Pisa to Lake Garda Great Continental Railway Journeys


Pisa to Lake Garda

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

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across the heart of Europe.

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

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dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign

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travel for the British tourist.

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It told travellers were to go, what to see and how to navigate

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the thousands of miles of tracks criss-crossing the Continent.

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Now, a century later,

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

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

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

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

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On this journey,

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I'm heading to one of the most popular

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destinations on an Edwardian traveller's itinerary,

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to a country whose famous sights had, in 1913,

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already attracted British grand tourists for more than 200 years.

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A century ago, foreign tourists in Italy,

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armed with their Bradshaw's guide, regarded the country as a museum.

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They ambled through its glorious past

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and endured its present day of beggars and smells and bad hotels.

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Their attitude was unconsciously condescending

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but there was, apparently, amongst Italians a Futurist movement,

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proud of Italy's engineering prowess and obsessed with speeding cars

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and trains and aeroplanes. Whoa!

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The foreign tourist might need to fasten his seatbelt.

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In 1913, Italy had been a united kingdom for a little over half

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a century.

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Unification had involved a decade of war, which had taken its toll.

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While the British enjoyed

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nostalgia for the Italian Renaissance, Italians felt

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that their country had been reborn and many wanted to look forward.

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My journey begins in Tuscany at the coastal city of Pisa.

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From there, I'll travel inland to the ancient walled city of Lucca

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before continuing east to the cradle of the Renaissance - Florence.

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I'll then head north to Bologna before ending my journey

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at glorious Lake Garda.

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Along the way, I'll learn how violence

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hit the streets of Florence after the Futurists arrived by train.

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There was no friendly discussion.

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They arrived here to defend Futurism with their fists.

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-Aha!

-Really, it's tagliatelle.

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'I'll delight in dishes that titillated the taste buds

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'of Edwardian tourists...'

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That is amazing!

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'..and I'll get to experience the Italians' century-long

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'need for speed.'

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BEEPING

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HE CHUCKLES

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IN ITALIAN:

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In 1913, when Italy was a new nation forging its future,

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many thousands of British tourists flocked to marvel at its past.

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My first stop is Pisa.

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Bradshaw's reminds me it was "the Pisai of the Romans.

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"It's situated on both banks of the River Arno.

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"The campanile, generally known as the Leaning Tower, 179 feet high

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"and 13 foot out of the perpendicular, was finished in 1350."

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Since time immemorial, tourists have had a penchant for the tower

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and I believe that we retain that inclination today.

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Those tourists arriving here 100 years ago came to experience

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Italietta - a small,

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sleepy country packed with treasures to be picked over.

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That attitude endured despite Italy's tectonic political change and

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its impressive industrial revolution at the start of the 20th century.

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In Pisa, the sights that those tourists were coming to enjoy

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still draw the crowds today.

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What do you think of the Leaning Tower? Is it as good as you

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-hoped it would be?

-It is a little smaller than we thought it would be.

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-Is it your first time in Pisa?

-Yes. Very... It's beautiful.

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The Leaning Tower is very, very special. It looks very attractive.

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It just pulls your attention.

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Do you think the tower will fall down?

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-No, I didn't think so.

-Never, never! It won't.

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The precarious-looking tower belongs to the 11th century cathedral.

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Tourists may, in fact, be confident of its safety now

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but not long ago, the monument teetered on the edge of collapse

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until a group of engineers was charged with saving it.

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I'm meeting emeritus professor John Burland from Imperial College

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in London.

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He was part of the rescue mission a quarter of a century ago.

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-John, why does it lean?

-Ah!

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Now, every child has tried to build a model brick tower on a carpet,

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and what you all learn, all children, is you can get it

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so high and then it begins to lean...

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..and that's exactly the same with this tower.

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Instead of a carpet, it's on, really, marsh land,

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so the foundations are very soft

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and there's a certain height at which a tower of that weight

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and that height would start to lean,

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and the tower is exactly at that height and that's why it's leaning.

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Begun in the 12th century, the tower took nearly 200 years to construct.

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Although it leaned from the outset, it wasn't

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until the early 20th century that the danger became apparent.

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The tower has had a very long history.

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What was happening around the time of my Bradshaw's guide?

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In 1911, they started making very precise

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measurements on the inclination of the tower.

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They did it every Christmas Day, presumably before they had a drink!

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But they'd go out on Christmas morning

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and make a measurement on the tower. It was quite a ritual.

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Those measurements were very important to the commission

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that I was on.

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-100 years of precise records?

-Yes, that's right.

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By the late 20th century, the tower leaned by around 15 feet

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and was in danger of collapse.

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In 1990, it was closed to the public as the government realised

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that something had to be done.

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Now, what was it that you came to do?

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They were very concerned that it was about to fall over,

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and it actually was.

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And what we did was reduced its inclination, which took

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the load off the south side because it was about to explode.

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And the way we did it was instead of trying to push the leaning

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side up, we actually took some ground out.

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-So it leans less than it did?

-Yes.

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John and his team attached 900 tonnes of lead weights to the tower's

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north side to stabilise it

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while earth underneath the higher side was removed.

