In the Footsteps of the Poets Italy Unpacked

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

We're in the basement of Italian history.

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

Untuosa.

Unctuous.

'We are both passionate about my homeland, Italy.'

Come on, everybody! Let's go!

'The rich flavour and classic dishes of this land

'are in my culinary DNA.'

Pasta would be like...

'And this country's rich layers of art and history

'have captivated me since childhood.'

It actually brings out the naked body all the more.

'In this series, we'll be travelling

'all the way down the west coast of the country,

'from top to toe, stepping off the tourist track wherever we go.'

This is so Italian.

'I want to show off some of my country's most surprising food.'

It is hot!

'Oftenmost born out of necessity, but leaving a legacy

'that's still shaping Italian modern cuisine around the world.'

Mmm.

'And the art, too, is fantastic, exotic, deeply rooted in history.'

'Our journey begins in the north-west of the country,

'Liguria, a region squeezed between the Tyrrhenian Sea

'and the rugged mountains.'

'And we'll be continuing our journey along the coast that attracted

'and inspired the English Romantics...'

GIORGIO CHEERS

'..to unknown Tuscany, to find some hidden gems

'in the tourist trap of Pisa.'

'Our first stop is Liguria's capital, Genoa.

'Once one of Italy's great maritime republics,

'Genoa is still the most important port in Italy,

'but too often people arrive here only to leave again immediately.'

'But they're missing out on a place with a truly fascinating history.

'In the Middle Ages, Genoa was a maritime superpower

'with trading links across the Mediterranean.

'Genoa is a city of huge contrast.

'Grand palaces are squeezed within a warren of medieval alleyways.'

'Now, I'm sure there's a beautiful baroque palace

'somewhere round here. Finding it, though, is another matter.'

-I like this.

-Do you know where we're going?

I think it's down here, actually.

Doesn't look like the way to go to a palace, this one.

-No!

-But these are the caruggi.

Rather than streets in a city,

they're almost like corridors in a house.

Can you imagine if you tried to invade the place?

That's why they have this network of medieval buildings.

In effect, it's a form of defence. You can't bring horses.

It will slow you down so much.

Yeah, so what happens is, if anyone wants to invade medieval Genoa,

the attackers are trapped in a space maybe like this.

-And then they just...

-And they just kill them.

They pour boiling oil on them, they shoot arrows down on them.

What can they do?

The light is brilliant, isn't it?

-This chiaroscuro.

-Yes.

I think it's this way.

I think that's it there. That's it!

Finally! It look a bit different than the other buildings.

This is the amazing thing in Genoa.

You are here in this sort of poor area of town,

and then suddenly there's this fantastic baroque palace.

'Genoa's power and prosperity was at a peak in the 17th century.'

It's a symbol of this sudden new wealth, you know,

when the Genovese bankers, they take over from the Medici, suddenly,

17th century, they are the richest guys in all of Italy, basically.

Wow - it's great, isn't it? A hall of mirrors.

A sort of mini version of a Versailles interior.

'For the rich Genoese,

'the rococo style was the perfect way to show their power and their money.

'Mirrors, gold, silver, stucco, you name it.'

So here we are in the piano nobile, the grand sala.

This is the centrepiece of the whole palace.

-It isn't X marks the spot, it's chandelier marks the spot.

-Right.

And I think that chandelier, if you imagine it lit,

it's telling us what they wanted us to see if we were visiting.

Which is this series of paintings, which is all entirely

about celebration of the Genoese at sea.

It's their way of saying to all the kings and the ambassadors

and the diplomats who came to Genoa, "We Genoese, we rule the waves."

It's no casuality that they call it "La Superba".

Genoa the proud.

The story of Genoa as a great maritime republic

has rather been forgotten,

but it was every bit as powerful as Venice and in the 17th century.

It's a kind of capsule of

one of Europe's great forgotten historical powers.

Mi piace.

-You like it?

-Yes.

'There is one more palazzo we need to seek out.

'It's got a beautiful art collection, including one painting

'I particularly want Giorgio to see.'

'But first, I want to give Andrew a real taste of Genoa,

'where the main ingredient is chickpeas.'

We are in the Sciamadda,

which is one of the oldest farinata shops in town.

-Questo e' Andrea.

-Umberto.

We are going to make farinata.

OK. Look, he is going to put some olive oil,

which is obviously local olive oil.

What is this, like a pancake?

Kind of a pancake. It's an old way.

The shop has been here from 1850s.

That's water and chickpea flour.

Qui c'e' solo aqua...?

Farina di ceci, sale e olio che viene...

And a touch of salt.

-It's fermenting.

-Fermenting?

Yeah, it's fermenting, so you have a natural yeast.

Is that all for us?

Yeah, half for me, half for you!

OK, look, here we go.

