Episode 2 Sicily Unpacked

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

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

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

The sultana is really tangy, a little, like a little Sicilian, huh?

We both share a passion.

This is real Baroque, yeah. This is decadent!

A love.

Oh!

An obsession.

I've never seen anything like that!

Her name?

Sicilia - the Mediterranean island of Sicily.

We've both been her ardent suitors for years.

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

-It's like winning the World Cup in archaeological terms.

-That's exactly...

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

Here you are, ten square metre,

you could find all these ingredients, here they are in front of you.

But it's only recently we discovered

that we share the same intense passion for the island.

So we decide to team up and travel here together.

This really is the Naked Chef!

-He is the naked...

-The real one!

-He is the real naked chef!

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

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

The sadness.

This was a hole in a nation.

This was a hole in the heart of a nation.

And the pleasures of our beloved Sicily.

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

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

There you are - perfection!

..to the truly jaw-dropping art and culture -

a mirror to the exuberance and extraordinary history of its people.

CROWD MURMURS EXCITEDLY

APPLAUSE

This is the Noto Valley in the south-east of the island.

It's a dramatic landscape with an equally dramatic history.

-In 1693, there was a huge earthquake.

-Right.

One of the great sort of natural disasters in Sicilian history,

and it happened right here.

I've got an eyewitness description in the guidebook.

"It was so horrible and ghastly, this event of biblical proportions,

"that the soil undulated like the waves of a stormy sea

"and the mountains danced as if drunk."

Oh, that sounds terrifying!

After the earthquake, the major towns in the valley were rebuilt in the lavish Baroque style

favoured by the island's colonial overlords - the Spanish.

They've been in control of Sicily since the end of the 13th century,

but the island was just a small part of their empire,

ruled by the viceroy and a collection of land-owning barons.

Under the Spanish, the number of those holding titles and territory expanded,

creating more feudal estates that had to be paid for by the poor Sicilian.

This is Noto, the most spectacular of the Baroque towns built by the Spanish.

It was created according to a meticulous town plan,

designed to deliver the wow factor from the moment you arrive.

I can't work out if it's a town or a piece of theatre!

That's, yeah. It looks...

You feel like you're in a stage set, don't you?

-It does.

-It's incredible.

And it's unusual in Sicily, isn't it,

because usually the cities have built up over time,

but here you've got a town that was all made in one moment.

So it preserves this Baroque idea.

Baroque towns like Noto reflected the Spanish rulers' belief

in the importance of hierarchy.

The rich lived in lavish splendour in the centre,

with the poor languishing at the fringes.

'I've been told the best view of the town is from San Carlo Church.

'Father Salvatore kindly agreed to let us in.'

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

-Whoa!

-That's a lot of steps!

THEY LAUGH

Well that's, I think, 38 steps, so we're halfway.

-You count them?

-Yeah.

Ah! Personal training, the medieval way!

Wow. See what they mean about the view.

That's exactly...

You get the whole theatre from up here.

And I think you realise how much it favours the rich people.

The poorer people of Noto didn't actually like the design,

cos it's really a design for the rich,

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

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

Yeah. Rich people up at the top,

and the poor people at the bottom, drinking their piss!

-Is that, is that an Italian expression?

-Yes!

It's funny, cos when you come this way, you can see how,

how compressed this city is.

I mean, it stops just about

where that pair of orange trousers is hanging up.

-At the Fire Brigade!

-That's where the old city would have stopped.

I mean now there's suburban sprawl, but I think, in the past,

beyond that point, it would have just been hovels.

Shacks, almost like a shanty town,

absolute radical contrast between the rich and the poor.

It's almost designed to remind you which place you have in society

every single day, from the moment you get up.

It's ironic that the sublime beauty of Sicily's Baroque towns

'could have been created by such an oppressively unfair regime.'

The privilege and ambition of the noble classes

created extravagant sculptural confections,

like the facade of this palazzo - the finest in the town.

This is the most famous palace, isn't it, in Noto, they say?

-Yeah, that's...

-Palazzo Villa Dorado?

Villa Dorado, which is the residence of the Nicolaci,

and you know, here you are, look at that. No wonder it's famous.

-What have we got? We've got lions.

-Lions.

We've got a cross between a mermaid and an angel.

It's like the figure, they are on the front of boats sometimes.

You have that kind of thing, without the wings.

I love these grotesque faces down here.

They remind me a bit of the gargoyles, you know,

that they used to put on churches in the Middle Ages to scare away evil spirits.

Yes.

And that looks like multiplied Pegasuses.

Pegasuses, yeah.

It's a funny thing that Noto was rediscovered for the 20th century largely by Anthony Blunt.

-Right.

-Art historian.

But it's weird that the most famous Communist in English history

should have been so fascinated

by the architecture of absolute power and feudal tyranny!

I wanted to come back down here a bit, even a little bit more

because I think one of the amazing things about this street is,

apart from the beauty of the Palace, is the fact

that the whole thing with the church at the end, this palace,

that palace, they're three separate buildings, but it's one effect.

It's like a painting of a street in perspective, rather than a street.