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Overall, it took more than a decade to secure the structure

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and to reduce the inclination by almost two feet.

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Finally, in 2001, the 800-year-old tower was reopened,

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deemed safe for the next three centuries.

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John, it's such a strange feeling as we ascend the tower.

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-First we're thrown to the right, then we're thrown to the left.

-Yes.

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Michael, that's because we're going up an inclined helix.

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HE CHUCKLES

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How did it feel to work on this project?

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There were times when the stress was enormous

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and I wondered why I had ever taken it on or agreed to it

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but now that it's all done, you can look back on it and say, to have

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worked on a World Heritage monument like that is a huge privilege.

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You couldn't ask for any more, as an engineer.

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The glistening tower, like many of Italy's most famous statues

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and structures, was made of white marble,

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which could be found in abundance just along the coast.

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I'm leaving Pisa, taking the train 30 miles north.

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I'm on my way to Carrara.

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The guide calls it "an agreeable little town,

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"almost exclusively engaged in working

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"the world-known marble quarries.

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"Many sculptors have studios here."

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At the time of my guidebook, Italy had not long begun its industrial

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revolution, which was concentrated in the north of the country.

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In Carrara,

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the population swelled as workers sought employment in the quarries.

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The stone excavated here over millennia has been

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used in some of the world's most famous monuments,

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including the Pantheon in Rome and London's Marble Arch.

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Thanks to its grain and purity of colour,

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more marble has been mined here than anywhere else on Earth.

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By contrast with Pisa, Carrara has no tourists,

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and so one can appreciate its charming cathedral alone.

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It's decorated with lovely friezes of animals and a cartwheel symbolising

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the carts that used to bring the marble down from the mountain.

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And here is the marble, close up and personal.

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So many colours, so many variations of grain, so absolutely beautiful.

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It's not just architects who've sought out the precious stone.

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Renaissance masters like Michelangelo

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and modern artists like Anish Kapoor have chosen to work with pure Carrara marble.

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I'm meeting tour guide Nicola Musetti just outside town.

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From these jagged hillsides,

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close to a million tonnes of marble is exported every year.

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It's a wonderful view of the mountains

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and an enormous industrial scale.

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Why is it that Carrara is so valued by sculptors?

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Because in Carrara,

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they can find the real, good marble to make sculptures, so that's

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why Michelangelo came over here many times, in order to look for blocks.

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So the Pieta, the Moses, the David,

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all the masterpieces by Michelangelo were carved in our marble.

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Only here they can find a huge quantity

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and the best quality in the world to make sculptures and statues.

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Until the 19th century,

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the marble was cut by hand or blasted out in chunks.

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In the late 1800s, the introduction of the helicoidal wire,

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a kind of lubricated, giant cheese cutter,

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allowed huge cubes to be precisely excavated.

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Other innovations made their mark at the time.

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When the railway age came,

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-did that make a difference to the way that they mined the marble?

-Yeah.

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It was a very big evolution and development

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for the industry of marble

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because they started to increase the quantity of marble to be

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transported downwards to the sea, to the harbour,

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so that was really a revolution for our marble industry.

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Carrara maintains its position as one of the world's leading marble

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producers.

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I'm now heading to one of its oldest marble workshops.

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I'm meeting Francesca Nicoli amongst an amazing library of plaster

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casts, which are the first stage in the creation of a marble statue.

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Francesca, what an extraordinary place.

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Here, I find a British Prime Minister, WE Gladstone, here,

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the very substantial figure of King Edward VII,

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and here, the disapproving form of his mother, Queen Victoria.

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Why are these plaster casts here?

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These plaster casts belong to an important

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tradition of portraits of eminent politicians.

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My ancestor, Carlo Nicoli, he made, himself,

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13 portraits of Queen Victoria.

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One very important one was made for Brighton,

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so it's been a very important production during the Victorian age.

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First, a plaster cast was made

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and approved before being passed on to the sculptor or to

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a series of skilled carvers to be meticulously crafted in marble.

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A custom-made statue was the ultimate display of 19th-century importance.

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And are you still making monuments like this?

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Little by little, this tradition, glorious tradition, of the portraits

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of eminent politicians like William Gladstone has come to an end,

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making space for modern artists.

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Politicians really don't have much hope now of getting a monument?

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No, but top models like Naomi Campbell, yes they do.

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How the world changes!

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The subjects of sculpture may be different today,

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but they are created in much the same way as 100 years ago.

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Ciao.

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Michele.

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-Diego.

-Diego.

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It takes years to learn this art, but today I've been granted

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permission to lay my untrained hands on this precious stone.

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This is the most important implement

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and there is the second most important implement.

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Michelangelo, eat your heart out!

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HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

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I have to do it gently, he says.

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It would take Diego over two months to carve a statue out of this block.

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Let's hope I don't set him back too far.

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-Not ready to hire!

-Not now!

-Not at the moment. Not now!

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Oops!

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Very satisfying. Lovely work.

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Diego, I'm going to let you finish.

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After all that concentration, I'm ready for sleep.

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Tomorrow, I'll be bound for the heart of Tuscany.

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I'm up bright and early to catch a connection from Pisa

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headed 35 miles inland.

