up to the crater of Vesuvius.

I'm very lucky to have my four-wheel drive Fiat

taking us on this bumpy road with these magnificent views.

And all around me there's signs of previous eruptions.

Charles Dickens wrote in 1845

about his difficult journey by pony and on foot,

that brought him to the crater

to see the fiery cauldron of molten lava below,

as embers carried on the wind set people's clothes alight.

This is the most awesome sight, in the proper sense of the word.

Bradshaw's reminds me that an eruption causing widespread disaster

and the loss of nearly 500 lives began on April 6th 1906,

just before the guide was written.

But, of course, most famously,

Vesuvius destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii in AD79.

And since I was a child, I've been caught up with, almost haunted,

by the thought of those Romans perishing

as the ash poured upon them.

And now I'm confronted with the very source

of that violent volcanic energy.

Like my Edwardian predecessors, I'll press on into the crater

because somewhere down there is geologist Rossana D'Arienzo.

-Rossana.

-Hello, Michael. Welcome.

-What a fantastic place.

Yeah, welcome to the inside part of the Vesuvio.

In 1913, were tourists routinely allowed to come inside the crater?

Yeah, was allowed to go inside.

In the middle there was a cone,

so they were able to go around this cone.

Then, after 1944 eruption, the cone collapsed and lava went down.

In the place that now we can see, the name is Valle dell'Inferno,

just outside the crater.

-The Valley of Hell.

-Yeah.

Thankfully, Vesuvius is currently dormant,

but lest it should become active again, it's constantly monitored.

I don't want to be nervous about this, but I can't help noticing

that there's a lot of vapour rising today. What is this?

Yeah. What you see is actually vapour.

What you cannot see is a gas.

Scientists have long recognised

that gases dissolved in the earth's molten crust

provide the driving force of volcanic eruptions.

Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and sulphurous gases

must be measured and monitored.

I introduce you to Bernadino.

He's our volcanologist.

And he's collecting gas from the inside part of the crater right now.

-Do you want to try?

-I'd love to.

-So pull the syringe.

-Yes.

Yeah. This way.

And then I push in... Ah! And there are all the lovely bubbles.

And you see the gas coming inside?

-I do.

-You see bubbles? Good.

A rise in temperature

and the mix of gases are key eruption warning signs.

If Vesuvius were in a pre-eruptive condition,

the temperature reading could exceed 160 degrees.

-69 degrees.

-Yes.

That seems quite cool for a volcano.

Yeah, because we are on the upper part of the volcano.

-It's a bit hotter downstairs.

-Yeah, exactly.

But can you reassure me that the volcano will not explode

before I reach the bottom?

Yeah. Never mind, you'll be safe.

Thank you.

This all seems very reassuring,

but Vesuvius is a mere pimple of a volcano

compared to one lurking on the other side of Naples.

Campi Flegrei is a four-mile-wide sunken supervolcano.

-Hello, Sandro.

-Hello, Michael.

Sandro de Vita is a senior volcanologist

at the Osservatorio Vesuviano,

responsible for monitoring all of Naples' volcanoes.

Campi Flegrei is very near Naples.

This is the area of Pozzuoli and Naples is here.

-Yeah.

-A part of this volcano includes the town of Naples.

And talking about a supervolcano, like Campi Flegrei,

how bad could an eruption of that volcano be?

An eruption from a supervolcano can affect all the world

because of the ashes that can reach the atmosphere

and go around the world many, many times.

Changing the climate on Earth.

I hope you are going to tell me that Campi Flegrei is dormant.

Well, it's a dormant volcano, too,

but it's a little bit more active than Vesuvius.

You're telling me it's much more violent, much bigger than Vesuvius,

and you are also telling me it's a bit more active than Vesuvius?

-This doesn't sound great.

-Yeah.

That's the situation.

Where are we now? Where's our observatory?

This observatory is located here, inside Campi Flegrei Caldera.

-Just here.

-I see.

There is an emergency plan that involves all the nation.

The idea is to evacuate the population

before the beginning of the eruption.

And transfer the population of Ischia municipality,

all the red area, in one region of Italy,

waiting for the end of the eruption.

But no supervolcanoes have been active

during the last 10,000 years, all over the world.