It almost looks like the tower are bending in

to fit inside of the set, isn't it?

It was planned like that, yeah.

It's an unusually narrow church. Why is it narrow?

It's narrow because the street's narrow

and it's got to end the street, it's the focal point.

But Noto isn't all privilege and hierarchy.

There is one Noto experience that can be enjoyed by everyone -

the most democratic of treats - ice cream!

The Sicilians have been expert ice-cream makers

since the legend has it.

The Arabs created the earliest kind here in the eighth century.

I'm bringing Andrew to taste the very best!

So, this is the place?

This is the place.

'Corrado Assenza's creations are exquisite,

'like the Baroque architecture here.'

Ciao, ciao.

Giorgio has given you a big build-up.

He says you're the best ice cream maker in, in Sicily.

I don't know if...

-In the world.

-In the world!

In the world! I consider in the world.

So what do you recommend? What do you recommend?

I show you. With a simple almond sorbet.

This corner of Sicily have the best quality almonds in the world.

Almond.

-HE MOUTHS:

-Wow!

-You see, this one's...

-Unbelievable!

No dairy products.

I've never tasted anything like that.

-Just water...

-That is intense.

The canella coming up to your nose, and a bit of cinnamon in that.

OK, and this one is Montezuma, spices, chocolate, dark chocolate,

with small pieces of lemon and orange candy.

Ah! It's also the consistency, that is really amazing.

This is a strawberry sorbet. But no cream?

No dairy products.

But it feels like some, like a wine tasting.

It does, yeah.

-You want to kind of clean your palate. What is the Torrone?

-Torrone is like a nougat.

That's sort of the richer end, isn't it? That's really rich.

The strawberry's all light, almost like a mousse.

That's very Baroque.

That's, yeah, this is Baroque. This is real Baroque!

-Yeah!

-This is decadent!

Corrado, are you going to show us how you make this ice cream?

OK, follow me and I bring you in the lab to show you...

-The lab?

-The lab!

He calls it the lab, OK?

'Corrado's ice creams are sublime taste sensations

'and, in his lab, he prepares one of his latest concoction,

'with a fittingly precious title - Gold.

'He insists on sourcing all ingredients locally,

'and it's this deep connection with the terrain of Sicily

'that is his most important source of inspiration.'

When you say have an idea for putting the ingredients together, how does the idea come?

Do you sit and you think deliberately or does it come to you when you're sitting?

Around the world. Around the world, during all the day, during all the years.

When you bring something in you, of you, in your mind,

a fresh wind, for example, is enough or a new sound or a new emotion

in a landscape, natural landscape, an example,

bringing me to recipes in few minutes.

He's like a poet now as well!

And this is what I call the music of the ice cream.

This is a rhythm we use, listen.

RHYTHMIC GRATING OF LEMON

Now, try you to make the same music.

HALTING ATTEMPT AT SAME RHYTHM

He's slow.

-Well, he's being very careful.

-Be careful. Be careful.

-Not too much?

-Not, not so much.

-Just the yellow.

-Just the skin.

OK, it goes that way.

-This is the way.

-OK.

CAUTIOUS SCRATCHING

Soft. Now hard.

You need to go...

Go. Thank you.

So I did OK?

Thank you.

Not better!

This is the gold. Infused honey with saffron.

It's honey infused with saffron.

Yes.

BLENDER WHIRRS

'This is pure alchemy!

'The flavours Corrado uses are simple,

'but it's the way he combines them that makes it special.

'I can't wait to taste the result.'

There you are.

The man with the golden touch!

Yes, the golden...

-This is for you, Andrew.

-Grazie.

It's more light.

-Who's going to go first?

-Me!

Go on, you go first.

-Mmm!

-Mm!

-Mm!

-Again, the way it melts in your mouth.

Is that a word, "mmmm"!?

Well, that says more than the words, no?

This is culture of food applied to ice cream.

And is popular culture, Sicilian culture of food - elegance.

That's the way.

It's my pleasure to meet you. To have you...

No, it's my pleasure to...

Downstairs. In my lab!

Our trip to Sicily coincides with Easter,

and here it's the most important feast in the Christian calendar.

Ceremonies take place all over the island

to commemorate Christ's death and resurrection.

Today, it's Good Friday, and we're heading to the hilltop town of Enna,

home to the most important procession in Sicily.

CHURCH BELLS TOLL

In the 16th century, the Spanish organised the local guilds of Enna

into groups called confraternities,

each one with their own chapel and coat of arms.

The robes worn by the confraternities

are almost identical to those I've seen in processions in Spain.

Powerful.

Mysterious.

And even a little intimidating.

So Andrew, look at that. They all come together.

They are all coming together.

3,000 people, apparently, actually, in the confraternities,

so that's one in seven of the entire population of the town is actually processing.

The Chapel of the Sacred Heart is home to the Baroque statue -

one of the two that will be carried during the procession.

Usually, only the confraternities are allowed inside,

but we have been given special permission to take a closer look.

Her iconography repeats the iconography of their chest heraldry

which shows a heart pierced by the sword.

It's her heart being pierced by the sword of pain.