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My next stop is Lucca, which Bradshaw's tells me,

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"is a pleasant town, Roman again, situated in a fertile plain.

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"From the railway station the Duomo is seen towering above the ramparts."

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100 years ago, Bradshaw tourists came to see

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the heavily fortified city states that had warred against each other.

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But Italians were proud that for 50 years they had been a united kingdom.

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OPERA SINGING

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Lucca's defensive walls

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and the exquisite mediaeval streets within them

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are some of the best preserved in Italy, and a great draw for visitors.

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For early 20th century travellers, there was another attraction.

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As an opera lover,

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I'm excited to be in a city associated with a favourite composer.

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I'm meeting theatre and opera director Vivian Hewitt,

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who is based in Italy just behind the opera house.

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Vivian, why is Lucca Puccini's city?

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Not only was he born here but throughout his long,

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much travelled career in which he travelled all over the world,

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he kept coming back here.

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He has this very intense relationship with his home town.

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-Do we find any influences of Lucca in the music?

-It's everywhere.

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He somehow or other draws on his own personal experience

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of where he lives and of what surrounds him

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to create extremely exotic places that are very far from him.

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Puccini's operas became familiar to British audiences

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in the years before my guidebook.

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Between 1897 and 1904 La boheme, Tosca and Madame Butterfly

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were performed in Britain shortly after their Italian premiers.

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The British were seduced by the Italian language

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and by Italian romanticism.

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But Puccini transported audiences far afield to Paris, China,

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Japan and the Wild West.

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The operas are full of passion,

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the most extraordinary elongated love duets.

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What was the inspiration for that?

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I think Puccini is a man who is almost permanently in love.

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He is not just a Don Giovanni,

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he just doesn't amuse himself seducing women.

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I think it's often women who seduce him.

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As a very young man, he falls in love with Elvira,

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who is a married woman and already has a family.

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She is the wife of a friend of his.

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She becomes pregnant and they run away together.

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She is his permanent life companion.

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In the meantime of course, every time he writes an opera

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he has a muse and he falls madly in love with somebody.

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His passion-filled operas, inspired by real life,

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made Puccini a huge success.

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He rapidly became Italy's best loved new composer,

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taking his place alongside Giuseppe Verdi.

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How should we view Puccini?

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He seems to be writing traditional, melodic, Italian music

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at a time when Italy is bubbling with new ideas.

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Indeed he is a melodist, but he is looking very much at Schoenberg

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and Stravinsky and at Northern Europe and he is using his own style

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to create new music that is within the Italian tradition.

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# O soave fanciulla

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# O dolce viso

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# Di mite circinfuso alba lunar

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# Fremon

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# Gi nell'anima

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# Le doclezze estreme

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# Tu sol comandi, amore

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# Nel bacio

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# Freme amor. #

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Bravo!

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With that duet ringing in my ears,

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I must leave Lucca to continue my journey.

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I'm bound for the Tuscan capital

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and one of the most celebrated stops on any tourist itinerary.

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Bradshaw struggles to sum up the beauty of Florence.

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"It's generally conceded pre-eminence as the centre of intellectual life.

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"Literature and fine arts have attained a dignity

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"and grace that fittingly adorn a city set like a gem amidst beautiful,

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"natural surroundings."

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It tells me that Florence was formally the capital

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of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and sometime

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the capital of the Kingdom of Italy between 1865 and 1871.

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I'd like to find out how it was that this gem lost its crown.

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Since the Italian Renaissance began here in the 14th century,

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Florence has drawn people from around the globe to admire

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its intoxicating mix of art, architecture and literary history.

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Certainly no Edwardian tour of Italy

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could be complete without visiting the city.

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In 1913, the old town had recently undergone extensive transformation

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after the capital of Italy moved here from Turin in 1865.

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I've arranged to meet historian Silvia Cavicchioli.

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Silvia, what was the effect then on Florence physically

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on becoming the capital of Italy?

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Well, Florence at the time was still a medieval town

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with an ancient heart within the medieval walls.

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The problem was that many people who had arrived from Turin,

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we are talking about a flux

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of something like 30,000 people.

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It was hastily re-planned by an architect,

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Giuseppe Poggi, who intended to enlarge

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and to modernise the ancient town.

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The population of 118,000 swelled

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as politicians and citizens moved to the new capital.

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Poggi re-planned the city to accommodate them,

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replacing the medieval walls with a ring road around the ancient centre.

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As parts of Florentine history were torn down,

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Italy's united future was being built.

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The geographical achievement of unification had been very fast

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so the ruling class needed symbols

0:26:540:26:58

to create a sense of national identity.

0:26:580:27:02

And this is why they looked for symbols of unity in the past.

0:27:020:27:08

And so the modernisation of Florence went hand in hand

0:27:080:27:12

with the recovery of the glorious past of Italy.

0:27:120:27:16

Along with rebuilding the city,

0:27:180:27:20

the government commissioned celebrations and statues

0:27:200:27:24

to glorify Italian heroes such as the 13th century poet, Dante.

0:27:240:27:29

But Florence's role as Italian capital wasn't to last.

