Land of Many Treasures Italy Unpacked

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

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

We are both passionate about my homeland, Italy.

The smells, the colour,

this is what food is all about for me.

The rich flavours and classic dishes of this land are in my culinary DNA.

And this country's rich layers of art

and history have captivated me since childhood.

It's meant to make you feel as if you are being whirled up to heaven.

We're stepping off the tourist track and exploring Italy's Northern regions

of Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont.

It's part of Italy that's often overlooked, but it drives

the whole country and I want to show off its classic dishes.

Not to mention its hidden legacy of artists, designers, intellectuals.

Wow, look at that!

This week we are in Piedmont, Italy's best kept secret.

Where people's deep connection with the land has created

a very special blend of art, food and popular culture.

A winning recipe for modern life!

Located on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, Piedmont has the most

majestic landscapes in Italy.

It was once the gateway to the whole country.

When Hannibal invaded in the 3rd century BC, this was his way in.

With its unspoilt, natural beauty, it's inspired many artists,

not least one of my favourites,

England's greatest painter, Turner.

For me, Piedmont is a food lover's paradise.

There is something delectable here

to tickle everyone's palate,

from sweet to savoury, and always the finest quality.

And this region is home to one of the most prized delicacies,

it epitomises the wonderful, healthy food here - the truffle.

'But sometimes in Piedmont, the best things are the hardest to find.

'We are searching for one of these rare fungi with my friend, Sandrino,

'in the forests near Asti.'

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

We'll see if we can find a good truffle for breakfast.

Vigo, guarda bene.

'The pure air, rich soil

'and dense fog in this part of southern Piedmont

'have created the perfect conditions for the best truffle to grow.

'Sandrino's won the prestigious Golden Truffle award ten times

'and if anyone can find one of these prized nuggets, it's him!'

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

It always grows where the shadow of the tree is,

it's never out of the shadow, it never grows in a sunny place, obviously because it's a fungus.

So what's the dog doing at the moment? He's just...

At the moment he's scouting.

You can smell the ground.

Smell the ground.

You can smell truffle in the air.

There you are. He's disappointed because it's small.

The next one will be more lucky.

'The finest restaurants from all over the world clamour to secure

'the pick of each year's harvest.

'And with truffle going for as much as £5.000 a kilo, the business

'of finding these precious pearls is taken very seriously.'

La museruola.

They will put down some, some...

His competitors will put down poisoned meat?

Yeah, poisoned meat.

-And that takes one more person out of all...

-One less.

Has he found another one?

There you are, that's a truffle, that's a big one.

Help get it out.

You don't want to break any off.

OK, stop, stop.

Wow, like a potato!

Wow, that's a...

This is good for breakfast.

Yeah!

This is good.

That's really good. That is something.

He's very happy.

We're all pleased with you 'cos we can have breakfast now.

Sandrino, come on, give us some truffle.

5 euro, 10 euro, 50.

GIORGIO LAUGHS

It's too thick, it's too thick, Sandrino.

Wow, I'm just going to have to bite off the edge there.

You rip off the little bit at the end.

Tear off the bit at the end. You use that as a sort of dipper?

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Wow!

Wow!

It's just the smell of the ground,

the smell of what nature smells like, isn't it?

It's all in there.

I think when you got the wood smoke it's like you're eating the wood itself.

Wow.

When they say it's a King's food, now you know why.

'According to Sandrino, the best way to get underneath

'the skin of Piedmont is to explore it by foot.

'And since this is historically a land of pilgrimage,

'we're following his advice.

'We're on an ancient track called the Via Francigena.

'1,000 years old, it once linked Canterbury to the eternal city of Rome.'

So nowadays I suppose the pilgrimage route that leads to

-Santa Maria de Compostela is the most famous, but...

-Hmm.

-...back in the Middle Ages...

-Yeah.

...the Via Francigena was the most popular pilgrimage route.

-Yeah.

-From north to south.

They used to believe that each mile that you walked was

another day off for your eternal soul from purgatory.

So you go to heaven more quickly.

So we would be straight in paradise after this.

ANDREW LAUGHS

Each blister...

'We're looking for the exit of the pathway,

'where it opens out to reveal the Susa Valley,

'just about 30 kilometres from the French border.'

So, Andrew where are we? have you got the map?

We should be at the bottom of the old donkey path.

Oh, La Mulatiera.

Which is where there's the...

Vista panoramica.

A panoramic view.

Not today.

'Travelling pilgrims needed places to rest,

'and the valley is dotted with beautiful monasteries and abbeys.'

'One of the oldest, a real hidden gem, is the Abbey of Novalesa.'

'Home to some fascinating art, it's still open to pilgrims today

'and still home to a community of monks. This is Father Daniele.'

So it's almost, seems to me

it's a way of purifying yourself of the temptations of life.

GIORGIO SPEAKS ITALIAN

Si, si.

You can only find it on the road.

The place that you don't know, that's where you can find yourself.

-Arrivederci.

-Arrivederci, grazie, grazie.