Broken, by this pain of losing her child.

-It says 1600 in that baldacchino

-Yeah.

So it's a Baroque object and yet, you know,

it's got electric lights attached to it.

They've, they've kept it updated. It's part of a modern living ritual.

I mean, this is amazing!

This is much older.

This bleeding Christ.

To me, that looks like 13th century, really old piece of sculpture.

-There's nothing renaissance about that.

-No.

That's the Middle Ages.

It shows the strain that he's been on the cross

and all the stress that he's been through.

It's meant to make you feel sort of agony of sympathy, isn't it?

Once upon a time, they used to celebrate Easter like this in England, 500 years ago.

I can feel the pressure mounting, minute by minute.

Lift-off is about to happen.

We should let them get on with that.

Let them get on with that.

SOMBRE MUSIC IN MINOR KEY

Here we go.

Carrying the Madonna from the chapel is no mean feat.

There are over 70 men bearing the weight of the platform

which, believe it or not, weighs as much as our car!

-This guy looks like he's suffering a bit, doesn't he?

-Already.

'The whole affair is so theatrical,

'and I love how they sway as they carry the statue.

'It's to ensure that they stay in step over the long distance to come,

'but it looks more like a synchronised dance.'

As night falls, the procession builds to a dazzling climax.

What strikes me about the procession here in Enna is that,

although the culture and ritual have been inherited from the Spanish,

I can't think of anything more Sicilian.

It's a ceremony marking the death of Christ,

but the triumphant music and spectacle make it feel

more like an opera.

'A very Sicilian opera that we can all be part of...

'..with pain and joy in equal measure.'

That is real Sicily. That is real Sicily.

It is only here you see that.

-Nowhere else.

-Nowhere else.

I've never seen anything like that.

'What a beautiful way to celebrate Good Friday.

'I can't wait to see what they do on Easter Sunday!'

BELLS CHIME

The next morning we head for Modica,

another of the fine Baroque towns built by the Spanish.

But there is also a sweeter side to their legacy here,

which can be savoured in the town's pride and joy.

Chocolate.

Modica is home to the oldest chocolate makers in the island,

the Buonojuto.

They still make chocolate here to the original 16th-century recipe,

brought by the Spanish from the Aztecs in the New World.

-Buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

C'e Signor Pierpaolo? Grazie.

Is it just this part of Italy where they make this chocolate?

Pierpaolo. Giorgio.

-Andrew.

-Pierpaolo, nice to meet you.

Welcome. Come in the kitchen with me.

Ah, fantastic! Come, straight in the kitchen.

We dive in!

'Pierpaolo's family has been making chocolate here for six generations.

'Just few ingredients. Cocoa, sugar, a little flavouring.

'It's a world away from the chocolate that we are used to in Britain.'

What we are looking for is to make chocolate with the smallest label...

that you can find.

Did you hear that? They want less ingredients as possible.

This is it. Less. You know, when you go and buy a bar of chocolate,

you want to read the ingredients.

Less ingredients you've got, and better it is.

-What's this?

-This is the sound of my childhood.

BANGING

Is that the sound of the Aztec drums?!

You see, the chocolate has changed. It becomes much more translucent.

All the bits of oxygen and air that was left inside is gone,

and you know, you're going to have a bar that is even.

So when you pack it, cos you know, that's what it is.

But this noise...

I'm still getting over it. It's amazing!

..it's part of, you know... the food is not only a recipe,

it's a matter of rhythm.

It looks much more gritty. I'm looking at the texture.

I mean, I think of chocolate as something that's smooth, liquid.

That's a particularity of the chocolate of Modica.

Yeah.

This strange texture is because the sugar never melts

during the process.

Taste it.

Ah, it's ... it's like sort of chocolate grit.

You will feel a strange texture in your mouth.

Mm, completely strange texture.

So my question would be if somebody came to Sicily

in the 17th century and had a bar of chocolate, would it be like this?

It was very similar.

Here, chocolate was a food,

so it was not so important to have a beautiful chocolate

but something that could give you energy during the day.

'It's difficult today to think that chocolate was ever a staple food.

'But Pierpaolo's creations have certainly given me

'all the energy I need for today.

'I think we just might be skipping dinner!'

We decide to spend the rest of Easter in Modica.

Like everyone else, we are in time for the Easter Sunday procession -

a famous ritual called the Vasa Vasa.

Religion has long been a binding agent in Sicily,

especially in the deeply unequal society created by the Spanish.

And you can still feel that rallying power today.

We still have some time, so I'm taking Giorgio to see

the town's finest cathedral.

It's dedicated to his name saint, Saint Giorgio.

'And to me, its curvy facade is much more than just grand architecture.'

So, that's a church. What do you think?

It looks like a cake, doesn't it? Not like a church.

-Ah, so you think it looks like a cake?

-It does.

-You see, I ...

-It's like a wedding cake.

Well, I can see that.

But I also think what's amazing about this church is,

you know like the Baroque style, for me, it has the ability to be

incredibly sensual, almost to turn a building into a human body.

Yeah.

And I think the key to this church is that inscription there, Mater Ecclesia.