0:27:320:27:37

In 1871 it was moved to its final location - Rome.

0:27:370:27:42

Did Florence regret losing the status of capital city?

0:27:440:27:47

Michael, I think that Florentines were, and are, very clever people.

0:27:490:27:53

They were aware that Rome was destined to be the final step

0:27:540:27:58

of the Italian Risorgimento.

0:27:580:28:00

Florence may have been the country's capital just briefly,

0:28:060:28:10

but the streets today were shaped by changes made during those six years.

0:28:100:28:14

I'm ready for some rest before I continue my exploration

0:28:160:28:20

in the morning.

0:28:200:28:22

CHURCH BELLS CHIME

0:28:370:28:39

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

-Cappuccino.

0:28:410:28:44

-Grazie.

-Prego.

0:28:440:28:46

Uno pasta.

0:28:460:28:48

-Buon appetito.

-Fantastico. Grazie.

0:28:480:28:50

The word tourist used to apply to people doing

0:28:550:28:57

the Grand Tour like Byron, and Shelley and Keats.

0:28:570:29:01

But mass tourism had already got underway by the beginning

0:29:020:29:05

of the 20th century, thanks to the railways.

0:29:050:29:08

And then travellers of the old sort snobbishly

0:29:080:29:11

tried to set themselves apart from the mass tourists

0:29:110:29:15

by inventing new tests.

0:29:150:29:17

Had you come to Florence for months? Were you here to study?

0:29:170:29:21

Could you do without your Baedeker's Guide or, indeed, your Bradshaw's?

0:29:210:29:26

The boom in train travel in the 1840s meant that the middle classes

0:29:330:29:38

were now able to appreciate cultural treasures which had once been

0:29:380:29:42

enjoyed only by aristocrats on their Grand Tour.

0:29:420:29:45

That change was well satirised by the writer, EM Forster,

0:29:480:29:52

in his 1908 classic, A Room With A View, partly set in Florence.

0:29:520:29:57

But far removed from that gentle and old-fashioned British novel,

0:29:590:30:03

Italian Futurists had a hard headed determination

0:30:030:30:06

to turn society upside-down.

0:30:060:30:09

I'm meeting historian Dr Irene Auerbach

0:30:130:30:16

in the Piazza della Repubblica.

0:30:160:30:18

Irene, what was Futurism?

0:30:220:30:25

Italian Futurism was a movement that strove to rejuvenate

0:30:250:30:30

Italian culture and society.

0:30:300:30:34

It was planned as a cultural revolution, really,

0:30:340:30:37

and they wanted to change the society

0:30:370:30:40

and the static society of Italy

0:30:400:30:43

by a radical change with achievements,

0:30:430:30:47

which glorified the achievements of the industrial revolution.

0:30:470:30:52

The movement was started in Milan in 1909 by a poet, Filippo Marinetti.

0:30:540:30:59

He saw an industrial way of life as the future and loathed the old Italy.

0:31:000:31:05

Futurists would fight for a secular, modern nation

0:31:050:31:09

using any means possible.

0:31:090:31:11

I believe that Filippo Marinetti launched a manifesto.

0:31:130:31:17

-He talked about incendiary violence. Was there incendiary violence?

-Yes.

0:31:170:31:22

The first manifesto of Futurism was really a scandal because they

0:31:220:31:27

glorified war and they proclaimed the love of danger, fearlessness.

0:31:270:31:33

-And to reject the past?

-Yes, of course.

0:31:350:31:37

They wanted to destroy museums, academies and also libraries.

0:31:370:31:41

The Futurist movement was not only an artistic or literary movement,

0:31:420:31:47

it was much more.

0:31:470:31:48

It was a way of life, it was a new way of looking at the world.

0:31:480:31:52

At the start of the 20th century,

0:31:530:31:55

Futurist art was the catalyst for a violent event in Florence

0:31:550:31:59

as leading members clashed with local journalists.

0:31:590:32:02

Irene, why have you brought me to this beautiful, historic cafe?

0:32:050:32:09

I brought you to the Giubbe Rosse

0:32:090:32:11

because it's a famous cafe where the artists and writers of Florence met.

0:32:110:32:16

In 1911, the painter and critic Ardengo Soffici,

0:32:160:32:21

who lived here in Florence, wrote a critique on the Futurist painting

0:32:210:32:26

and he criticised them very harshly.

0:32:260:32:29

He said what they were painting was not what they had said

0:32:290:32:33

in their manifesto.

0:32:330:32:35

They weren't living up to their ideals?

0:32:350:32:38

At that time he said, no.

0:32:380:32:40

Now, how did Marinetti take this criticism?

0:32:400:32:44

Oh, he was very angry about this and he didn't like criticism very much.

0:32:440:32:49

He decided, with the painters, to go to Florence

0:32:490:32:52

in defence of Futurist painting.

0:32:520:32:54

They came here to defend Futurism with their fists.

0:32:540:32:58

There was a great brawl here at the Giubbe Rosso.

0:32:580:33:01

When the Futurists in the evening wanted to depart

0:33:010:33:04

from the train station, the critics waited there for them

0:33:040:33:09

and there was another fist fight.

