In the Heat of the Day 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.'

Untuoso. 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 with an egg in it.

'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!

-HE GASPS

'..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.

'The final stretch of our journey takes us to the Mezzogiorno.'

It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

'Naples and the South, Italy's "Wild West".'

'Here, invaders and foreign empires have shaped the culture

'and cooking over millennia to make this Italy's most exotic region.'

THEME MUSIC ENDS

PACY, RHYTHMIC MUSIC

Come on, everybody, let's go!

Driving your scooter in Naples, this is the thing you want to do.

-Ciao.

-Ciao.

HORN TOOTS

Our journey starts in one of my favourite cities - Naples.

A wild, wonderful place, unlike anywhere else in Italy or the world.

And the only way to really experience it is on two wheels,

not four.

Let's try to not get robbed now.

Naples' identity is born of centuries of foreign rule.

Greek, Roman, French and Spanish empires have all

left their mark on a city that's often compared to Cairo and Bombay.

-Ah, look at that!

-GIORGIO LAUGHS

That's called "Spaccanapoli" because it cuts Napoli in half.

Visitors always used to say, "Come to Naples for the monuments,

"for the architecture, for the paintings, for the buildings,

"but above all you come for the people."

For the people.

You come for the sense of real life, street food, markets...

Look at that - teeming with life.

HORN TOOTS

Why are 200 beautiful Neapolitan women going round the central

obelisk of the Piazza Gesu in a circle? What's going on?

By Felliniesque coincidence we have arrived in the middle of

a casting session for the Naples Film Festival.

Look, they're waiting for us! Yeah, we arrived! Yeah!

WOMEN SHOUT OUT

Neapolitans are famous for their sense of theatre

and people have been coming here to enjoy the vibrant

and raucous street life for centuries.

In the 1700s, it became the sensational climax to

the Grand Tour - the rite of passage undertaken by

European aristocrats as part of a classical education.

You would "see Naples and die" as the saying went.

I'm taking Andrew to a place that allows us

to glimpse that Naples - the one that dazzled 18th

and 19th-century visitors, including Goethe and Byron.

Come, we get to go up here.

What a place.

GIORGIO LAUGHS

Andrew, come and have a look at this. This is crazy.

Nativity scenes - "presepe" - have been popular in Italy

since the Middle Ages.

But in 18th-century Naples, they evolved into

a unique art form - one that still lives on today.

It is a particularity of the presepe from Naples. And what is today

everyday business, becomes part of the presepe.

So the nativity scene mushrooms into all of this daily life -

the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker -

-but that's never separated from the presepe, from the nativity?

-No.

They live, you're sacred,

because you're part of these sacred things that go around you.

So, we've got these real people from the 18th century

who sort of have entered the scene. I like this character.

He's a character straight out of 18th or 17th-century painting from Naples.

-A lot of them have these goitres...

-Yeah, look at that.

-..these lumps in their throat.

-Yeah, look, the woman has it as well. Look at that.

They were people who lived on the land and then

they all crowded into the city, and they were just fed on bread.

They suddenly lose all their fresh vegetables.

There is no presepe without Pulcinella eating the spaghetti,

which kind of represents the poor people -

the "Lazzaroni" -

the people who eat pasta with their hands.

You know, one of the Bourbon kings was actually spotted doing this,

eating the spaghetti like that.

It's kind of like saying, "It's shocking me."

-"I am one with the people."

-That's right.

-That was his message.

What I'm worried about is just maybe the tomato sauce.

ANDREW LAUGHS

I think this is lacking in realism, this sculpture, because surely

-there should be...

-A little bit of tomato sauce.

There is a little bit there, but...

ANDREW LAUGHS

This exotic, southern city with its extremes of wealth

and poverty fascinated 18th-century visitors

because it seemed right on the edge of civilised Europe.

-So, what did you order?

-Una sorpresa!

Oh, look, you are picking him up but you have to hold him down

because otherwise he floats away. It's so light.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

I just noticed this rather beautiful picture on the box that the sweets came in.

It's an image of Naples in the 18th century, which is a vivid reminder

of just why Naples was one of the great tourist destinations for centuries.

This beautiful half-moon shaped bay which has now become rather

industrialised, but in those days it was paradise on Earth.