-La Mater Ecclesia.

-The mother church. And for me, it's ...

You see a cake, I don't see that, I see...

the Madonna opening out her cloak.

Oh, wow!

And down there, enfolding the town.

There's an old renaissance iconography

where you have the Madonna

and she opens her cloak and inside the cloak are all the people.

And that's what for me this church is.

It's like the mother's going to look after you.

It's going to be a good day. Let's go.

'On the way to the town square I spot a stall selling a fruit

'called cedro, that I'm sure Andrew won't have tasted before.'

So I eat the whole thing, Giorgio?

-Si.

-It's like a lemon but...

You have to eat everything and try to balance as much you eat

of the inside with the skin. The skin is very important.

This is what is used to make all those candy.

It's amazing. I've seen these in old paintings.

-That's right, yeah.

-I always thought it was just like a big lemon.

-Yeah.

And, you know, where in the world are you're going to be able

to eat something that you never eat before?

'I always enjoyed going to Easter processions with my parents

'when I was a child, but Vasa Vasa is something special.

'A statue of the Madonna in mourning is paraded through the town

'in search of her son, Jesus.

'It's a moving piece of street theatre that everybody can be part of.'

So this is the Madonna kind of, "Where are you, Jesus,

"where are you?"

Yeah, "Where are you?"

And the music is really nice. She's sad, she's...

But it's Easter Sunday, so she will find him and he's...

You can see a little bit of the colour.

When she meets him, the black will come off and she'll be dressed in azzura.

And this is Jesus now.

But of course, cos she's come that way, it's like they're missing each other, right?

-Missing each other.

-They're looking for each other.

You see, it's much more. They're wearing red, there's no sad,

there's music, because he's already...

He's triumphant.

BAND PLAYS JUBILANT MARCHING MUSIC

'It's noon, and finally, it's the time for the climax of the procession.

'You can sense what a special event it is for the people gathered here.'

They all wear the best, their Sunday best.

The children are all dressed up.

It's a rebirth.

And you know, they will think, "We're going to have a nice lunch,"

-which is...

-For the first time in a long time.

That's exactly. Some people will have meat for the first time in six weeks.

Look, Andrew, Christ is coming.

The Madonna's on her way.

'I'm glad we managed to secure a coveted spot on this balcony.

'It means we'll be able to get a clear sight of the moment

'when the Madonna finally discovers the Christ and kisses him.

'This is why the procession is called Vasa Vasa. It means "kiss".'

-The whole thing is so physical, isn't it?

-It is.

I mean, it's a physical celebration.

-Right.

-I mean, even the statues move.

There they go. And this is the moment of the Vasa Vasa.

APPLAUSE

'It's one of the most moving ceremonies I've ever experienced.

'Joyful, unashamedly heartfelt.'

See, for me, this is a performance version of what

we were thinking when we were up at that church.

That the church is the Madonna that enfolds the people

and all the people feel together within the Madonna's embrace.

And then, it's like we've seen it, that's what we've seen.

They're all there.

It's as if they're being embraced by this moment.

Everybody feels part of it. Togetherness.

-You can feel that when they clapped.

-They do, yeah.

When they clapped, it was beautiful. It was nothing kind of "Oh, we've got to clap now."

It was natural, yeah.

I'm really glad we came here.

We've been invited to continue the celebration with a local family,

the Vannucios.

Like most families all over the island,

they still celebrate Easter with a traditional Sicilian lunch.

'When we arrive, the men of the family are busy making ricotta

'in one of the outhouses.

'It's a cheese with its roots in the humble peasant food of Sicily.'

The rich people have the milk, filter it,

and then you have the cheese, and once you salt it,

you make pecorino with that.

-OK.

-The poor people were left with the ciero, which is...

-Which is what's left from the making...

-What's left from the making of the cheese.

-OK.

Every time you eat ricotta you'll cry thinking about this one.

Oh, thanks, Giorgio(!) So you're giving me the best ricotta I've ever tasted

-and you're simultaneously going to ruin ricotta for me!

-Yeah.

-Great.

But, but what you find is this ricotta is going to have

a really animal taste.

When my kids first tasted it, they said,

"Ah, it tastes like an animal!"

Mmm. Mmm!

-You've got the texture of blancmange almost.

-Yes.

-And really salty.

-Really salty, yeah.

-And it tastes like the smell of the barn a bit.

-Yeah.

-But it's... I mean that in a good way.

-Yeah.

'Next door, some of the women are busy making bread,

'and they seem slightly reluctant to accept any help from us.

'It's pretty clear that there's a strict division of roles going on here.'

Usually, it was the shepherd who would make the ricotta

and bring into town to sell.

So that was a man job, because the women weren't shepherds.

So that stays as a man job.

But to be in the kitchen, that's not a man job.

You see a man in here? Only me and you.

And they'll think we are funny that we are cooking with them!

-Are they? They think we're funny!

-They didn't give us a piece.

Ah, OK, look.

Kind of turn it and, you know, and push with your hands

and keep on turning back sort of thing, you know.

So you work like that and you come back...

-She's laughing at me!