Arrivederci.

I've known for years that there are some wonderful 11th-century frescos

in the chapels here, but I've never managed a visit before.

It's not the easiest place to reach.

Look, I love it, it's almost a list of...

"Silvestre Luigi came here on the 21st June, 1857."

1857!

You've got there, somebody called Furla Giusi came in 1960, 1923.

For a lot of people, writing your name on the wall

might almost be a way of saying, "I hope my prayers come true."

-OK.

-It's almost like a way... This is not just graffiti,

It's almost like praying in the form of graffiti.

Look at this!

How old are these?

Really, really, really old.

This is very unusual to find paintings as old as this

in such good condition

up in the mountains with the damp air.

'These paintings have a raw, almost primitive, energy.

'The effect they had on travelling pilgrims can only be imagined.'

These frescos were painted 960 years ago.

Phew!

1070, four years after William the Conqueror was invading England,

1066 and all that.

You come in and instantly you're under the eye of Christ.

Christ Pantocrator. It's this moment when Italian art

and Byzantine art are really one and the same thing.

If, all the way from Beirut to Dunfermline,

Christianity is one thing.

Here we've got Saint Eldradus, Saint Eldred.

The story is, he was a very rich person

and then he gives everything away and that's when

he becomes a pelegrin because he gets given the stick...

-Exactly.

-The wooden stick and the bag.

So you know the story?

No, but it's pretty...

It does really explain itself, doesn't it?

And what's nice about this here and also makes it unusual,

is that Saint Eldred actually was the head of this monastery.

And he happens to be the patron saint of pilgrimage.

So we have, as it were, a pilgrimage to the origin of pilgrimage.

And that's when he becomes a monk.

I love this, it sort of such, it's such cartoon language.

He drops all his possessions and they

place the monk's habit on him.

-Don't you think the colours are wonderful?

-Wonderful.

Dyes made from the fruit and the vegetables from round here.

There's probably dye made from, I don't know, blackberry juice

or blueberry juice, there'd be dyes made from other vegetable compounds.

It's really simple, made from the earth.

You'd come out of the cold,

the brothers would give you something simple to eat,

and then you come here and here you get sustenance for your soul.

Yeah, sustenance for your body, and for your soul,

-ready to carry on the travel.

-Ready to carry on to Rome.

Our modern pilgrimage through Piedmont now leads us

to a very special location.

It seems to me that everything is connected to purity,

spirituality, and responsibility here.

And as so often in Italy, that includes the food.

The Piedmontese defend the purity of the food chain,

more than any other people that I can think of.

So it makes sense that this place gives birth to

the ethical food movement that's taken the world by storm.

Called Slow Food, it was founded by a good friend of mine.

We're going to meet this guy.

He is called Carlo Petrini, but everybody calls him Il Carlin.

He's the leader maximum of the movement, he's the founder of it.

He's a mercurial character, this guy. He's like a volcano of ideas.

And it happened here in...we're just coming into the foothills so...

-It's happened in Bra, yes.

-We'll be there soon.

Not somebody you think is going to rock the world when you see it. OK.

Slow Food was founded in 1986

in opposition to the growth of the fast food industry.

It's now a global movement with over 100,000 members,

and it's still rooted in the Piedmontese idea of preserving

and protecting the tradition of regional food.

We're meeting Carlo at the University Of Gastronomic Science

outside Bra, an institute he founded to spread his ideas.

-Allora.

-Allora.

For example, Bordeaux, wonderful wine made from different grapes.

What we're saying is, take the same attitude maybe to a tomato or

an aubergine, maybe the price is less,

but we still respect it and we still value it.

He's giving weapons.

It's a sweet revolution.

-Cin-cin.

-Salute.

Cin!

-I'll see you later.

-See you.

Carlo's philosophy makes perfect sense in a region

with such amazing producers.

So I want to end the day by putting his principles into practice

with a traditional menu.

I need some carrots for the marinade.

These root vegetables are crying out for something rich

and earthy to go with them.

Buongiorno.

'Here in Piedmont, they love their hunting.

'So the butcher always has the best game meats.

'I can't think of a better dish to reflect

'the traditional local cuisine than a stew of capriolo.'

Oh, beautiful.

The capriolo is a mountain deer so the meat tastes similar to venison.

I'm sure Andrew's going to love it.

Ah, fantastic.

Meanwhile, I get on with the much more serious business

of choosing wine for dinner.

Piedmont is home to some of Italy's very greatest wines

including my favourite red, Barolo.

Perfecto.

Back at our farmhouse, I set to work on our Piedmontese feast.

There is no better way to make a rustic stew

than on a real wood fire!

If we want a little bit more power, there we are.

-The more air you allow in...

-The more air I'm letting in...

-The hotter it gets.

-The hotter it's going to get.

Brilliant. So no dials, no knobs.

Is that like an Italio Piedmontese version of an Aga?

That was actually the same stove that my grandmother used to have.

Really?