Like you have a special oven to make a pizza,

this is a very special oven just to make farinata.

Wow, look, it's full of smoke.

You need the flame because it's going to glaze it

and make it really crispy and beautiful on top.

It's beginning to bubble up.

It looks to me like the burnt surface of some dead planet.

Yeah, like the sun, when you see the sun on the thing,

-with all the exposure...

-The smell is great.

See how crispy it is?

It's creamy on this side and crunchy on the other side.

-Oh, delicious.

-Buona?

Buonissimo.

Si, si curo.

When you're talking about fast food, this is exactly what it's all about.

You stop, you have one of these, it's light, it's refreshing.

-I think it's slowed me down a bit, you know!

-Did it?

You eat three kilo of that, that's why!

'There is real vibrancy to Genoa.

'It's a place where the old doesn't overshadow the new and vice versa.

'And the old can be pretty special,

'as you can see at our last destination, the Palazzo Rosso.'

Here we actually get to met the Genovese.

These are the people, these are the new merchants

who think that they are kings. And who is painting them?

Anthony van Dyck.

This is Anton Giulio Brignole Sale,

a young member of the dynasty, and his wife.

But look how he has had himself painted.

Definitely looks like somebody who has achieved something.

And he's sitting on a horse, which is a huge, bold symbol,

because in the past you would only ever depict the king

-on top of the horse.

-Right.

-And the horse symbolises the people,

symbolises the nation that the king controls and rules.

So this guy is saying to the world,

"I'm not only a Genovese merchant, I'm sort of a king."

And here one of the things that's quite interesting is that

they're actually quite muted. The colours are low,

the expressions are quite reserved.

They've got that sort of Genovese reserve.

-They're not going, "Ha ha, look at me."

-That's right, yeah.

It looks like two different paintings.

Look at the bottom. It's not really well finished, is it?

Well, this is van Dyck's sprezzatura, but you're right,

it's like the famous sketchiness of his handling.

He would paint really quickly.

But he's painted this so quickly

that you can actually see through the horse's leg.

It's almost a sketch down here.

Maybe because it was his last year in Genoa, he finished it quickly.

-To cash up before he left.

-To cash up.

'Ah, here we are at last.

'The painting I wanted to show Giorgio.'

The Cook.

This is brilliant.

This is one of these paintings

that show us the engine room of the palace.

There's this new...

Well, it just happens in the 1620s,

they suddenly develop this taste for having paintings of ordinary people,

such as their own cooks, their own servants.

So we've had the upstairs, and this is the downstairs.

I love the birds. It's so beautiful. Look at the turkey.

I love the way he's painted the fire.

You know how you said the van Dyck was very sketchy at the bottom?

Well, he really admired van Dyck, Strozzi, who painted this picture.

And he painted that fire with some of that...

But I think it might be a painting with a kind of secret double meaning.

Cos Strozzi had been a capuchin monk,

but he left the order and he got into trouble with the Franciscans,

who said that he had made himself dirty with his paintbrush.

There is something about this picture that maybe suggests

what they disapproved of.

To me it looks as though somebody's plucking a swan.

There is a twinkle in her eye.

I think the painting is meant to put you in the place of the aristocrat

who has come down to the kitchen,

you've got a bit of a flirtation going on with your kitchen maid,

the way she meets your eyes, the way she has that half-smile.

The more you get back like that, it really...

like, she's just really having a look at you.

I think she fancies you.

Come on!

'Strozzi's cook would have been preparing a luxurious banquet,

'the opposite of what I am going to cook -

'a dish without any pretentions. It's classless.

'You can find it on almost any family table,

'not to mention renowned restaurants across the world.'

That is just fantastic. Do you want to eat that or look at it?

How much attention do you think they pay

to the arrangement of the colours, cos I think...I mean, look at this.

Isn't that fantastic?

You don't need to eat that. Well, we do need to eat it, maybe.

'One of Liguria's best-loved recipes is pesto alla Genovese.'

-Signore Franco, buongiorno.

-Buongiorno.

The shape of the leaf, which is like a spoon.

The main important thing about this is the size of the leaf,

because each of the leaf will contain some chlorophyll

that makes it really green and beautiful.

If you have big leaves, you have a lot of other stuff.

-So it's more dispersed.

-That's right. Smaller is the leaf,

and better will be the pesto at the end.

How much do we need?

One should be enough, but because I know you, I'll buy three!

THEY LAUGH

He says, buy four, then he is going to join us!

A postissimo!

-OK.

-Grazie!

-Grazie.

-Arrivederci.

-Arrivederci!

'We got a real sense of this town today, with its art,

'its little alleyways and beautiful palaces.

'It's time now to go to make some pesto.'

'Up here above Genoa's maze of medieval alleys,

'you can really see how the whole city

'faces towards the sea and the harbour.'