-Yeah, she is.

She's definitely laughing at me!

ANDREW LAUGHS

I'm only a Michelin-starred chef!

ANDREW LAUGHS

Famous all over the world!

Easter lunch has always been a deeply symbolic meal in Sicily...

..made from simple recipes handed down through the generations.

Lamb is at the centre of the feats to signify the sacrifice of Christ,

and there is an array of different pies stuffed with the meat.

Like this Impanata.

You will only find it in this part of Sicily.

There are also dove Easter cakes,

stuffed with eggs which symbolise peace.

I sit at the top of the table.

Yeah, why not.

Whoa!

Sharing Easter with the Vannuccios it's clear to see

that for Sicilians, family and faith are still at the heart of what's important.

Spending time together over a table is a sign

of great achievement in life.

It's like the table's like a huge great altar

-and the family gathers around it.

-That's right.

-Salute!

Buono Pasqua!

Back in Modica, I've arranged to do a little informal house hunting.

But I'm not looking for a holiday home.

I just want to take a sneak peek inside one of the town's

many Baroque palazzos up for sale.

'I know of an English estate agent, Ramsay Gilderdale,

'who specialises in selling these buildings,

'and I've asked him to let us visit one of the finest on his books.'

So this is a palazzo that was built in the middle of the 1800s

and then had quite a lot of work done to it in the 1970s,

including this staircase which was completely remodelled.

And it's divided into two apartments, one of which,

as you can see, is pretty 1970s.

And the other one remains as it was in the 19th century.

Very 1970s. Even the computer looks like 1970s!

-Here we go.

-Wow!

No!

This would have been painted probably 1850 to 1900.

-Wow!

-The naked woman flying across the ceiling.

And think of what else is happening in Europe.

You've got, you know, the year of revolutions, 1848.

1850, the Great Exhibition, the Industrial Revolution.

-Industrial Revolution.

-A world engulfed in change. And here...

Close the shutter and stay inside.

Peasants can keep working the land, they can keep sipping their tea,

looking up at these sort of strange Baroque luxurious fantasies.

And have you noticed here, look, there's even a sort of remnant

of that old Catholic superstition, like we saw at Enna.

That's right, the sword going through her heart.

But there's no sense of participation in this space.

It's as if they just...

they keep the past under glass, preserve it forever.

But it is, it is slightly...spooky.

You feel like the ghosts of the people who lived here

have only just left.

I'm not sure I'm going to be putting in an offer!

While the rich felt safe in their Baroque palazzos,

it was a very different story on their estates in the Sicilian countryside.

In the 18th century, although the Spanish Empire was in decline,

the feudal system they encouraged in Sicily was as strong as ever.

Heavily taxed by their overlords and desperately poor,

some Sicilians took the law into their own hands.

They became bandits,

stealing from the store of rich barons to feed themselves.

The fortified farmhouse

'where we're spending the night, near Ispica,

'was just the kind of place those bandits would have ransacked.'

Buongiorno.

-Franco.

-Franco.

-Kitchen.

-Well, that's my...

That's your bit. I'm going to go and make sure I get the best room.

'As Giorgio prepared dinner,

'I started to explore the phenomenon of the bandito, the bandit.

'What's fascinating is that many believe the Mafia, that most Sicilian of crime networks,

'has its roots in the island's centuries-old bandit culture.'

At the beginning, they were basically people who were resisting

the advance of settled agriculture. They were nomads.

-Yeah.

-But then gradually, as the Spanish system,

you know, the feudal system took hold with all these barons

living in different places, the bandito, the bandit

became a different kind of figure, kind of Robin Hood figure.

And there's a good phrase in here, he said,

"This is, this is one way in which the notion gained acceptance

"in Sicily that to cheat and to steal successfully made one

"worthy of respect and admiration, like a man of honour,

"perhaps even a fighter for Sicilian independence."

But then it became more complicated.

Because the barons, the people who lived in houses like this,

they got wise to it, and they thought

"Well, hang on, instead of fighting the banditti, let's use them.

"Let's pay them."

So then what happens is that the banditti will actually work

for Baron A or Baron B, and keep the poor in subjection.

Right. So from being mean of getting justice,

-they become a mean of oppression?

-Yeah. Exactly.

'I'm making my own version of bandit food for dinner!

'It's called maccu.

'Just dried fava beans,

'boiled to a pulp and seasoned with wild herbs.'

I can imagine the bandits just having a pocketful of fava beans,

you know, when they were on the run, it was important to have something that would sustain.

And I think this is a recipe then really is perfect for that.

It really describes that type of food.

OK. Here you are. Look.

So this is the maccu.

This is the maccu. This one...

I'm going put a little bit of these onions on top to give you

-a bit of an extra flavour.

-Hm-mm.

And then, a little bit of the chilli chicory.

Chilli chicory, fantastic! Wild, that's straight from the field!

If you think about it, and every time we see it on our table,

you know, we're getting things that come from maybe in one place,

there is things that come from like ten different countries.

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

So we're eating the Sicilian terrain.

We're eating the land. There you are.

Ah, no, no, come on, they wouldn't have done...