0:33:090:33:11

And they all had to go to the police station and to make peace there.

0:33:110:33:16

Irene, it's an amazing story.

0:33:160:33:18

Although the brawling groups made a temporary peace,

0:33:200:33:24

as war swept Europe from 1914, Futurism ran out of fuel

0:33:240:33:29

and was later absorbed by Mussolini's Fascist movement.

0:33:290:33:34

Futurism, with its goal of rejecting the nation's history,

0:33:340:33:37

itself became a thing of the past.

0:33:370:33:40

I'm going in search of one enduring Florentine tradition

0:33:470:33:51

that I gather no hungry traveller should miss out on.

0:33:510:33:54

For the moment the doors are closed

0:33:590:34:01

and the most enormous crowd has assembled.

0:34:010:34:04

I guess I'm not the only person to have heard of this place.

0:34:040:34:07

-There's two.

-Tres.

0:34:110:34:15

Bambina! Sorry, sir.

0:34:150:34:17

The Latini family has been serving traditional Tuscan food since

0:34:170:34:21

before my guide book and they still attract a loyal following today.

0:34:210:34:26

Three. Tre.

0:34:260:34:28

-Portillo, due. Prego.

-Grazie.

0:34:280:34:30

Most come here for one dish - the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina.

0:34:360:34:40

I'm here to meet food writer Filippo Bartolotta to find out

0:34:480:34:53

what all the fuss is about.

0:34:530:34:55

-Filippo.

-Michael, nice to see you.

-Great to see you.

0:34:550:34:59

The steak it comes.

0:35:040:35:06

-Michael, are you hungry?

-It's absolutely huge!

0:35:070:35:11

What is the origin of this steak?

0:35:110:35:13

The English apparently invented this bistecca, beef steak literally.

0:35:130:35:17

Of course.

0:35:170:35:18

The reason why it's Bistecca alla Fiorentina is,

0:35:180:35:21

beef steak made the Florentine style.

0:35:210:35:23

It's funny how as a matter of fact outside of Tuscany

0:35:230:35:26

you can't find this kind of cut.

0:35:260:35:29

With a steak this thick, what are the complications of cooking it?

0:35:290:35:32

Bistecca alla Fiornetina has got the sirloin and the fillet.

0:35:320:35:35

You want to make sure you're cooking a little better the sirloin

0:35:350:35:39

and not too much the fillet because this cooks really quickly.

0:35:390:35:43

Look at the colour here. This is perfect, this is rare.

0:35:430:35:46

That is amazing.

0:35:550:35:57

So tender.

0:35:570:35:59

So tasty.

0:35:590:36:01

This is yet another great contribution

0:36:010:36:03

that Florence has made to civilisation!

0:36:030:36:05

No doubt about it.

0:36:050:36:07

TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT

0:36:280:36:32

Today I'm heading out of Florence.

0:36:330:36:36

Bound north towards another well-known stop

0:36:370:36:40

on the early 20th century tourist trail.

0:36:400:36:43

Bologna.

0:36:430:36:44

One thing the Futurists were right about was that the future was speed.

0:36:470:36:52

And today many of the world's fastest cars and bikes bear Italian names.

0:36:520:36:57

And the Italians have thrown themselves into high speed rail

0:36:570:37:01

with gusto too.

0:37:010:37:02

I'm on my way to Bologna.

0:37:020:37:04

In my 1913 timetable the fastest train seems to take about

0:37:040:37:08

three and a half hours.

0:37:080:37:11

Today, that's reduced to about 35 minutes

0:37:110:37:14

and nearly all of my 50 mile journey

0:37:140:37:17

will be through tunnel under the Apennine Mountains.

0:37:170:37:21

-TANNOY:

-Buongiorno. Il treno fermera a Bologna Centrale.

0:37:310:37:35

Constructed in 1864, this line has allowed passengers to access

0:37:370:37:42

the Po Valley, just over the Appennine Mountains, for 150 years.

0:37:420:37:47

I'm leaving Tuscany, travelling north into the region

0:37:510:37:54

of Emilia-Romagna to its largest city, Bologna.

0:37:540:37:58

Before continuing onto the last part of my journey

0:37:580:38:01

towards Italy's largest lake - Garda.

0:38:010:38:04

MUSIC: Brindisi from La Traviata.

0:38:070:38:11

Like many other capitals of former Italian states,

0:38:210:38:24

Bologna has a long history of rivalry with its neighbours.

0:38:240:38:28

The city even has its own leaning towers, built before their more

0:38:300:38:34

famous counterpart in Pisa.

0:38:340:38:36

As well as being celebrated for its architecture,

0:38:580:39:00

Bologna is also a food lover's paradise.

0:39:000:39:04

And there's one dish that the city is most famous for.

0:39:040:39:07

I'm looking for a restaurant that has the very best spaghetti bolognese, please.

0:39:150:39:19

Oh, my gosh, no!

0:39:190:39:21

-Assolutamente, no!

-No?

-No, no, no!

0:39:210:39:24

Spaghetti bolognese not here in Bologna.

0:39:240:39:27

Spaghetti bolognese is one of Italy's most famous food exports

0:39:470:39:51

and I'm intrigued to understand why I can't find it here.