OK, Andrew, look.

We got everything we need to make a pesto.

We are going to do one with pine kernels.

How many different pesto recipes are there, then?

There is no one fixed recipe.

Some people put ricotta in it, some people put almonds,

some people put walnuts, some people put pine kernels,

so depends how you balance it.

And obviously depends as well what they have.

Remember, this is not a cuisine made of creativity.

This is cuisine made of necessity.

This is what they had, that's what they cooked.

The only thing that is in common is the basil

and there is olive oil. And it's made in the mortar.

OK, we are going to put a bit of the pine...

I want one of these at home.

That is your next Christmas present.

It's really good. It's like stress relief.

Let's start with the basil.

-Great smell.

-Yeah, definitely.

Like you are convincing the leaf to release its flavour.

You have to convince it to become a pesto.

-You are massaging it.

-You are massaging it.

-Che bello.

Now we have to put the last two ingredients in.

Parmigiano reggiano, just gentle, caress it,

and the olive oil, obviously the olive oil from Liguria,

almost like the olive oil was made to taste so light

and not, like, peppery and not bitter.

It's almost like the land has produced this olive oil

especially to make pesto.

OK. A little bit. Come on, taste it.

-Ahhh!

-Season it?

-No!

-Good?

-No, it's perfect!

All that fresh green growth.

But you'll see as well how they actually pesto.

It breaks like that, it will actually attach itself to the pasta,

it will hang on the pasta, kind of thing.

The pasta will be, like, dirty of these things when you eat it.

'Pesto goes with any pasta, but here in Liguria,

'they like it with trofie, some chopped potatoes

'and a couple of green beans.'

We are ready.

-OK. I've got the cheese.

-Andiamo.

-It's delicious.

-You made it, man.

I made it, yeah(!) THEY LAUGH

I was the sous chef. It's really good.

The first thing we know about pesto

is about in the cambusa of Cristoforo Colombo.

He was from Genova. There is some paper

that talks about a sort of pesto that is called agliata.

So it was a base of garlic,

which obviously also was very good for scurvy and all these things.

So Genovese cuisine is genuinely this cuisine of preserving food

-so you can travel for long distances.

-Yes, exactly that.

I like that thought - pesto was the fuel

that helped Christopher Columbus to discover America!

The key success of his expeditions was the fact

he could take some good food with him.

-BOTH:

-Cristoforo Colombo.

'It's time to say farewell to old Genoa and its port,

'but what better way to do that than a drive that offers

'one last glimpse of the city from on high?'

This extraordinary elevated road

that runs right through the middle of ancient Genoa.

I love it. It makes the city into a sort of drive-through experience.

You cross palaces at the level of the piano nobile.

You pass straight directly beside...

-16th-century frescos of St George.

-St Giorgio....killing the dragon.

Can you see, there's a guy having a shower in there.

THEY LAUGH

I think it also expresses the determination of the Genoese

-not to turn their city into a museum.

-That's right.

'Before we head for the wilds of Liguria,

'we're going to stop off to see some of the best

'19th-century realist sculptures in Italy.

'They're housed, not in an art gallery, but a cemetery.

'Staglieno.'

'Traditionally, ornate tombs were the preserve of wealthy aristocrats,

'but the prosperity of the industrial revolution

'changed all that.

'Finally, ordinary working people could afford them too.

'And they wanted to be immortalised down to the finest detail.'

-Look at these. Wow.

-Absolutely amazing, isn't it?

What I love about it is this sort of combination

of total realism and the sort of idealism.

That lady who could have stepped straight out of a 19th-century

ballroom, and she is being whooshed up to heaven by an angel.

Sort of beacons to the beyond.

-This is brilliant.

-Look at that.

And then you've got...

Look at that moustache!

Giovanni Ratto.

He is wonderful, and his clothes.

What I love about it, it's almost like a stone costume museum.

If you want to see what people wore in Genoa

in the 19th century, this is it.

-I mean, he's got a Charlie Chaplin hat!

-That's right.

He almost looks like an Italian version of Charlie Chaplin.

-Look at this one.

-This is a complete scene.

A deathbed scene.

It's so touching.

The sadness of the expression, as well, isn't it?

It's scenes from real life, isn't it?

Going to the cemetery is still more of a tradition here.

It's a very, very important thing.

I remember when I was young,

every week, we had to go to the cemetery.

'Staglieno occupies 250 acres.

'It's one of the biggest cemeteries in Italy,

'and is still in use today.'

Can you imagine? Look how big it is, and how peaceful it is.

This is like a city of the dead.

'And one tomb here means a great deal to me.

'It belongs to the intellectual father of the 19th-century movement

'to unite Italy.

'He was nicknamed "the beating heart of Italy".'

I wanted to come here. I have never been here to visit these tombs.