-So I can breathe easily.

-Yeah.

I've played with fire enough for one day.

You cannot visit Naples without sampling the food.

Arguably the city's most famous dish,

exported all round the world,

is the Neapolitan pizza.

It started life as far back as 1522,

when tomatoes from the New World

were combined with local Neapolitan bread.

But the more widely it spread,

the further it moved away from its authentic origins.

So 70 of Naples' most famous pizza-making families

grouped together to form the True Neapolitan Pizza Association.

Pizzeria Mattozzi opened in 1832

and has fed its fair share of hungry Edwardian travellers.

-Paulo.

-Hi, Mike, how are you?

It's good to see you. Are we going to make some pizza?

OK, you make without this, and you make with this for pizza.

-OK.

-OK?

You make the pizza here at the front of the restaurant?

Yes. Traditional of pizza Neapolitan.

It's beautiful.

'Its doughy success is down to its strong white flour.'

You make the dough in the flour...

and you make three movements. It's important.

One...two and three. I show you fast. OK?

Wow!

This is the system, the traditional system of Napoli.

-I couldn't even see your hands moving, it was so fast.

-Very fast.

You make it here...

-Down.

-With up.

-And up.

-Yes. Yes.

-And then I turn it over?

-Change.

One, two and three.

But why is my pizza not round? Will it work out?

Can I save this one?

-Yes. One, two, three.

-One, two, three.

-But it's still not going round.

-I know. I know.

'OK, so I cheated. It's Paolo's.'

OK, you make a tomato. One spoon, you make the round.

Do you know Picasso?

I do know Picasso.

Yes. You make the Picasso, please. OK?

-OK.

-Now make a round motion.

This is mozzarella.

-Yes.

-On top of our tomato.

-OK.

And do you make oil?

I have to make a figure six.

-Sempre.

-Si.

-Va bene.

Six better. Perfect.

-And you make in the oven.

-Really? Ready for the oven already?

Now, Paulo, does it go a long way back?

Can you hold that? It's very strong.

Without, without.

-Ah!

-OK.

The oven is so beautiful.

At the back there are all the glowing embers of the logs of wood

and we just put the pizza in the foreground.

And I can already see the pizza changing, cooking.

It's ready. Yeah.

OK. You taste your pizza.

-Yes, please.

-Right.

OK. You ready?

-Buon appetito!

-Buon appetito!

-Mm!

-Mmm!

-Good!

-Bravo!

-Good, good!

-Very good.

Very good topping. Good.

-Mm!

-It's delicious.

I'm up early, leaving Naples and its overwhelming intensity behind.

Tourism until the late 19th century

had largely been a northern European phenomenon.

In 1913, it must have taken a plucky sort of traveller

to head so far south into this untamed world.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

'I'm taking a ferry to make the 25-mile trip

'to the island of Capri.

'Edwardian travellers confronted with a modern ship

'would be searching for the boiler and funnel.

'But at the stern, this scene might have been more familiar.'

I've been trying to figure out the rules of this game.

They seem to follow suit, when they can...

..but at the end, they count up the cards they've got left,

which count against them, I think, like penalties.

So it's a bit like a combination of whist and rummy,

but vastly more exciting than either.

'It's been played here for hundreds of years

'and the name in Italian means broom,

'since taking a scopa means to sweep all the cards from the table.

'It involves lively, colourful and strongly-worded banter.'

LAUGHTER

On a day like this,

the island of Capri seems to float above the waves

on a little bank of mist.

Perhaps it's trying to return to heaven.

'By the early 20th century, the island was a holiday destination

'for Europe's artistic and literary intelligentsia.

'Librarian Carmelina Fiorentino is from Capri

'and knows all about the island's history.'

Carmelina, the island, from here, is so beautiful,

but what was the particular magnet for writers and artists

at the beginning of the 19th century?

That's the particular light,

very bright light.

When you arrived at the harbour,

you saw how clear are the water.

And there are so many natural beauties,

actually, we are not grateful enough to them now.

One of those amazing natural beauties was the Blue Grotto.

It was discovered in 1826 by a German writer named August Kopisch,

who wrote about finding a huge blue sea cave.