0:39:510:39:54

-Monica, I'm Michael.

-Hello. How are you?

0:39:560:40:00

I've come to Monica Venture's pasta workshop.

0:40:020:40:05

They've been making traditional Bolognese dishes

0:40:050:40:07

for over 70 years, and I'm hoping that she can help.

0:40:070:40:11

Everywhere I go, I ask for spaghetti bolognese

0:40:140:40:17

and people get quite cross, quite excited. What's going wrong?

0:40:170:40:20

You have to ask for something else with Bolognese.

0:40:200:40:23

Tagliatelle al ragu.

0:40:230:40:25

How do you make that?

0:40:250:40:26

It's very easy.

0:40:260:40:29

Tagliatelle is not like spaghetti, it's not semola

0:40:290:40:32

but it is flour and eggs.

0:40:320:40:34

I am here to show you.

0:40:340:40:36

This is sfoglia to make tagliatelle.

0:40:360:40:40

'The pasta must be freshly made

0:40:420:40:44

'and I can't wait to taste some true Bolognese cooking.'

0:40:440:40:47

OK, then you roll like that.

0:40:490:40:52

Start to cut.

0:40:540:40:56

The size,

0:40:560:40:58

it should be seven millimetres of taglitatelle with ragu,

0:40:580:41:02

because every sauce got its proper size.

0:41:020:41:07

-Do you want to try?

-Yes.

0:41:070:41:09

'Different pasta shapes are paired with different sauces.

0:41:110:41:14

'A thicker sauce will cling better to a fatter,

0:41:140:41:17

'longer ribbon.'

0:41:170:41:18

-A little bit more?

-A little bit more, yes, like that.

-OK.

0:41:180:41:22

-Not too much.

-Not too much. And not too little.

-OK.

-Aha!

0:41:220:41:25

Release the tagliatelle.

0:41:250:41:27

Suddenly we have lovely ribbons of tagliatelle.

0:41:280:41:31

'Now that we have the pasta, we need the sauce.

0:41:340:41:36

'Monica's invited me to her home to show me how that's made.'

0:41:380:41:42

-Grazie, Monica.

-Prego.

-Grazie.

0:41:420:41:45

-So...

-You can see that the water is boiling and the ragu is ready.

0:41:500:41:55

'The pasta may take just seconds

0:41:560:41:58

'but the meaty ragu is cooked over five days.'

0:41:580:42:01

Oh, they look lovely, Monica.

0:42:050:42:07

Va bene.

0:42:110:42:13

OK. Ready?

0:42:140:42:16

-How is it?

-It's absolutely wonderful.

-OK.

0:42:200:42:24

The pasta is perfectly cooked, wonderfully fresh

0:42:240:42:27

and the meat sauce, wow!

0:42:270:42:29

Here's my tip for survival in Bologna -

0:42:290:42:32

do not ask for spaghetti bolognese!

0:42:320:42:35

In the early 20th century the Futurists wanted to ban pasta

0:42:410:42:45

citing it as the enemy of speed and modernity.

0:42:450:42:49

However, as a newly-industrialised Italy began to lead the way

0:42:530:42:57

in the production of cars and planes, another of this city's creations

0:42:570:43:03

most certainly won the Futurist seal of approval.

0:43:030:43:06

Bradshaw's has steered me towards the Piazza del Nettuno

0:43:110:43:16

and there's something familiar about Neptune's trident.

0:43:160:43:21

I think that weapon pierced the future and came to represent speed.

0:43:220:43:27

The symbol of the trident, inspired by one of Bologna's most

0:43:310:43:34

famous statues, was adopted by Italian car firm Maserati in 1920.

0:43:340:43:39

Fabio Collina, the company's classic cars manager,

0:43:410:43:44

is picking me up in a 1969 Quattroporte.

0:43:440:43:48

-Va bene, Fabio.

-Ciao, Michael.

-Andiamo via.

-Andiamo.

0:43:480:43:52

I want to learn more about the famous sports car manufacturer

0:43:570:44:01

conceived over a century ago.

0:44:010:44:03

What was the origin of Maserati cars?

0:44:070:44:10

The origin of the factory, Maserati, is here.

0:44:110:44:16

It's in Bologna.

0:44:160:44:18

The Maserati brothers opened the first workshop

0:44:190:44:23

in the very centre of the town.

0:44:230:44:27

What were they doing in the workshop? Were they already making cars?

0:44:270:44:30

At the very beginning, not.

0:44:300:44:32

They were a service workshop.

0:44:320:44:35

After the war, when the brother came back from the war,

0:44:350:44:39

they decided finally to prepare cars for race.

0:44:390:44:44

-Were they successful?

-Absolutely.

0:44:440:44:46

Every car they prepared, the car won.

0:44:460:44:48

Where are we going now, by the way?

0:44:510:44:54

-Now we are driving to Modena.

-To Modena?

-Yeah.

0:44:540:44:57

The company moved to Modena in 1939.

0:45:060:45:10

With other car manufacturers also in this region,

0:45:100:45:13

including the first incarnations of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani,

0:45:130:45:17

no wonder it's called the Motor Valley.