You know, Andrew, this is not the Italian food that is just

so famous all over the world, you know.

The kind of...the Mediterranean diet, the olive oil.

Here you've got much more subtle flavours, and you know,

and the vegetables are much more root vegetables so

they sort of attach more to central Europe than southern Italy.

Do you understand?

In a sense, maybe it's a kind of Italian food that has more in common

with certain aspects of English cooking. The climate's closer.

Definitely, but a bit better than English cooking, that's for sure.

I'm saying nothing.

It's a pretty good food for some pilgrims that have just

-come down the hill.

-Yes.

OK, so, Andrew, that's our capriolo. Smells fantastic.

Wow, so that's been marinated not in wine, but in vinegar.

In vinegar.

Here is not balsamic land, this is white wine vinegar land.

It's a great smell. It's very lean meat.

What cut of the capriolo does this actually come from?

-That would be a back leg, yeah.

-It's been up and down the mountain?

That's what it is, a really powerful animal.

When you see them running...

I've seen them when you walk in the mountains.

They make you think,

-"How on earth did that animal get up there?"

-That's it absolutely.

And how come it doesn't fall?

It's almost like a cross between a deer and a cat.

'It's time to pop the cork.

'Barolo's a full bodied wine, it needs time to breathe.'

HE MOANS HAPPILY

I'm glad you approve.

I'll tell you, this is the perfect wine for what we are going to eat.

This is a real farmhouse dinner. Have you got the plates?

Er, I'll go and get them. That's what I need, a farmhouse dinner.

I don't think that the farmer would actually serve it

-to you like that.

-I was going to say, this is...

But, you know, I'm just doing a little bit of the Locatelli twist.

Yeah, you are.

'Stuffed onions, celeriac mash and a hearty portion of capriolo.

'I have been longing for this all day!'

Andrew, after such a long wait, there we are.

-Dig in.

-Una cena en campane proprio.

You see, what is amazing is, you know, it doesn't look

so attractive like the...you see, the colours are much more

northern European colour of the food.

It's white and grey. But how is it?

-It's really good.

-Is it?

Really good, really rich.

I was trying to think what it was, you know, why is it

the Slow movement should have been born in northern Italy.

And I was thinking that

-various things seem to come together in this part.

-Right.

In the sense that it's always been a hotbed of intellectual thinkers.

There's a very strong left-wing tradition in northern Italy.

-And it's not like Communist type left-wing, but it's...

-No.

It's left wing in a sense of the small against the big.

There is a saying in Piedmont.

Contadino, contadino, scarpe grosse e cervello fino.

-ANDREW CHUCKLES

-Which means...

-I like it.

Farmer, farmer, big shoes but fine brain.

-The farmer who thinks.

-Hmm.

Which is Piedmontese.

-To the Piedmontese farmer.

-Piedmontese.

One thing that makes Piedmont so special

is its fertile, diverse landscape.

But that's not the whole story.

There's also its rich cultural history

and strong industrial heritage.

The best way to uncover this other Piedmont

is to take our pilgrimage to its greatest city, Turin.

Turin first flourished in the 16th century when

Emanuele Filiberto of the powerful Savoy monarchy made it his capital.

And in the 20th century, it became one of the most important

industrial centres in Italy, thanks to Fiat and the Agnelli family.

I know the best place to get an overview of the city,

its most famous landmark, the Mole Antonelliana.

At 167 metres high, it's Turin's Eiffel Tower.

Wow, look at that! What a view!

I think a lot of people think of Turin because of its association

with the automotive industry and Fiat, and factories,

thinking of it as an industrial city.

Maybe you forget that actually at the centre,

there's this wonderful, almost perfectly preserved Baroque city.

It's actually quite French in feeling, isn't it?

Absolutely, the whole thing really works.

And it seems to me almost organised as a series of theatrical displays,

the buildings are almost like stage sets.

-Hmm, squares.

-Long avenues. Yeah.

It's a powerful city for a king, so not that many churches.

Not that many churches.

More outstanding buildings, but less churches

than you usually find in Italy.

That's the Palazzo Reale where the Savoy royal family lives,

and at the back of their residence in this otherwise crowded,

completely built up Baroque town, guess what?

A huge park, as if to proclaim the fact that they rule the roost here.

You know, we can afford just to have a garden.

-And now it's a public park.

-Now it's a public park.

The Savoys were ambitious and wanted a city to reflect

their power and wealth.

Almost everywhere you turn

you're greeted by imposing Baroque architecture.

But for my money, the most impressive of all

is the Palazzina di Stupinigi.

'It was designed by Filippo Juvarra in 1729,

'as a hunting lodge for Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy.'

It's modelled on Versailles, isn't it? It feels like Versailles.

'And that's no coincidence.

'Victor Amadeus was married to Louis XIV's niece

'and the Savoys were close to the French court.'

-That looks like Wedgwood, Andrew?

-Wedgewood-style cabinet.

It's sort of an index of everything that was fashionable

in the 18th century.