And his book, The Blue Grotto, did the 19th-century equivalent

of going viral, attracting artists from all over the world.

They started to arrive for the Blue Grotto.

But they started to appreciate, also,

the natural beauties of the island

and also the traditional way of life.

And last, but not least, the beauty of the girls.

They could use as models.

The Capri women, with their exotic looks,

fascinated both writers and painters.

John Singer Sargent was considered

the leading portrait painter of his generation.

And during the late 19th century, he immortalised those women.

He arrived with Frank Hyde, who was another English painter,

who introduced him to the local models

and to the hotelier, where most of the artists used to paint.

From the studio, he could admire a wonderful view of the Vesuvio.

Most importantly, Hyde introduced Sargent

to local girl, Rosina Ferrara,

who became his model and muse.

You can see her in hundreds of pictures.

Rosina was 14 when she started to be a model.

And she was a little bit different from her peers.

First of all, she could speak French fluently.

And she was, er...she didn't obey to priests,

who prevented the girls to pose for painters.

Modelling for money must have been welcome work for the Capri women.

Life was tough and the island women had to do hard manual labour

while their men were away fishing.

Rosina and the other models would surely have leapt at the chance

to be paid for sitting still.

She was an Arab type.

She had dark eyes, dark skin, dark hair.

-Yes, yes.

-Typical of Capri, or not?

Yes, of that period, yes.

Most of the girls, we can see were like her.

But thanks to Sargent's work, Rosina and Capri live on,

captured in his paintings which hang in art galleries the world over.

Now I'm beginning to see the island through John Singer Sargent's eyes.

Splendid!

Its breathtaking beauty feeds the soul.

'Refreshed by my island hop and a night back on the mainland,

'I'm being thoroughly charmed by Sorrento's Grand Hotel Victoria.

'Its guest list reads like a Who's Who,

'but the name that stands out for me is my hero,

'the legendary opera tenor, Enrico Caruso.'

OPERA SINGING

Good morning, and welcome to the Caruso suite.

It's a beautiful room, as you can imagine.

Very large bed, surprising,

considering that the singer was actually quite small.

Oh! A piano, should you want a singsong.

But this is the best. This is the best.

The terrace.

With this wonderful view of Naples and Vesuvius.

OPERA SINGING

For the second leg of my journey

following in the footsteps of the 1913 travellers,

I'm heading to Sicily.

Where my first stop is Messina, a city known as the forgotten place.

Before my journey ends in the shadow of Mount Etna in Taormina.

I've rejoined the mainline at Salerno

to continue my journey to the very southern extremity

of the Italian peninsula.

To the tip of the toe of the boot of Italy and then beyond.

'As I head down the country, I'm beginning to see

'how the south's rugged landscape

'has shaped the character of its people.

'Italy's south remains much poorer than the north.'

High-speed trains in Italy haven't yet spread south from Naples.

This one threads its way along the coast and through lots of tunnels.

It's a pretty scenic route,

but correspondingly, it takes quite a long time.

But not quite as long as at the time of my Bradshaw's guide.

Then, the train from Naples to Villa San Giovanni,

just outside Reggio Calabria, took nearly 13 hours.

Today, they've got it down to 4 hours and 15 minutes.

With such a long haul, I'm taking a tip from the Edwardian traveller.

Come prepared to avoid hunger.

-Hello.

-Well, hello!

-Hello.

-Very pleased to meet you.

I hope this isn't imposing on you, but I have bought myself some lunch.

-OK.

-And I didn't want to eat alone.

-Oh, OK.

-And I wondered if you'd like to join me.

Now, we've got some bread, we've got some lovely tomatoes.

Um... Ha-ha!

Wine in a little mini carafe.

-Ooo! Cheese, lovely!

-Ooo!

That's pecorino cheese.

This is much nicer than the picnic we brought!

LAUGHTER

I think we're going to find it hard to eat the pecorino

unless we open the wine.

-Well met.

-You, too.

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

So, you like the food of Italy, evidently.

It's one of the main reasons we've come.

THEY LAUGH

We went to a little place in Naples, we had an absolutely fabulous pizza.

I had a jolly good pizza, as well. In fact, I helped to cook one.

-Oh, really?