It's the tomb of Giuseppe Mazzini. This guy was...so important

because he believed on Italy be united.

His idea of this egalitarian state as a republic.

Mazzini was a real free thinker.

When he made this revolution movement in Italy,

he was caught and then he was sent in exile,

-so he decided to come to London.

-Was he a friend of Karl Marx?

He used to hang around with Karl Marx, he used to hang around with

Dickens, he'd hang around with a lot of the intelligentsia of the moment.

They used to pay him to go and talk.

Apparently, he was an avid drinker of coffee as well.

His funeral was attended by 100,000 people.

Can you imagine 100,000 people around here? Incredible.

-Is he one of your heroes?

-Definitely.

Mazzini was a real believer in democracy and he spent his life

promoting it in Italy and across Europe.

The 19th century was a period of turmoil, involving both

questions of national identity and man's relationship with nature.

The English Romantic poets loved the rocky Ligurian coastline

to the south of Genoa called the Cinque Terre,

and came here often from the 1820s.

Around here, the best way to travel is by boat.

This region is so inaccessible that

it remains almost unchanged for centuries.

I think what's interesting about this area, is that it's not popular really

-among modern tourists.

-No. You see, the thing is that,

the more you go through now, less is reachable by land.

But in the 19th century, Byron, Shelley, all the romantic poets,

they loved it here

because they had this idea that nature should be wild,

sublime, dangerous, stormy, turbulent like the soul of the Romantic poetry.

-That's right.

-In fact, Shelley even died here.

It was that dangerous, he actually died in a sea storm.

Then you feel like you are actually inside a Romantic painting

with the distance, the blue horizons. It's stunning.

And then it opens up, until the city just appears up there.

Now you can start to see all the terraces. Life was hard here.

If you can imagine, it's not like a paradise, as they say.

Look at that. Look at the way they work the land,

metre by metre by metre.

It's typical Ligurian things, all the vegetable

and fruit and things that we eat.

So what a job to gather your harvest.

You gather your harvest almost like a rock climber.

I'm fascinated by this unique

relationship between the Ligurians and their land.

I can understand why the Romantics were drawn to this place.

Everything is uphill, everything has got steps and stairs.

This land doesn't have any secrets for the locals.

In the Ligurian cuisine, herbs that grow wild find its way to the pot

as well as any delicacies bought in a shop.

One of the nicest examples is a dish that

I am going to cook this evening and it's called torta pasqualina.

We've met up with Maria, who has lived in these mountains

all her life and knows where to find the best herbs for our torta.

She only knows the name in dialect,

so...I don't know how to translate it.

-This is my kind of shopping, Giorgio.

-Yeah, for free, I know that.

-Grazie, Maria.

-Prego.

Mmm! Que buono!

It's a little bit like a radish.

I think. A little bit like a radish?

Yes, it does, yeah.

You can make tagliatelle, green tagliatelle

-like they do with spinach.

-You use this actually in the flour?

-Yeah.

They make a meal out of the roots, they make a meal

out of the leaves.

So is this very local, specialised knowledge of the local plants?

Of course.

Her grandmother teach her mother...

She is 78 years old herself.

Have you seen how she come up those steps?

What is amazing is that she still gets excited about finding them.

Grazie.

Maria is amazing. A one-woman herbal encyclopaedia.

I think she should be made a national treasure.

And I couldn't be happier with the herbs that she found for us.

So where do you know this recipe from, Giorgio?

I came across it when I was very young.

I used to come down with my family and we used to eat it in the bar.

This is the food that I really love when I come to Italy.

It's actually this simplicity which show the attachment

and understanding of the land.

We are eating food that was gathered by Maria, who learnt it

from her grandmother,

so we are really touching history and touching the Ligurian history.

Andrew, I don't want the stem, otherwise, we are going to

feel it under our teeth. Just the leaves.

When I'm going to cook it,

if I find any stalk, you'll be severely beaten.

Discipline in the kitchen.

Great, OK. Well, you won't find any stalks, I promise you of that.

What is fabulous about this is the mixture that we've got of them

will determine the flavour, so every time or every different season,

or every different village, same recipe

but with a different result.

OK, Andrew, this is enough. I'm going to go and do the cake.

I'm going to read some poetry and think about the nature of Liguria.

It's not a complicated recipe, just chopped herbs, ricotta and egg.

This is creative cooking.

People here had to find the best way to combine the ingredients

available at any one time - with amazing results.

-Hey, Giorgio!

-Andrew!

Everyone on the other terraces have started to eat!

OK, I'll bring you something. I've got something for you, special.

This bit of coast is famous for its anchovies, so while

the torta is baking, I've prepared a delicious local aperitivo.

-Aha!

-We could not come to Liguria

and not eat some of this beautiful acciughe!

-Wow!