Juvarra was also a talented stage set designer

and this place has a real sense of theatre.

Nowhere more so than the grand central hall.

Wow, Andrew, it looks like a cathedral.

-Wow.

-Like a church.

It is a kind of, well, it's a profane cathedral.

It's a profane cathedral, I love that.

It's a cathedral to the goddess of hunting.

You look up and you think, "Oh, is that the Virgin Mary?

"Oh, no, it's Diana, it's the triumph of Diana."

Oh, yes. Il triumphe di Diana.

There are bows and arrows and dogs and dead animals

and hunters and huntresses all over this room.

They weren't great patrons of the arts, they weren't great readers,

they weren't great patrons of music, but they loved their hunting.

Also, I love the idea, they have statue underneath here,

-but then up there they are not, they are painting.

-Trompe l'oeil.

It's all about plenty, isn't it? It's all about abundance.

That's what it looks like.

You know, "Whatever there is, we've got plenty of it,

"and if we haven't got it, we'll go and catch some."

And there's one place where their appetite for abundance

and ownership is strikingly clear.

It's located in a secret chamber, high up above the impressive cupola.

Isn't it fantastic?

The smell is absolutely brilliant.

It's like tobacco and wood and...

-HE INHALES

-Mmm, delicious.

"Who rules? We rule."

It's a statement of power, isn't it?

It is indeed. Look at that. It's so geometrical as well.

There must be an explanation why there is this, like, avenue

that's going out like that or is it just a show-off piece?

I think it's like, er,

it's that Louis XIV idea of the Sun King, the king is the sun.

This palace is like the sun,

it occupies the centre of Piedmont and its rays...

..symmetrically stretch to every corner of the land.

You definitely know who's in charge!

You certainly do!

By the 19th century, Piedmont, under the Savoys,

was one of the most powerful Italian states.

Supported by the monarchy

and spearheaded by the Prime Minister, Count Camillo Cavour,

the movement to unify Italy was born right here in Turin.

Learned and clever, Cavour loved to discuss ideas, and in the

vibrant cafe culture of 19th-century Turin, he found the perfect place.

Fiorio was Cavour's favourite cafe, almost his office.

It was so influential

it's said the King himself would ask every morning,

"What are they saying in Fiorio?"

The cafe was like an informal parliament where Cavour

and his followers could speak freely.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

I love this noise.

There you are, Andrew, we are in the place.

There is the picture of the man himself.

-Grazie.

-What is this?

This is called Bicerin. And it's coffee, chocolate and cream.

So very, very dietetic drink.

ANDREW LAUGHS

Mmm, oh, that is delicious.

Cavour plotted the campaign to unify Italy right here in Fiorio.

It was Cavour and the King who were

the power behind Giuseppe Garibaldi's military campaign.

Garibaldi was like the way we see Che Guevara now,

that sort of freedom fighter.

They absolutely used his image in order to get that

general popular approval.

You know, because themselves they were pretty ascetic people,

they didn't have much in common with the common man.

It's a popular uprising in a sense in that the people greet

-and they welcome Garibaldi's conquering army...

-That's right.

..as it moves south, but essentially this is,

-this is a movement that is sponsored by the King.

-Hmm.

-Our man Cavour is a monarchist.

-Yeah.

What are the ultimate consequences of this for this region,

for Piedmont?

Piedmont suddenly becomes the most important region of Italy.

It collected taxes from all Italy.

And Rome didn't become the capital,

but Turin become the capital of Italy.

Or the first capital of Italy.

-Let's drink some more chocolate.

-To us.

-Food for thought.

The city's cafe culture is still alive and well.

I've never seen such an amazing range of pastries and chocolates.

The Turinese really do have a sweet tooth.

They especially love chocolate here,

and were once the world's leading producer of the stuff.

Ferrero Rocher and Nutella both hail from Piedmont.

Oh, the smell! Unbelievable.

We can't miss a quick visit to one of the best chocolatiers in town,

the laboratory of Guido Gobino.

Here, they specialise in a very Turinese style of chocolate,

il Giandujotto.

The story goes, that the Giandujotto was created

during Napoleon's brief rule,

when importing cocoa from South America was almost impossible.

Always resourceful, the Turinese chocolate makers decide to concoct

a paste from local hazelnuts

and combine it with the cocoa to make their supply last longer.

What might have been a disadvantage was turned into a winning formula!

We're having a Giandujotto tasting with Guido himself.

His family have been chocolate makers for 50 years.

I remember this, eating this when I was little.

Bellissimo.

The nuts and the chocolate go together very well.

How would you recommend that one has this,

with an espresso as well at the same time or...?

An espresso maybe or a Moscato wine

-because it's very flavoured, fruity...

-Fruity.

Or Barolo Chinato or red wine. A spiced red wine.

You think that the Giandujotto success is attached to

the fact that it's based on the Nutella flavouring?

As you say, the grown-up Nutella.

Yeah, no, you still have the memory of your childhood.

The memory of the...it brings you back to that.