They wouldn't have put a garnish on, would they!

No, it's not garnish! You're going to eat it.

All right, yeah.

I'm going to plunge in and take a good bandit-sized mouthful.

Mmm. Mmm!

You wouldn't think that some dried fava beans would taste like that.

Ah, it's lovely.

Is it too spicy for you?

No, it's perfect.

I don't think it wants to be too spicy, do you?

To understand the extent of the poverty in Sicily,

we're going to the nearby Cava D'Ispica.

This eight-mile gorge is full of caves carved out of the rocks.

'Sicilian actually lived here in extreme poverty for centuries.'

The settlement was established in the Middle Ages,

but what's really incredible is that the last inhabitants

only left in the '60s.

It's unbelievable!

This must have been the kitchen because you see it's all black,

so that must have been the fire.

Look, this is the oven, so this must have been the kitchen!

Can you see the oven?

It looks almost like it could have been made by an ancient Roman.

How old do you think that is? Could be a thousand years, yeah?

That's a question, isn't it?

It's unbelievable.

Obviously they had different function for each of the room.

To me, I think this would have been where they held the animal in.

They would have kept the animal in this side,

cos the animal didn't need to, you know...

-Actually, they made heat themselves.

-Yeah, animals were central heating.

Central heating. And they would have slept next to them.

What do you think these holes in the ceiling are?

That is maybe to fix a pole, the straight one,

and those one then goes around,

they would have put something across to hang it, or maybe actually,

you know, the animal used to have a ring nose.

-You think it's a tether?

-That's what it was.

I love this window. Look, have you seen this window?

This window's fantastic. You can see the whole valley.

It's extraordinary, there's this sense that you're actually living

inside a natural fortification, almost like a fortress

made by nature, but man has sort of honeycombed his way into it.

Oh. look, and you'll like this, Giorgio, look, you've even got ...

Well, they're not ready,

but in a couple of months you just reach out of your window - figs.

-Have you see, there's a staircase.

-Yeah, this is a staircase up.

This is incredible! Look, it's got a hole in it.

It's quite wonky.

Watch out for that one, there's a big hole.

It's amazing!

(It is.)

It's like a lost civilisation.

It's 4,000 years of man shaping the mountain.

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

So it's almost like...

It's basically a city above a valley.

Incredible, isn't it?

Poor Sicilians.

The kind of people who lived in caves like these

were a source of inspiration for my favourite artist -

Caravaggio.

We're taking a massive detour

and going to the north-eastern tip of Sicily.

But for me it's a must and I hope Giorgio agrees.

Caravaggio fled to Sicily in the 17th century

and ended up here in Messina, a port just a couple of miles from Italy.

It's where he painted some of his most moving pictures.

His biographer in Sicily said

that his temperament was as uneasy as the straits of Messina,

as turbulent as that sea, which is kind of true.

He'd murdered a man in Rome, he'd run away,

he was under capital sentence - sentence of death.

Then he runs off to Malta and he does something terrible in Malta.

He gets involved in a fight and a guy gets shot.

So THEN, he escapes from prison on Malta,

and he sails round and arrives in Sicily - he's on the run -

and he makes his way here to Messina.

Of all his paintings that he did in Sicily, several were destroyed.

-One of them was stolen by the Mafia.

-Yes.

But this one, this one survives and it's...it's absolutely fantastic!

Let's go and have a look.

Franciscan monks, devoted to helping the poor,

commissioned Caravaggio to paint this picture,

now located in Messina's regional museum.

Here it is.

It's The Nativity by Caravaggio and...

I wanted you to see it,

simply cos it's really just one of my favourite pictures in the world.

I think it's one of the most moving pictures in the world.

It's the picture that was painted for, you know, poor Sicilian people

with very, very little hope...

living very hard lives.

This was a picture for them

to almost huddle around, like you might huddle round a fire.

Right.

So you feel like Sicily has an effect on it?

The people of Sicily, the poverty,

has an effect on the way he's tried to portray the whole thing.

Definitely.

He's the most sensitive painter that I can ever think of in history to where he's painting.

When he paints in Naples,

he paints a crowded city like Naples we know was.

-When he goes to Malta, he paints hard soldiers.

-Right.

And when he paints in Sicily he paints poor people.

And I...

I can't help wondering also if, if this picture is almost...

He's painting it...for his sins.

He's painting... Cos he's killed a man.

You know, what can he do to make it better?

Well...he can make this gesture, this is all he has.

This is very precious.

He's got no money, he's got nothing else except his talent

and he's giving this.

Andrew, you sound sad.

Sad. Well, this picture...

This picture makes me sad.

It's a very sad picture because...

ANDREW SIGHS

I mean, apart from anything else, it's a sad subject. I mean, it's...

To me, this is not just Mary with the child Christ,

this is, you know, any refugee mother

living in a difficult situation in a difficult time.

You know, it's a picture about the plight of the poor,

it's a picture that's meant to remind you that Christ was poor,

and it's giving hope to poor people, but in a very, very bleak way.

I mean, in many ways, it's... it's not that well painted.