-Much more difficult than I imagined.

But delicious, simple food, but very, very delicious.

How have you found the trains, by the way?

I don't think we've had any problems.

Did you come from Britain by air, or by train?

By train from Glasgow.

Fantastic! And now Naples, Sicily.

And now Naples, Sicily, yes.

Have you any idea how many miles you'll have done by train?

No. 1,000 or so, I suppose.

My goodness, I thought I had a few train miles under my belt,

but I can't compete with you.

And look at the view now!

This is the perfect Italian lunch, I think.

Well, actually I think it's the perfect lunch.

Well, thank you.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean

and historically, the most interesting.

It covers nearly 26,000 square kilometres

and is crowned by another volcano, Mount Etna.

The island is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Messina.

Edwardian travellers would have been in for a shock

because their train would be swallowed

into the belly of a large ferry.

The first thing they do is to remove our intercity locomotive.

'The ferry has operated here since 1899

'and is exclusively for trains.

'It can take up to 15 coaches, with the train being split in two.'

This is something you used to be able to see in many parts of the world,

including across the English Channel,

loading a train onto a ferry.

But now it's quite unusual and I'm delighted to see it.

ALARM WAILS

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

MICHAEL SPEAKS ITALIAN

He says, when the train comes off, it's even more of a great sight.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

He's going to allow me to push the button.

We are now closing the bow door.

You can see it coming down above me.

And I'm doing that, just by holding that little key in position.

It's quite alarming that we are actually sailing

while the bow door is still coming down.

And now we switch it all off and we're done.

We've set sail.

Complete with our safe cargo of a train divided in two.

'Messina was founded by Greeks in about 730 BC.

'In terms of grandeur, it rivalled Sicily's biggest city, Palermo.

'Having safely regained our tracks, normal surface is resumed.'

It's been a very short run from the ferry to the centre of Messina.

Here we are, Messina Centrale.

I wasn't expecting Messina to have such a contemporary, urban feel.

This modernity is a clue to what happened here

more than 100 years ago.

To discover more, I'm meeting historian, John Dickie.

-Hello, John.

-Nice to meet you, Michael.

Thank you. Um...

Bradshaw's describes Messina as, "a once-prosperous town,

"that, in the early morning of December 28th, 1908,

"was ruined by an earthquake, followed immediately by a tidal wave

"and later, by the outbreak of extensive fires.

"The population of 168,000,

"of whom 130,000 lost their lives."

It was absolutely apocalyptic.

Modern estimates reckon that perhaps 60,000 or 80,000 were killed,

but it's still perhaps the most lethal seismic event

in the Western world.

And presumably, the whole city was flattened?

Yeah, absolutely. 98% of the buildings

are estimated to have been destroyed.

Virtually everything you can see in Messina today

was rebuilt from scratch.

Including, therefore, this really delightful cathedral

and its marvellous bell tower, its campanile.

Absolutely, the cathedral had even been destroyed once before,

in the earthquake in 1783,

so it's been rebuilt twice.

What do we know about how the earthquake occurred?

It happened at 5:21. That's when the clock stopped.

Because of the time, most of the population was in bed

and therefore, that much more vulnerable.

And then, soon afterwards, there followed a tsunami,

so it really was all of the power of nature unleashed.

Now, of course, the island of Sicily

is literally cut off from the Italian mainland.

Presumably, that problem was exacerbated by the earthquake.

Yeah, it essentially tore a hole in the fabric of communications.

Telegraph, railway tunnels collapsed.

The first suspicion that something terrible had happened

was simply the complete absence of news from this part of the world,

and it was only when I think a torpedo boat made it down here

from northern Calabria,

that somebody was able to get on to land

and find out what had actually happened here.

Italy, one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries,

sits on top of a major weak point in the Earth's crust,

where tectonic friction can cause disaster.

There was talk after the earthquake of abandoning Messina entirely,

so badly was it damaged.

But they did rebuild it, often at a higher level than it had been before.

Perhaps two metres of ruins in various places lie below our feet

and the local people say also the bodies of many of the victims.

The Chiesa dei Catalani is an ancient medieval church

and one of the oldest buildings in the city. It withstood the quake.