We thank Nutella because Nutella is the first flavour that people,

young, young boys taste normally in the world.

Because you can find Nutella everywhere.

So you're still making these, these little objects

and you make them all here, but you sell them all over the world?

We export everywhere, in small quantities of course,

because we are an artisanal production.

When I am abroad in Japan for example, in Emirates,

when people taste Giandujotto, they love it because

it's a very, very interesting taste.

And it is not a traditional taste

-like bitter chocolate or rich chocolate...

-Yes.

This is very different and this is the real chocolate

because it's made in Turin.

It is incredible, a place that has such a tradition,

where chocolate is part of their life,

and they're not the capital of the chocolate.

Or they are, but they don't kind of show it.

It's a philosophy of Turinese people

to work hard and to make everything as good as possible.

Technology for example, chocolate, food,

it's not important to show off that we are the best.

They are a bit understated, like the English.

-ANDREW LAUGHS Understatement, yes.

-Understatement.

-Understatement is a good word for us.

-Yeah.

-Maybe we should very quietly...

-Say goodbye.

..Wish Guido good luck.

-Grazie, Guido.

-Ciao. Grazie.

-Grazie.

Andiamo.

Dedication and hard work really are in the blood of the Turinese.

Turin, like its neighbour Milan,

fosters the tradition of a strong work ethic.

It's what the city's success is built on.

And there's one company more than any other responsible for that success.

Fiat.

Founded in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli, it flourished in the post-war years,

when money from the Marshall Plan kick-started Italy's economic boom.

Fiat's enormous Lingotto factory

became a nucleus for the city's workers.

In the '50s and '60s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants

from southern Italy settled in the surrounding area to work for Fiat.

-This is the Lingotto...

-This is the famous Lingotto factory.

This is the Lingotto factory.

So this reminds me of the Palazzo Stupinigi,

the Savoy monarch has gone, but now we've got the Fiat family.

-Yeah.

-They're the kings of the new economic miracle.

And the familia Agnelli were the family at the head of

this corporation of industrialists,

that really had experience, after travelling to America,

to really pick up this American dream and give it to the Italians.

So was Fiat, in a sense, the General Motors of its day in Italy?

You know, this is the model T. Everyone is going to drive this car.

Everyone can afford to drive this car.

Definitely, and to make something reasonably cheap enough

for them to drive around was part of this.

Fiat was right at the heart of that.

And my stand-out favourite of those affordable cars

is the Cinquecento.

Cheap and cheerful, it's become an icon!

Thanks to the passion and dedication of specialist mechanics,

these vintage cars are still on the road today.

I have been told the workshop of Michele and Mauro Miola is packed

full of Cinquecentos in restoration.

It's a must for a fan like me.

Mauro?

-Michele?

-Buongiorno, Michele.

If you're from a Catholic family where, you know, the mother

and the father keep an eye on the children,

maybe this is the first place that you're actually private.

I'm sure that a lot of the kids that are in their 50s now

were conceived in this car.

THEY ALL LAUGH

THEY ALL LAUGH

He remembers which car!

Andrew, look at this. No way!

This is so beautiful. Oh!

That is something, isn't it?

That's like a showpiece. Bellisimo.

It's a beautiful piece of design, isn't it?

Yes, definitely.

I can't leave without getting behind the wheel

of one of the Miolas' precious 500s!

Gently. Yeah, gently.

-Convince her, don't, er...

-Convince her.

Yeah, have you...?

CAR RUMBLES AND GROANS

Brakes would be nice as well.

You feel like you're driving a piece of history.

ENGINE RUMBLES

It's more like you're destroying a piece of history.

-ANDREW LAUGHS

-You've got to be more kind.

So you see, it's that the car changed society completely.

At every level. Because, like, a vet, a doctor, a nurse,

you are in a remote village,

suddenly you call and they can come to you now.

So it is a part of society.

That, I think, is why the people love it so much.

I can imagine perhaps someone who's come from Sicily,

-they come to the north.

-Yeah.

What a sensation

when they go back to their village in their brand new Cinquecento.

And show off they have become a modern man in modern society.

ENGINE ROARS

I love the sound when you put a bit of gas on.

ENGINE ROARS

Andiamo.

The economic boom years were also the glory years

of a great Italian art movement.

Arte Povera emerged here in Piedmont in the '60s,

as a kind of protest against the rapid industrialisation of Italy.

The artists of the movement took the ordinary materials

of everyday life and used them to make art.

The Museum Of Contemporary Art in Rivoli, on the outskirts

of Turin, has an unrivalled collection of Arte Povera.

A world away from the opulence of the Baroque,

it's down to earth, almost homemade!

I wonder what Giorgio will make of it.

So this is probably the most famous work of Arte Povera.

Venus Of The Rags, it's called. By Michelangelo Pistoletto.

And I think, being Italian, of course he's thinking about the past,

thinking about statues of Venus, but I think what he's saying to us is,

"How do you represent a person, how do you represent a human being?"

For me, the rags could be a portrait of a person.