-Look, two different recipes. These are boiled in a bouillon,

which has got lemon and orange in it.

These ones are raw and are marinated just with onions and lemon juice

and then some oregano.

These look great. Do I eat it with a knife and fork?

In reality, you should eat them with your hands.

This is the kind of the thing that you will have if you go to a bar

and you order an aperitif, or something before your dinner.

-They don't bring you crisps and nuts.

-Those are delicious.

This is the raw one, this is Ligurian sushi.

Mmm!

The raw ones, still taste of the sea, isn't it?

-This is the taste of Liguria for real.

-That's beautiful.

I'm going to get the cake for you.

-Wow.

-Andrew!

Mmm! The smell. As soon as you cut it, the smell that comes up...

-What does it smell of?

-It smells of...

-Liguria, no?

-Yes, it smells of herbs, it smells of herbs.

-Ah, look.

I'm really happy with that.

Mmm! That is fantastic. It's like eating a chunk of the landscape.

It even looks like a chunk of the landscape.

It's got wonderful...fresh... And I like the way it's sort of portable.

You can carry that around, we'll put it in the boot of the car.

Can you imagine, some guys who went out at sea

would take a little piece of that to remind him of the land?

This is a portable piece of Liguria.

-Exactly, it reminds them of the land.

-It's lovely, fantastic.

-I'm so glad that you like it.

-I tell you what, you've done all

the work, so I'm going to read you a poem. This is written by Shelley

as he was looking out across a scene just like this,

here on the Ligurian coast.

"I sat and saw the vessels glide, Over the ocean bright and wide,

"Like spirit-winged chariots sent, O'er some serenest element,

"And the wind that winged their flight,

"From the land came fresh and light,

"And the scent of winged flowers, And the coolness of the hours

"Of dew, and sweet warmth left by day,

"Were scattered o'er the twinkling bay."

Isn't that beautiful?

Fantastic!

Shelley moved close by in 1882, soon to be joined by Lord Byron.

I'm taking Giorgio to a particular spot where Byron often came to

contemplate nature and which inspired some of his best-known poetry.

Wow! That's a big cave.

La Grotta della Poesia.

I think something that's interesting that coming here has made me

doubly realise is that when the Romantics came to Liguria,

they were really the first generation

of English tourists who came not to see a church,

not to see the Colosseum, not to see the monuments of antiquity,

but to try to touch raw, real untamed nature.

So they would...Byron would prefer the monumentality of this cave.

He was more interested in that

than he was to see the great temples of the classical past.

So, practically what you are saying is they are the first people

who went out on what we call "holiday".

-In the modern sense, yeah.

-In the modern sense, yeah, yeah.

To sort of pick up real life of the place, the real flavour,

the real taste

and the real traditions of the people that they went to visit.

They were sick of civilisation, sophistication, powdered wigs.

In a sense, it's the beginning of the idea of getting away from it all.

Something that somehow feels more simple, more pure, more true.

This must be the craggiest, most hostile, most wild bit of the entire

Ligurian coastline and it's exactly here that Byron used to swim.

It's pretty awe-inspiring.

And there is only one way truly to share Byron's experience.

-Giorgio...

-Yeah.

-..uno, due, tre.

-It's cold!

-Delicious!

We are immersed now in the same water that Byron

was swimming and... What is his name?

-Shelley.

-Let's go, come on.

-That's the one you look like.

By the time he came to Liguria, Byron was already famous for his swimming.

In fact, he once told a friend that he was

prouder of his long-distance swimming exploits than he was of his poetry.

Although I don't pride my swimming over my cooking,

enjoying such beautiful scenery in this way is pretty unique.

And what a wonderful way to re-charge the batteries

for the next leg of our journey.

We are halfway to Pisa

and just across the border into Tuscany are the quarries of Carrara,

source of one of the materials which made the Renaissance possible.

Beneath the dramatic landscape, all these hills are made of marble.

For me, this is one of nature's grandest cathedrals.

Look at this. Fantastic! I've never been this close.

This is the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance cos the

Italian Renaissance begins with sculpture

and all the great sculpture was made with marble from Carrara.

We are really going up and up.

When Michelangelo was going to carve the tomb of Julius II,

-he spent nine months up in these mountains.

-Doing what?

Getting his own marble.

Nowadays, artists don't even carve their marble.

It's all marble here, isn't it? Look at the square.

It cost less to do it in marble than anything else.

And the locals here have come up with uses for marble

that are pretty different from sculpture.

Andrew, it looks like a sarcophagus.

Here is where he rests.

This is the cemetery of lard.

Wow. So what's inside of that, lots of cuts of lard?

That's lots of cuts of lard, mixed with the herbs, the salt.

At least six months. The smell is...

Mmm! It's amazing. It smells very sweet.

It's a little bit like prosciutto but it's different.