0:45:170:45:20

I'm getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the production line

0:45:280:45:32

from a retired mechanic from the company, Giorgio.

0:45:320:45:36

Giorgio, it's a very impressive facility -

0:45:390:45:42

it's very clean, it's very quiet.

0:45:420:45:43

And while the cars are stationary, what is happening to them?

0:45:430:45:48

So, in every station, there is a different job.

0:45:480:45:51

We have 12 stations where we fit all the mechanics on the car,

0:45:510:45:56

and another 12 near where we fit all the interior of the car.

0:45:560:46:00

24 to be completely assembled.

0:46:000:46:04

At each of the 24 assembly stations,

0:46:040:46:06

skilled mechanics have just under 36 minutes

0:46:060:46:09

to complete their phase of the work

0:46:090:46:11

before the car is moved on to the next.

0:46:110:46:13

Here is just the assembly of the car,

0:46:130:46:16

but later on, there are a lot of checks, testing, finishing area.

0:46:160:46:20

To build one car completely, from zero to the end,

0:46:200:46:25

you need at least 21 working days.

0:46:250:46:30

Are Italians still as keen on speed as they ever were?

0:46:300:46:34

Sure - speed is very, very important.

0:46:340:46:37

You see, we must have a powerful car.

0:46:370:46:39

ALARM SOUNDS

0:46:390:46:40

Capable of speeds of up to 190mph,

0:46:500:46:54

these machines can cost as much as £110,000.

0:46:540:46:59

Today, I'm being trusted with possibly the most important job.

0:46:590:47:03

The final part of the production process

0:47:050:47:07

is, of course, the test drive.

0:47:070:47:10

And, being in Italy, I've acquired an Italian's taste for speed.

0:47:100:47:14

HE LAUGHS

0:47:200:47:21

As soon as you tap the accelerator, here's that great roar and off we go.

0:47:210:47:26

ENGINE REVS

0:47:280:47:30

HE CHUCKLES

0:47:340:47:35

This is really the only way to arrive at a railway station.

0:47:440:47:48

I'll swap the car for a train before I do any damage.

0:47:540:47:57

I'm heading back to Bologna for the night

0:48:000:48:02

before I continue on the last leg of my journey tomorrow.

0:48:020:48:06

I'll travel over 130 miles north

0:48:350:48:37

towards one of Italy's most glamorous holiday hot spots -

0:48:370:48:41

Lake Garda.

0:48:410:48:42

I will shortly be arriving at Lake Garda.

0:49:010:49:04

Bradshaw's tells me that steamboats ascend and descend the lake

0:49:040:49:08

between Peschiera and Riva,

0:49:080:49:10

corresponding with the railways at each end of the lake.

0:49:100:49:14

Situated to the south of the Dolomite mountains,

0:49:440:49:47

and with a Mediterranean climate,

0:49:470:49:49

the lake has attracted tourists - including artists -

0:49:490:49:53

to its shores for three centuries.

0:49:530:49:55

DUCKS QUACK

0:49:570:50:00

In 1912, a British writer visited here to escape

0:50:000:50:04

and to seek inspiration.

0:50:040:50:06

I'm in Gargnano, on the lake's west shore,

0:50:080:50:10

to meet Professor Stefania Michelucci from the University of Genoa.

0:50:100:50:15

-Hello, Stefania.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Fine, thanks.

0:50:170:50:23

Stefania, what adventure is it that brings DH Lawrence to Lake Garda

0:50:230:50:27

the year before my guidebook is published?

0:50:270:50:31

Well, it was a very particular adventure,

0:50:310:50:34

because he had met Frieda,

0:50:340:50:36

who was Frieda von Richtofen,

0:50:360:50:38

who was the wife of his professor in Nottingham,

0:50:380:50:43

and they fell in love,

0:50:430:50:44

they were mutually attracted to each other,

0:50:440:50:47

so she decided to leave England and then they came to Gargnano.

0:50:470:50:54

All the writers and artists are doing the Grand Tour,

0:50:540:50:59

back from the 17th century and spend some time on Lake Garda.

0:50:590:51:04

Embroiled in an affair which scandalised England,

0:51:050:51:08

Lawrence and Frieda were drawn to Italy

0:51:080:51:11

by its more liberal attitudes,

0:51:110:51:13

as well as by their curiosity about the changes taking place there.

0:51:130:51:17

What did Lawrence think of Lake Garda?

0:51:190:51:22

He had a very different attitude, I would say, modern and new,

0:51:220:51:28

because he wasn't at all romanticising,

0:51:280:51:32

having a sort of romantic view of Lake Garda.

0:51:320:51:35

He tried to understand what it was really like.

0:51:350:51:38

He's sensing that it is...decaying.

0:51:380:51:42

It's going to be overwhelmed

0:51:420:51:44

by the spreading mechanisation and industrialisation

0:51:440:51:48

which is coming from the north.

0:51:480:51:50

What attraction did he find in the Futurists?

0:51:510:51:55

He couldn't stand their worship of the machine,

0:51:550:51:58

but he was so attracted by the Futurists' vitalism.