Perhaps through all the clothes they ever wore.

-All his life.

-Yeah.

-That's right.

If you imagine like a huge pile of laundry.

That's everything you ever wore, your body was in there,

in there, in there, in there, in there, in there.

And this is a kind of accumulation.

So either you are this permanent ideal figure

or actually, maybe not.

Maybe you are more imperfect, you are more ragged.

Maybe your life is a process rather than a state.

So I want to know what you think of this.

It's kind of like a portrait of Italy by another member

of the Arte Povera generation, he's called Luciano Fabro.

This is a tombino, this is a pothole cover.

I like it.

It's two Italys. One upside down.

And then Sicily and Sardinia stuck on it.

It's funny. I mean, here is where they made Italy,

so it's almost like...

ANDREW LAUGHS

You know, the first concept of Italy was born here,

and so now to have an artist do this and turn it upside-down

and stick the bits together, I guess it's got to do with that.

So again, it's the ordinary material of working everyday Italian life.

The rust as well I like.

-Yeah.

-The rust is beautiful, isn't it? Look at that.

I mean, how do you make a portrait of Italy?

-I think it's quite a good one.

-Hmm.

There's a piece here by my favourite Arte Povera artist, Giuseppe Penone.

Unsurprisingly for a Piedmontese artist,

his work focuses on man's relationship with nature.

This room is made entirely of laurel leaves.

It's beautifully quiet.

HE INHALES

Wow, that smells fantastic!

What's that? Is that a pair of lungs?

Yeah. It's a bronze cast of laurel wreaths.

It's like, you know Slow Food?

I think this is...

-For me, this is slow art.

-Slow art.

You just let it work on you.

It's a funny thing...

We're indoors and we're in an art gallery,

but I feel if I close my eyes I'm almost back

to the beginning of where we started our trip,

that little sort of chapel on the edge of the valley.

It's a room for contemplation.

Maybe this is like a modern artist's version of a pilgrimage chapel.

-And the God is nature.

-Absolutely.

I also like the idea that you come in here

and you're breathing in these things so it stays in your lungs,

and you're taking a bit away with you. I think it's lovely.

-So you've become part of it.

-You are part of it.

I think that's part of its meaning.

I've seen Penone's work in museums all over the world.

But seeing it here confirms just how deep-rooted his connection is

to his homeland.

And that connection is so totally Piedmontese.

Their commitment to the land has produced one of the most

fertile territories in Europe, and the rice fields of Vercelli

in the plains north of Turin are the most prized.

The locals have worked hard for centuries to cultivate

the best conditions to produce rice here.

And now there are more than 100 varieties grown

in these paddy fields - the most popular is carnoroli.

For our chefs, it's the king of risotto rice.

I want to show you these guys, because it's so beautiful,

come and have a look.

Look at this.

So, this is straight out of the field.

-This is what I eat in my risotto?

-Yes.

These are the pearls of the Baragge, the rice from this rice field.

If you came here in the first half of the year

this would be almost like a landscape from China, like a paddy field?

These would be more like Chinese paddy fields,

because they would be small paddy fields.

You can see also they are in different levels in order to work

with the water, so you have different levels of it,

and it's a very small tenement all the time.

And is this a natural microclimate for rice, then?

-The cold air, that makes it just right?

-Just perfect.

And, also, the perfect, beautiful,

pure water that comes from the mountains.

I would imagine that cold air's bad for a crop,

-but for rice it's not bad, is it?

-It strengthens it.

This area has received the DOP, the Denominazione Origine Protetta,

so protected denomination of origins,

because this has been proved, it is...

You cannot produce anything equal to that anywhere else.

This rice has been crossbred

and made to what it is through years of experience of the people.

The exceptional rice grown here has made the Vercelli

the rice trading capital of Europe.

The town's rice market, the Borsa Vercelli,

is the Wall Street of the rice world,

and the price set here each week

becomes standard across all of Europe.

It's a fascinating game of nerve.

The floor is packed with millers and brokers, haggling over prices.

So, here you'll have the broker,

and the miller will check out the quality of the rice.

Look, now he's changing the board,

and he's going to look on the whiteboard to see.

Oh, I see, so he's looking for slightly discoloured grains?

That's right.

He says there is a lot of them discoloured, and broken ones,

and there's a lot of them slightly grey.

So he's saying to him, "There's quite a lot of grey ones in here,

"I can't give you the top dollar cos it's not best quality."

-And he's saying, "No, no, come on, it's not that bad."

-That's right.

I love these two boards. It's almost like a game of chess.

This must have been used for hundreds

and hundreds of years, this system.

'The broker, Giacomo, and miller, Giuseppe, are busy haggling.

'But they seem to be struggling to come to a deal.'

What price do you want from Giuseppe?

Yes, I want 350 euros per tonne.

Today, our margin is around 330.

Giacomo looks very interested at this point.

-Yes, OK, so 330.

-You can barter for me, eh?