-You can really smell the rosemary, can't you?

-The rosemary,

the garlic and the salt, and then his secret recipe of spice.

15 types of spices.

Mmm! It smells very exotic.

It smells to me like the bazaars of Morocco.

I feel like I'm almost in Tangier, you know?

The marble, on top of keeping the coolness

and the right temperature, because you must think

that this is a produce that comes before refrigeration

and then, you know, there is this sort of like...

perspiration that it has.

-It breathes, the marble breathes.

-Exactly.

Bene.

-OK.

-So how do you recommend that we eat it, Giorgio?

You know, this is the way they eat it here.

We'll just do some pieces of bread,

put a little bit of onions on them.

-Nothing too complicated.

-No, because the flavour is

-already there, you've got all the spice.

-What is that, capers?

That's capers with a bit of onion in it,

something to elevate the flavour.

Look how beautiful and pink.

It almost reminds me of the vein of the marble.

Bizarrely it reminds me a little bit of eating gravadlax,

or sometimes smoked salmon, with a bit of

raw onions and capers, except here it is smoked pig fat.

You are now tasting the territory...

real. We have arrived now in Tuscany for real.

It's true, it's beautiful. That's what I like about this place.

Everything is white, the walls are white, even in here,

everything is white. Outside it's white, we are eating white.

Now I want Giorgio to see one of my favourite sculptures

made from Carrara's pure white marble.

It's in the little town of Pistoia.

Sandwiched between Pisa and Florence,

it's an easy mistake to miss little Pistoia

between those two colossus of tourism.

It's off the beaten track

but it contains one of the gems of early Renaissance art.

The medieval Church of Sant'Andrea was one of only two churches to

enjoy baptismal rites here.

That's why in the 13th century,

Canon Arnoldus commissioned a pulpit to be built in the baptistry.

So, simple little church, Romanesque, very old. Pre-Gothic construction.

Simple arches. Beautiful grey stone.

Incredible, the ceiling. Look at how beautiful.

The ceiling is lovely, isn't it?

This is why I brought you here,

because this is one of the great things. It's the pulpit.

No longer is used as a pulpit, they have taken the stairs away.

It is now considered too precious for the priest even to stand up in.

It is by Giovanni Pisano.

Most tourists who come to Tuscany, they have heard of Giotto,

they've heard of Duccio, but they haven't heard of Pisano

and, in fact, he and the work of his father,

they actually come before Giotto and Duccio. They are doing this...

-They inspired them.

-They deeply inspired them

and particularly Giotto.

If you look at the frescoes in the Arena Chapel, the figures

look as though they have been carved from stone and then painted.

It's incredible from underneath, Andrew.

This is the Massacre of the Innocents.

-So complicated.

-It is cut from a single piece of marble.

Just think how complicated it is to do that.

And the perspective is just incredible.

It is very emotional.

Look at the weeping women and their expressions are incredible.

The Last Judgment.

Look at the Devil down there, he is eating the man.

He's got his arms in his mouth.

That's what happens to cooks when they go to hell.

-To bad cooks.

-To bad cooks.

It's interesting the choice of subjects that make the maximum drama,

the maximum suffering.

It might be white marble but you can still sense the blood.

Drenched with it.

This is practical art. I mean, you know...

It's a message, a strong message the people down here has to get.

It's not only going to tell a story, it's here to make them cry.

It's a machine for making you believe in God,

this pulpit really, that is what it is.

The sculptors are the first artists to really tell the stories of Christ

in this vivid way that will feed into the whole Renaissance.

And so many things that become part of Italian art,

this is where they are invented, by this man Giovanni Pisano,

who really does deserve to be more famous.

You could look at the pulpit a thousand times

and still find new things to see.

Pistoia definitely took me by surprise.

I think that if it was in any other region,

it would have been invaded by tourists,

like our next destination.

So, Pisa, here we come. Another great maritime power. I think

we are on an alternative version of the grand tour. You know,

the aristocrats of the past,

the English aristocracy used to go to Rome, Florence, Venice.

-But we are doing something different.

-The Tyrrhenian side of Italy,

the power, much more powerful than it was on the other side.

You know, in the other side, the Adriatic side, you only have Venice.

Here you have Pisa and you had Genova.

-So this area was much more open for business.

-It's funny how

it's fallen out of fashion. Pisa seems to me to have the reputation

among tourists of a place that you only go to for the day,

or maybe even just for the morning.

You go and see the Leaning Tower of Pisa,

have a pizza and leave and I think that's unfair.

I think Pisa is more than that.

In the 11th century, Pisa ruled the waves.

To reflect their maritime glory, the Pisans built the four

magnificent religious buildings that together form the Campo Dei Miracoli.

The marshy terrain of the area turned one of its buildings,

the Bell Tower, into the world's most famous example of subsidence.