I can see from its walls how the new city of Messina

stands a good two metres above the old.

How does the city remember the terrible earthquake of 1908?

Well, in terms of monuments and that kind of thing,

there really is very, very little.

Messina seems to have forgotten about the earthquake

or at least seems to not want to remember it in its physical fabric.

How do you account for that?

Well, apart from the huge number of people who were killed,

after the earthquake, many, many people emigrated,

a lot of them to the United States, and a new population was sucked in

to Messina from the countryside, from across the straits,

to work on the reconstruction

and many of them perhaps didn't have

a particularly strong identification with the city.

If you ask the people of Messina today,

many of them will say that the city has lost its memory,

that it has no memory,

and the earthquake is often cited as the reason for that.

And yet clearly when the Bradshaw's Guide was written,

it was still remembered as a cataclysmic event.

Absolutely - it had been on the front pages of newspapers

right around the world.

While Messina was flattened,

remarkably, about 50km along the coast,

the hilltop town of Taormina survived.

Taormina is arrestingly magnificent,

mixing a Greek temple and theatre,

Norman churches and Baroque palaces.

Its architecture, Mount Etna, the bays, beaches and the mild climate

attracted flocks of artists and writers in the 19th century.

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

Una granita di limone, per favore.

Grazie.

Taormina also captivated a genteel Englishwoman,

Florence Trevelyan,

who moved here in 1890 and married a man who later became mayor.

Ever since, the people of Taormina

have revelled in rumours about her,

whispering that a dalliance with the Prince of Wales

had caused her to flee Britain.

A well-used expression for the English in Italy

was "matti Inglesi", meaning "crazy English"

and Florence must have seemed slightly eccentric,

with the determination of her nationality and gender

creating a garden paradise.

Today, Constantino Castello, her distant relative,

lives in Florence's nearby home.

Lovely to see you, thank you.

Lovely house, Dino.

Tell me, who was Lady Florence Trevelyan?

Lady Florence Trevelyan was the wife of the uncle of my grandfather.

She came to Taormina after two years holidaying all the world.

People of Taormina, the older people, said,

but I don't know,

that she was obliged to leave England,

because she was very good friends with Prince Edward.

With nothing to tie her to England and both her parents dead,

Florence embraced the role of Taormina's first lady.

When Taormina was just a little city of fishermen,

just fishermen,

every king, every artist of Europe, of the Belle Epoque,

they came to Taormina at this time.

Although Florence died in 1907, the house still evokes her tenure.

She was three years old with the dogs.

This was in England.

-She was an animal lover, even as a child.

-Yeah.

-That's lovely.

-Is that her family album?

-Yeah.

-It begins with a picture of Queen Victoria.

-Yep.

And then we have a picture of Edward VII.

-And then we have a picture of Florence at 16 years old.

-Yep.

Her lasting legacy is the garden, which now belongs to the town

and is open to the public.

Down in the garden she had a meeting with King Edward...

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

-1906.

-Yeah.

Florence died of pneumonia not long after, aged only 54.

So, Dino, this is really quite a moving story -

an English aristocratic lady, exiled in Taormina,

who leaves her mark on the city in the form of a lovely garden.

Exactly.

I can vouch that Taormina is inspirational.

I've been drawn back time and again,

perhaps to take my seat in the Greek theatre,

more than 2,000 years old,

to witness the love-and-death melodramas of opera,

which seem petty beneath Mount Etna,

massive and indifferent.

A century ago, the serious-minded British tourist

interested in antiquities, came to Italy,

which despite its recent unification,

seemed more like a collection of regions than a nation.

My Bradshaw's has brought me south past Vesuvius,

past the earthquake-devastated city of Messina and now to Taormina,

in the shadow of Mount Etna.

And I reflect that for all the achievements of human kind,

from the Greeks and Romans onwards,

we remain at the mercy of the powerful forces of nature.

Next time, I discover how not to do a polonaise...

OK!

Don't know what happened there.

..stoke up what is possibly the last steam-powered commuter train...

Done a bit of this in England.

I don't remember it being quite as hot as this.

..rumble through the streets Soviet-style in a motoring icon

and land my acting debut in Poland's respected film industry.

(This could be my big breakthrough.)