0:51:580:52:02

He liked the idea of breaking with the past.

0:52:020:52:05

Although excited by that atmosphere in Italy,

0:52:110:52:14

Lawrence wanted to preserve the beauty of regions like Garda.

0:52:140:52:17

It was partly the spectacular scenery here

0:52:190:52:21

that inspired him to write some of his most famous works.

0:52:210:52:25

So this is the view that DH Lawrence and Frieda

0:52:360:52:39

would have had from their bedroom?

0:52:390:52:41

Exactly.

0:52:410:52:42

A very inspiring view.

0:52:420:52:45

He was certainly inspired by being abroad

0:52:450:52:48

and by the beauty of the place.

0:52:480:52:51

Lake Garda played an important role in his life.

0:52:510:52:54

But he was also desperately needing money

0:52:540:52:59

and so he completed Sons And Lovers, which was his first masterpiece.

0:52:590:53:04

And then he also wrote all the essays of Twilight In Italy.

0:53:040:53:09

After the First World War, Lawrence returned to Italy,

0:53:090:53:12

where he wrote his most controversial novel,

0:53:120:53:15

Lady Chatterley's Lover.

0:53:150:53:16

It was first published privately in Florence in 1928.

0:53:160:53:20

Banned in Britain, lest it should corrupt public morals,

0:53:200:53:23

it was a further 32 years before it reached British readers.

0:53:230:53:28

Now the book, with its modern themes of sex, class and war,

0:53:280:53:31

is acknowledged to have played an important role

0:53:310:53:34

in 20th century literature.

0:53:340:53:36

Writers were drawn to the lake's tranquillity,

0:53:420:53:45

but some areas of Garda were far from calm.

0:53:450:53:48

They were caught up in the nation's obsession with speed.

0:53:480:53:52

I'm at the docks to meet Fausto and Mauro Feltrinelli.

0:53:530:53:57

Their family has been building boats here for over 100 years.

0:53:570:54:02

Fausto. Sono Michael. Piacere.

0:54:030:54:07

-Mauro.

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-Fausto...

0:54:070:54:09

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

0:54:090:54:11

Si? Si.

0:54:140:54:15

Fausto's great-grandfather Bernardo and his son Egidio

0:54:300:54:33

travelled from town to town repairing boats.

0:54:330:54:37

After a trip to America in 1919,

0:54:370:54:40

Egidio discovered how to build not just fishing boats

0:54:400:54:43

but speed boats, too.

0:54:430:54:45

It went...20 knots over the water.

0:54:510:54:55

It's incredible for that time.

0:54:550:54:57

And the fever, the fever of speed took him so strongly.

0:54:570:55:02

The whole of Italy was boiling with the sensation of new speed,

0:55:020:55:07

new life, new progress.

0:55:070:55:09

Egidio, Mauro's great-grandfather, also developed the hydroplane here,

0:55:120:55:17

based on American designs and capable of speeds of over 100mph.

0:55:170:55:22

So, your family developed the high-performance boat business.

0:55:230:55:27

Do you then find that the tourists are coming to enjoy them?

0:55:270:55:30

I think it automatically happened.

0:55:300:55:33

Before, work boats, boats for working.

0:55:330:55:36

Then, sport boats, racing.

0:55:360:55:40

And suddenly, after the speed, then came just the fun.

0:55:400:55:44

-Can we have some fun with this?

-Oh, why not?

0:55:440:55:47

THEY LAUGH

0:55:470:55:49

-But attention, eh?

-I'll be careful.

0:55:490:55:52

REVVING

0:55:520:55:55

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

0:56:010:56:04

The steady flow of tourists to Italy 100 years ago turned into a flood

0:56:370:56:42

and is now virtually an invasion.

0:56:420:56:45

Most of them come still to see

0:56:450:56:48

the historic towers and domes and statues,

0:56:480:56:52

hoping for a room with a view,

0:56:520:56:54

maybe even a Chianti-fuelled romance.

0:56:540:56:58

But on this journey, I've discovered, just off the beaten track,

0:56:580:57:01

another, futuristic Italy of high-speed trains

0:57:010:57:06

and racy cars and boats -

0:57:060:57:08

it's not Italy that we come to visit,

0:57:080:57:11

but with its cool and elegant designs,

0:57:110:57:14

it's certainly one that we admire.

0:57:140:57:17

'Next time, I'll find out about

0:57:220:57:24

'the surprisingly ancient Greek origins of our modern railways

0:57:240:57:28

'at the spectacular Corinth canal.'

0:57:280:57:31

So, this is incredible - 600 BC,

0:57:310:57:35

two parallel lines of stone, logs running between them

0:57:350:57:39

and on top of the logs, the ships.

0:57:390:57:41

-Yes.

-That's even more extraordinary than the canal.

0:57:410:57:45

'I'll learn how to satisfy the nation's sweet tooth...'

0:57:450:57:48

-More.

-More? More?!

0:57:480:57:52

I'm having to hoof it through these beautiful olive groves.

0:57:550:57:59

'..and show a strength that would rival Hercules.'

0:58:030:58:07

MAN YELLS

0:58:070:58:09

Done!

0:58:140:58:16

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