Surprisingly for a maritime republic,

Pisa lies inland and the River Arno became a vital artery connecting

its port to the open sea. There's no longer a port here

and very little river traffic, but it's still a great place

to get a sense of the old city.

Along these banks sits one of Pisa's best kept secrets -

the Museum of San Matteo.

It's beautiful, but it's the middle of the day,

it's in high summer, massive tourist season

and it's completely, utterly empty. This is one of the most

beautiful small museums in the world!

Wow! Andrew, this is incredible.

-It's actually rather sad.

-What are they made of, wood?

-They are made of wood.

-Wow.

-In a way, they are the sort of

dead bodies left by Napoleon, cos when he came to Pisa in

the early 19th century, he ransacked all the monasteries and the convents.

They saved what they could and all these beautiful wooden statues,

they generally show the Madonna

receiving the Annunciation, the news that she is pregnant.

It's so beautiful.

So beautiful, isn't it?

This is really, really fantastic.

It's by Simone Martini,

who's one of the great painters of Siena along with Duccio.

One of the most fantastic panels in all of 14th-century Italian art.

The jewel looks like it's shining.

-I think they are actually real pieces of glass.

-Oh, right. That's why.

I also think it's an object that reminds us how rich

they were in Pisa when the city was at its height as a maritime power.

Look at the gold leaf on that, look at the use of lapis lazuli.

I mean, it's not just a beautiful painting, it's a huge status symbol.

But what I really came here to see were these works of art.

-It's really an exceptional room this one.

-It is incredible.

Exceptional.

For me, it's one of the most effecting rooms in any of

Italy's Pinacoteca, public museums. You can travel through history

to see how the Crucifixion changed in Pisan art and in Italian art.

And it's a huge change, it's one of the great

changes in Western art that takes place here.

-Right.

-Here we've got the 12th century, so the 1100s,

and this is what we call the Christus triumphans.

Christ triumphant on the cross.

-Comfortable.

-Comfortable, he is triumphing over death.

His anatomy, relatively unscathed, he doesn't look tormented, troubled.

Now here, this is the great shift.

Here we now have what I think of as

the very, very beginning of the Renaissance.

Christ as a real man, feeling real pain, his body is bleeding.

His face is full of pain and sadness.

And if we keep coming round...

..this is by Giunta Pisano.

The body is kind of contorted in the pain,

and the blood is spilling down.

Without a shadow, much more pain.

There is that sense almost of desperation.

This is the moment when art begins to bleed.

-More human.

-More human.

-That's right, so you can see

-yourself in there.

-You can see yourself, and I think the whole

of the rest of the Renaissance, with its ideal of realism,

making it real, making you feel like you are there,

I think this is where it comes from.

So for all the glory of the Leaning Tower,

there's definitely more to Pisa.

Nowadays, Pisa is more of a tourist attraction than a sea power,

but further south is a town whose historic port has survived and thrived,

and where they have wonderful fish.

Livorno is not exactly classic Tuscany but it has its charms.

It's actually rather more beautiful than I expected it to be.

I mean, yes, there is a lot of modern mixed up with the old,

but I like that.

It's a place that has this kind of truthfulness to that

and its food is like that.

This town has an eventful history.

The port was already well established in medieval times.

Florence bought it from Genoa in 1421 and it became a free port

under the Medici in the 16th century.

The Medici allowed the Jews to trade here and there was a strong

British community too, who anglicised the named to Leghorn.

Shelley was sailing from here to the Cinque Terre in 1822

when his schooner sank and he drowned.

The reason I wanted to come here is for Livorno's signature dish -

caciucco, an earthy fish stew.

The taste of the sea couldn't be more appropriate

for the end of our journey.

What is amazing is the variety. The variety is important.

Variety makes colourful recipes, colourful cooking.

-It's not one thing. Should we have a coffee?

-Yeah. I need a coffee.

-Buongiorno.

-Un cafe.

I love this. I think this is a '60s coffee bar.

In fact, I love the whole place, I love the...

I just love the way the people are here.

It's almost like the faces you see in Italian paintings.

I think it's got to do with the social way, food is part of society,

so this is like, you have a church or a cathedral to go and pray,

you've got the biggest building in town is where you

-get your food.

-It's communal.

-With the herbs in Liguria, here you

have the same thing. You have to try to balance the flavour of the fish.

You have to have a knowledge of what the fish will add to your soup.

Like you were saying that you don't put too much rucola in your herb pie.

You have to balance it. This is very, very important.

How many kinds of fish do you think you'll end up with?

Traditionally, you should have 17 different types of fish.

I don't think we are going to achieve that, but we'll definitely have between ten and 12.

It's also seasonal.

I think when I'm going to go around buying the fish, I'd like to go

by myself because I'm going to get a better price.