You know, look at the shoulder.

There's something funny about the shoulder of the middle shepherd,

it's not quite anatomically right, but...in the end I don't care.

When you hear about this big painter

you always expect something, like...incredible.

But this has this beauty

to really bring you back to what it was like at that moment

and...to remember, you know...

the Son of God was a human as well,

you know, he was a baby once.

-A Sicilian baby.

-A Sicilian baby.

We've returned to the south of the island,

to a place famed for the excellence of the most basic of food.

The backstreets of the unassuming town of Lentini

are home to a colony of highly prized breadmakers.

In Sicily, poverty made it necessary to be inventive

with the few ingredients you had.

But the quality of this simple bread, baked in stone ovens,

fired by olive branch and with nut shells,

is supposed to be incredible.

Now protected by the Slow Food movement,

most of the bakeries are run by women

who were taught by their mothers and grandmothers.

Signora Rosa is one of the best bakers in town.

She started doing this when she was three.

-OK, all right.

-So at least, at least 45 years ago.

Just a little bit, the shapes. That's the only thing.

She said they did the shapes cos people like different shapes.

The dough and how they work is the same.

So you're very gentle with it, Giorgio.

You have to be. Can you feel, it's like...

-Yeah, when I was doing it...

-It's like touching a beautiful woman, isn't it?

By the time the bread was baked,

a large crowd had squeezed into the bakery.

Rosa bakes each loaf according to what the customer wants.

Young families like a crispier crust,

while the old people need something softer.

At last we get a chance to taste the bread!

Remember one thing, Andrew, don't drop a crumb on the floor,

because it's an old saying.

You know, if you drop a crumb on the floor,

when you die, then you'll be condemned

all the rest of your eternity

to pick it up with your eyelashes!

Is that a Sicilian saying?

-That's a Sicilian...

-That's typically perverse, somehow.

'I'd never tasted bread with such an incredible flavour -

'smoky, nutty, deliciously aromatic.'

Oh, my God!

-Grazie, Rosa.

-Delizioso.

The long tradition of simple food made here in Sicily

is also mirrored in the art of the people.

There's an art form called the Presepe -

household sculptures made simply from clay,

particularly strong during the years of Spanish occupation.

The best collection of these nativity scenes

can be found in the nearby town of Caltagirone.

Fortunately, the sculptures we've come to see at the Presepe Museum are indoors!

Here they're going to say, "Inglese, you brought this weather!"

THEY LAUGH

Last time they had weather like that was 200 years ago!

When Nelson was here or something!

It's an art form that is perfectly adapted for you

because after all, it's cooked!

It's sculpture that you cook!

Anything that goes in the oven, ask me!

And what it really is, it's a kind of household version

of that rather dramatic kind of sculpture

that we saw being taken in the procession.

The job of the sculpture was to explain,

perhaps to the children in the family, the story of Jesus Christ.

And they're not really, they're not part of art history, these things.

Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian,

-he hated this kind of thing.

-Right.

Which is an irony because his father was a terracotta worker.

But the annoying thing, as in many regional museums,

is that we can't see cos they're behind glass.

Maybe we can ask somebody if they can let us see.

-Do you think?

-Yeah, we can ask.

The museum director took great care

in directing how the sculptures should be handled.

Attenzione.

Yeah, I'm going to clear the scene.

'They were created by a local artist called Giuseppe Bongiovanni Vaccaro.'

It's a very, very overlooked art form.

I think a large part of the reason for that

is that...in the rest of Italy, indeed the rest of Europe,

they had the Renaissance

and this idea that the artist had to rise above humble craft origins,

had to rise above the status of a painter

or a sculptor just for the people.

That was then looked down on.

He had to be more sophisticated,

to create beautiful things

for the court, for princes, for nobles, for intellectuals.

But in Sicily, they kept this popular tradition going.

And these things I think are made...

I mean, they're made in the 19th century or the late 18th century,

but they were making this from... 1300, 1400, 1500,

it just stays, this tradition stays alive.

I mean, in a way it's...

..it's almost like a permanent version of the kind of

nativity scenes that families make for themselves at Christmas.

That's right.

You know, when we were little, we'd go and pick the grass and build it

and as you were getting older, every year you got a different statue,

so every year - when you get to about ten or 12 -

you really have a good...

So your Presepe got more and more complicated?

We used to make the river with some silver paper

and all these little things, and the cows,

and every year you bought a little piece, you know.

But I think the problem for modern eyes

is that there's been such a kind of debased version of this tradition

in modern times.

You know, there's a kind of association with kitsch.

-Yeah.

-The kind of rather unpleasant terracotta...

These don't look kitsch, though.

No, these are not at all. This is art.

This gives completely a different...

you know, feeling.

It's art for people,

to help them in their life, to help them with their worship.

Very practical, like cooking.

I'm so... I can't believe...

-DIRECTOR LAUGHS

-OK.

-Grazie.

-Ciao.

We're leaving Caltagirone and southern Sicily behind,

to head to the west of the island.

Our destination?

The port of Marsala,

one of the most famous places on the whole island.