For him it's important,

because as the rice there dries ready to go, he wants to get

rid of it, otherwise he cannot pick up any others, do you understand?

He knows that, so it's going to be a little bit of a tug there.

So, can you help in some way, Giorgio?

Maybe you could be a diplomat.

I think that they've been going on like that for the last 1,000 years,

I don't think they need our help, I'm telling you.

These hidden sides of Piedmont, little tales, chance meetings,

are showing me a whole new side to a region I've always loved.

Back in the '80s, when I first visited,

it was the art that opened my eyes to Piedmont's special character.

And, on that trip, one place in particular caught my imagination.

The UNESCO protected heritage site called the Sacro Monte di Varallo,

an hour's drive from Vercelli.

This extraordinary place of pilgrimage is made up

of 45 little chapels, each representing a scene

from the life of Christ.

First constructed in the late 1400s,

it's evolved and expanded over the centuries.

It might not be high art, but for me, it's as fundamental

as the great masterpieces of the Renaissance

in creating the culture of this land.

There's one chapel in particular I want to show Giorgio.

It's stayed with me since my first visit here -

a gory, violent interpretation of the Massacre of the Innocents.

I think you really understand what the effect these sculptures

were meant to have on people when you look at this one.

The appeal is not to the head, the appeal is to the heart,

and this horrible scene of children being massacred.

It is a real...

It's a real... It's hard to look at.

I think it makes you feel really sad, and really worried.

I'm sure if you were here with your kids,

you'd just grasp them and walk away.

I think it takes you to the scene almost too well.

The attention to detail is stunning, down to the sword,

and really you can see it entering the body.

Look at the sufferance of the mother trying to save the baby.

Screaming, you can almost hear them screaming.

Well, I think it's there to put...

-The fear.

-..the fear of God into you.

I mean, it's definitely, this place, this whole sacred mountain...

..is a kind of machine,

made to ingrain faith in the people who came here,

-to really make them believe.

-In a very spectacular way.

Yes, if you don't pray to God, if you don't behave like a good,

devout Christian, you know, maybe these things will happen to you.

Each chapel is like one scene in an unfolding story.

Yes, like a modern film, almost.

You're going through, you've got to know there is going to be

the final thing, the resurrection,

but you still have to go through all the thought

and the pain and everything else.

The chapel I want to take a look at

is the one representing the Last Supper.

-Quite a spread.

-It is quite a spread.

And what is amazing, look, they don't have just bread and wine,

like in the Bible, but they've got all the produce from this area.

Look, there's freshwater fish, like trout and things like that.

You've got two different types of cheese in there, and you can

actually recognise them very well, because the one on the right,

that's a castelmagno, and that one, because it's got a red skin,

is castelrosso, which are really typical cheeses from this area.

So they were eating, as well,

something that the people actually knew.

Yeah, yeah, so you can actually identify the cheeses

-as being from here?

-The two different cheeses, from here.

Well, I think that was the idea,

because in the instruction manuals for the artists of the time,

it always says, "Make the people feel at home."

You know, it shouldn't feel like it is 2,000 years ago in the Holy Land,

it should feel as if it's taking place in Piedmont,

and that's what they have done.

I would have liked to cook this dinner.

After seeing the various stages of Christ's life,

we get to the chapel where the story reaches its climax - the Crucifixion.

At this moment, the maximum moment of empathy,

where you're supposed to feel Christ's suffering,

you're allowed to occupy the same space as his mother,

you're allowed to occupy the same space as the Disciples looking up.

You are really touched by it.

You feel like you've seen every scene,

and it has a little bit of that sort of feeling of a theme park...

but for the soul.

Well, in a sense, the modern theme park is a debased version of this.

You know, Disneyland - you make the pilgrimage to go there,

you know the stories, you've seen the films,

and now you meet the characters, you shake hands.

Except all the spiritual content has been removed,

and whereas you end your visit to Disneyland, perhaps,

with a trip to the shop, here...

you end your visit by going down into the basement of the church

and paying your respects to the holy image of the Madonna.

The basement chapel is like a people's museum

of faith and devotion,

a place where they offer remembrance, or give thanks.

What I love about it is, it's like a history of the kind of accidents

that could have befallen you in Piedmont over the centuries.

Here we've got somebody who got attacked by a highwayman.

That's right.

Here you've got a terrible rail crash that

-occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, and then...

-To electricity.

To electricity, accident.

To go more recent,

you remember, a few months ago, the Costa Concordia?

There must be somebody who was on the Costa Concordia,

-and he felt that the Madonna blessed him.

-That's right.

It's not necessarily that you just came to pray that you would be saved.

If something happened to you and you had a close shave...

-Very close shave.

-..then you attributed to...

-..to the fact that your faith allowed...

-..saved you.

I suppose it just shows that, for many people,

the church is still the first port of call.

This is from 1807.

and what happened is this Alfonso Cabora,

captain of the Italian Regiment,

had received two shots, and the Maria Santissima saved him.

Isn't that amazing?