-With an English guy I'll get double the price.

-Yeah, OK, good point.

-I'll leave you to it.

-No, no, no. You have to pay for the coffee.

-I'll leave you the money to pay...

-No, no, no. You pay for the coffee.

-Ciao, Giorgio. See you later.

-See you later.

It's never the same. Never, never the same.

So calamari, that is the base.

OK. This is so beautiful!

Boccacia! I don't know the name of this in English.

Two nice slice of this palumbo.

OK, perfetto.

These are all fish that gets thrown away in England,

this never makes it to the market.

We don't kind of have the culture of using something like that

to make into a soup, which is incredible.

Oh, look at that! This doesn't need to be cooked. It's so beautiful!

-Grazie.

-Grazie.

-Arrivederci.

-Arrivederci.

Such fresh fish is a real treat,

and I can't wait to see what it tastes like.

What better setting to cook our fish than the Ristorante Aragosta

in the old port, where customers really know their catch.

Here, chef Michelangelo is renowned for his caciucco

and has very kindly lent me his kitchen.

Extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany.

-This is the octopus?

-This is the octopus,

calamari and sepia.

This is the ONLY fish soup that goes with red wine.

-Vino rosso.

-That's why you justify as well the chilli in it.

The chilli and the red wine will work well together.

Tomato.

He wants it really red.

-What's the next stage, Giorgio?

-The next stage is to use

some of the fish stock and we just bring it up to boil.

Then we like to really cook it. At least 40 minutes.

The octopus, calamari, everything will be so, like...

they will be breaking in your mouth, really well done.

OK, Andrew...

you remember there's all this fish going in, it'll go down.

So that is just the base.

-OK.

-So they go in whole?

-Yeah.

-How long does that all cook for then?

-Cinque minuti.

-Five minutes, no more than five minutes.

-Solo cinque?

OK. This is the most important bit.

You've got some garlic and you got some...

So you rub toasted bread with garlic and put that as the base?

You put that as the base.

Mmm! Buonissimo! Buonissimo!

Fantastic! It's almost like, you know...

It's not gritty but it's got that substance to it, that body.

Mmm! Que bello!

If the poor eat like that, I want to be poor all my life!

'Caciucco is always made in large quantities,

'so it only seems fair to enjoy it in the company

'of the restaurant staff.'

-Buon appetito.

-Buon appetito.

-What happens now?

-You just attack it.

Ladies first.

You can get a little bit of the sauce.

Well done, Giorgio.

-Wow!

-Delicious!

-Delicious!

People food for the people.

-You don't need anything else, do you?

-You just need a bit of time

and a little bit of passion.

-I'm eating with my fingers as usual.

-This is not a polite dish to eat.

It's really nice the way that the fish,

each one keeps its separate flavour.

This is so, like, special about it.

What an amazing dish. I love the fact that it is all seasonal.

Just like in Liguria, the locals here have a strong relationship

with their surroundings. It's the land or the sea

that dictates the recipe and not vice-versa.

Andrew, look at that. This is the Tyrrhenian sea.

Can you imagine here, like hundreds of years ago when the maritime

republics were fighting off, it must've been so busy.

All these galleons, invaders, the Spanish, the French

were all here, duelling out in this bit of sea,

which now looks much more quiet, isn't it?

It feels like a part of Italy that the world's left behind.

I feel like we've been going much against the flow,

travelling this way, coming to Livorno. There's not a single tourist

in Livorno that I can see. Just fishermen, chefs.

-I like that! I love that...

-Lots of women and men in the market...

-Yeah, I like it.

-It looks really like a real town, you know.

You really get the flavour of it.

I also really liked the Ligurian coast,

the wildness of it, the lack of development.

You know, that sense that you could really feel that

you were in the landscape that hasn't changed

for more than a thousand years,

and I love Maria. I love Maria

picking the herbs with the energy of a six-year-old.

-Maria was incredible.

-What about the art that we have seen?

Definitely was the pulpit in Pistoia. That was unbelievably beautiful.

I'm struck by the very strong connection between the territory

and the art traditions of the territory.

So you've got Carrara, that great quarry just up there in the hills.

-Expertise in carving seems sort of built in here.

-It's incredible.

Those wooden crosses. There is something very immediate

about the art here. To me the wooden crosses are like the caciucco.

They hit you in the face, you know, there is this absolutely blatant...

It's the art of the poor, the food of the poor.

Just as much as on our other journeys, I feel like we've touched

something right at the centre of Italy here,

-even though we have been on the edge.

-Yes.

-You know what I mean?

That's right. Italy has got so much coastline.

So the coastline is as important as the centre.

This is where the fusion of culture really happens.

Come, let's go. I'll take you to Lazio.

So in Lazio you have to learn one thing.

In order to get anything, you have to say, "Aho!"

Aho!