It's where General Giuseppe Garibaldi

launched the campaign to unite Italy in 1860.

By this time, the Spanish were no longer ruling Sicily,

and the Sicilians welcomed Garibaldi's promises

of justice and reform

in a united Italy.

But we are also here for another reason -

I'm taking Andrew to taste a little bit of Sicily

with a very British flavour.

This is Cantine Florio, the most successful producer of Marsala wine.

In the late 18th Century, an English entrepreneur called John Woodhouse

set up a business to fortify local wine and export it back to Britain.

The British already had a taste for fortified wine from Spain,

and Marsala became an instant hit.

Our guide, Marcello, invited us to sample some of the wine.

This really reminds me when I was little,

when I was allowed to have a little sip every now and again of this!

When I was a child as well,

I grew up with a little sip of Marsala

cos it was good for your health.

It's good for you, yeah. Makes you strong.

It makes you strong, yeah.

This, always in our culture, meant for years and years and years,

an energiser, a tonic...

It does.

It is a tonic, isn't it?

It is like... It has that...

I'm not saying medicinal quality, but it would sell as a medicinal

to the Americans during prohibition, you know.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Is that how they got it through?

They'd say, "No, no, this is not alcohol, this is a medicine."

'We usually think of Marsala as a sweet wine,

'but there is another kind - Marsala Vergine.

'I was sure Andrew wouldn't have tasted it before.'

This is a...

100% Grillo grape variety Marsala Vergine I made, so...

What we really...appreciate,

is the acidic content, that means the freshness at the end.

And that's what you want, you prize the freshness?

Yeah, because if not, well, we are in trouble.

That's unusual to be looking for freshness in a wine that's so old.

That has a beautiful smell.

It's the aftertone, it's just, after you just swallow it

and it's really rich.

-I think you can taste the sun as well.

-And the sun.

You can taste... It's warm.

It's generally what I used to say to people,

to people when we are in front of this wine -

you can absolutely taste the sun, the salt by the sea.

I remember one time,

one of my wine waiters tried to explain to one of the guests about...

and then he ended up saying,

"You know, it's like, it's like you taking Sicily and squeezing it,

"and that's where you get, Marsala."

And he meant this Marsala, the Vergine?

The Vergine, of course. MARCELLO LAUGHS

'I really think Marsala could be an allegory for Sicily herself -

'a sweet blend of native and foreign influences.'

This blend has made Sicily one of the most fascinating,

multi-layered places in the world.

But it's also brought hardship and disappointment.

When Garibaldi landed in Marsala to unify Italy,

Sicilians felt for the first time

they might have control over their own destiny.

But the truth was darker and far more complicated.

The poor people thought that after the unification there would be

a redistribution of the land, but not in Sicily.

So again, the people who were ruling, you know,

they didn't want to give anything to the poor.

So once again, once again they've been let down?

Big time.

And it's true, isn't it, that those banditti, those guys

who'd come up from the poor,

who'd so long been on the outside of society,

they had secretly worked themselves into every corner of power?

-And then before...

-So when people start to try to run a business...

-Yeah.

-An olive grove or a lemon business,

they suddenly find that, "Oh, I've got to pay somebody"

or, "Oh, my foreman, he's been shot

"and all the money seems to have gone over there.

"And when I ask where the money's gone..."

Yeah, that's when really, you know, this underpower

really infiltrated the institution.

Obviously, the whole thing was run out of violence.

You know, violence was, you know, life was cheap here.

You could get killed and disappear and nobody knew where you were.

But isn't that... Doesn't that take us to the heart

of I suppose what we've been thinking about,

you know, on this journey,

which is the Spanish legacy.

That on the one hand - this amazing architecture.

These towns that look like stage sets,

the intense cucina poveri - cuisine of the poor -

like the maccu that you cooked for me.

That's right.

But on the other side, you've got...

It seems to me they created such a distrust

of the very idea of government,

that by the end of the 19th century,

the whole island has been effectively

taken over by a criminal organisation.

You're talking about the birth of Cosa Nostra. Our thing.

The Mafia.

That's what it is.

But the fact that it's called Cosa Nostra is...

really shows you that it's them taking charge.

And this is a very dark story.

'Next week, on the final leg of our journey,

'we'll see both the dark and the light sides of the island.'

'We will discover how Sicilians attempt to forge a brighter future

'by leaving the shady legacy of the Mafia behind,

'reclaiming the splendour

'that made the island the jewel of the Mediterranean.'

It looks like he wants to swim out, doesn't he,

after 2,000 years underneath the sea?

'We'll look at the origins of Sicily,

'visiting places that inspired

'the island's many magical myths and legends.'

You feel like you've entered the world of the gods.

'And taste the flavour that seduced Sicily's first colonisers.'

Don't mess about at all.

It's just a piece of tuna and oregano,

which would have grown wild all over the island.

'It's an important journey that will trace how Sicily's golden past...'

Que bella!

'..is being revived here, in the modern age.'

It's so unusual, for the statue to have come back all the way to this little town.

That's almost like a David and Goliath story.

'It's a story of victory and rebirth -

'the Renaissance of Sicily.'

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