That you've got the Napoleonic Wars, someone surviving that,

cheek by jowl with someone surviving a bicycle accident in the '50s.

Grazia Ricevuta.

-There must be 1,000 human stories in here.

-Absolutely.

Our journey through Piedmont has been so rich and full of variety.

I feel we have seen most of the special things

this wonderful region has to offer.

Well, all except one.

We've still not visited any of the great wine producers

this region is so famous for.

That's because I saved it for last.

We are going to spend the evening at Contratto,

one of the great historic wine houses of the Langhe.

I know the guy who owns the place.

I am so excited about it, because it has been

bought by a friend of mine, called Giorgio Rivetti.

Which is that guy there. Giorgio!

-Come stai?

-Benissimo, Giorgio.

-Fantastico.

-Nice to see you. Hey, Andrew.

-Thanks for having us.

A pleasure. Thank you, thank you for coming here.

This is a new place, new house!

Yes, something new for me, something exciting.

You know me. I love to produce Barbaresco and Barolo,

but my passion is about bubbles, too.

'Giorgio is one of the best wine producers in Piedmont,

'so it's exciting he's turning his hand to sparkling wine.'

'And we can't miss a tour of the cellar,

'the secret of the success of the Contratto champagne method wine.'

Wow! This is a cathedral!

UNESCO protected, these wine cellars where dug out of the old

limestone hills of Canelli in the 19th century.

Ingenious local winemakers discovered the constant temperature

of 13 degrees inside created the perfect conditions

to ferment the wine naturally.

Giorgio's always got his eye on business,

but he hasn't lost sight of the small, but important,

rituals of winemaking.

30,000 bottles a day are turned manually here

to loosen the sediment inside.

Hello, Mario.

Do you mind?

Don't mess around, Andrew.

-Andrew, like that.

-OK, go on, Giorgio.

-Eh, no.

-No?

I missed the one in the middle?

I think you are better in the kitchen!

'After turning the bottles,'

the sediment inside must be released

so the wine can be laid down to mature.

This is the bit I've been waiting for.

Wow!

That is brilliant! No way!

Because this wine is in life, it has life inside.

-Look, half of the bottle shot off.

-Yeah.

That was incredible! Giorgio, man!

I'm scared to open it now, after what I saw downstairs!

-Don't worry.

-It's going to be a shower.

CORK POPPING

It smells quite sweet.

It's got the... Like a crust, bread crust.

Yes, typical for sparkling wine.

-Salute.

-Salute. Cheers.

-I can imagine this with some fish.

-Oh, yes. Oysters, too.

-Oysters!

Piedmont is a corner of paradise, really.

We have a lot of beautiful grapes, and this beautiful land.

99% of the top wine producers in Piedmont are farmers.

This is something special.

They know everything about a vineyard,

they respect the environment because they do everything organic, OK?

They do a beautiful job in the vineyard

and are purchasing a small quantity of fruit, small quantity of wine,

but the wines are unbelievable.

And they're probably doing the same thing that their father did,

-and maybe THEIR father did.

-Looking after the land.

-Yeah.

So, although you're a large producer,

-you want to keep the philosophy of the small producer.

-Yes, of course.

No, really, the farming philosophy, this is important for me.

I don't want to change this, of course.

-Here's hoping you never do change it. Cheers.

-Cheers.

-To us and to Piedmont.

-Piedmont.

If Giorgio and his kind stick around,

there really won't be any space for a big multinational here.

He reminds me of the old Piedmontese saying -

farmer, farmer - big shoes but sharp brains.

And the heart of Piedmont for me will always be the countryside,

the original source of everything that is so magical

about this hidden gem of Italy.

Our pilgrimage has come full circle.

You see, Andrew, when I think about Piedmontese,

I always think about people

with an incredible amount of resilience, you know.

They really are...

They fight things over and they turn things over, and they made it,

they rule it, the first capital of Italy.

Here they have people like Carlo Petrini, coming in and saying,

"Listen, you've got a great amount of value on this land."

I keep coming back to these leaves.

Sandrino's dog, snuffling among the leaves.

-Even the artwork is made of the leaves!

-That's right!

That beautiful piece by Penone. There's this real...

I think this sense of connection to the land so strong here.

It seems to me, it feels to me,

as if the cultura populara is now on the way up.

In fact, that's what people come here for now.

What do you think your favourite experience has been?

What do you remember?

For me, the most magic moment

was when Sandrino's dogs got the truffle out of the ground.

It's such a moment, isn't it, to find this pearl hidden away?

It's fantastic, and it just puts me back, you know,

I'm sitting in London trying to sell these things to people,

and suddenly here I am, just picking it out of the ground.

It's magic for me, that.

I'll be coming back for that experience of the soil,

for the humble pilgrimage church, the terracotta statues at Varallo,

for the experience of eating funghi porcini,

and the venison that you cooked.

-The truffle.

-Of course.

-Andiamo.

-Va va.

So, where do you think we should go next?

I think the best place to go now is for lunch, man.

HE LAUGHS

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