There is Vesuvius smoking in the background, that's still there.

When the English visitor came here to Naples, what

they were utterly amazed by was the people, the number of them,

their liveliness, the way that they would shout rather than talk,

the way that they lived outside, not indoors, the way that they were so extrovert.

They way they ate spaghetti with their hands - the Lazzaroni.

Exactly, the Lazzaroni! On the one hand you can feel that

people like Goethe or Byron, they are a little bit frightened,

but they are also thrilled, they see these people, these southern

people of having a kind of freedom, they are free from property.

They don't own anything.

They are free from cares in the idealised version,

but also a bit dangerous.

The city, visited by the Grand Tourists of the past

was characterised by its extravagant Baroque art

and architecture - full of dramatic effect and stark contrasts.

There's one chapel that shows off the Neapolitan Baroque in all

its sensual glory.

The Cappella Sansevero.

So here we are...

Let's face the altar...

Just take it in.

This is one of the great Baroque chapels ever created here in Naples,

ever created anywhere.

And it's all conceived by one man, Raimondo di Sangro.

And it's said, here in Naples, that that portrait of him,

which is Dorian Gray style, decayed with time,

has done so because God is not happy with him.

At the heart of the chapel are two sense-stunning sculptures,

both on the theme of the veiled body.

And again, he's commissioned a representation of modesty.

Now, his mother died when he was only one, so he never knew her

-and never knew what she looked like.

-Right.

He wanted, I think, to preserve her memory for ever

as a remote, celestial, perfectly innocent, perfectly formed being.

What would you think if that was your mother?

As much as I love my mum...you know,

I will never commission something like that,

you know what I mean? This is a little bit hot to be your mum.

He didn't see it that way, for him it was as an allegory of purity.

-There were scandals.

-To put it... Naples had a kind of nipple problem, basically.

And, seriously, the nipple problem was taken very, very seriously.

And he did get into trouble over this.

This was seen as being sacrilegious.

In its next commission, the same technique was applied

to a subject so sacred it was beyond reproach.

The veiled Christ.

That is absolutely mesmerising.

It's something that

the ancient Greeks discovered, that if you clothe a sculpted

body in a fabric, it actually brings out the naked body all the more,

sometimes to make the eroticism more pronounced.

But here, to make death all the more solemn and powerful

-and moving.

-It almost looks like the marble is transparent and you can

-see through the marble underneath where the person is.

-It's such

a fine covering that you can still see the holes, where the nails were.

-Also the little...

-The little finger.

You can actually see the little finger there.

CHORAL MUSIC

There is a great suffering in that body,

-you feel it by looking at it, don't you?

-Mm.

Wow!

It's worth it to come to Naples just to see this.

In 1735, Naples became the capital of an independent kingdom.

Its monarchy - an offshoot of the Spanish Bourbon Empire -

set out to make Naples a Mecca of culture and gastronomy.

Today Naples is famous for pizza and pasta.

But the Bourbons left us some incredibly rich and complex dishes.

This is a different side of Naples, Andrew, I don't know

if you are going to like it as much as the poor one.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

We've come to the magnificent apartment of

Marquis Carlo de Gregorio Cattaneo di Sant'Elia, whose family has been

part of the Neapolitan aristocracy for over 200 years.

I'm going to cook them

a classic dish from the golden age of the Bourbons.

So, I'm going to cook you this dish that comes from the 1800 tradition

when the Bourbons were fed up with the Southern Italian fare,

they didn't like it, they thought it was like peasant food, it was

not rich enough for them.

It was not complicated enough.

So, this is one of the greatest dishes, it's called "sartu",

it means "over everything".

OK, I got meatballs, I've got a tomato sauce - the meat is cooked

with that - and then I got some chicken liver.

So, the idea is to have an envelope of rice,

all the stuffing goes in, close it and then we bake it.

Out of all the ancient recipes that you could've chosen to revive

or recreate, you had to choose one that involved risotto, didn't you?!

-That is so Milanese.

-No, I really love it because of the similarities

between the words "sur tout" becomes "sartu",

so to me, the Neapolitans, wherever they take or borrow something

from the French, they can only make it better.

You're going to love this, you know.

I was reading that Queen Maria Carolina, Marie Antoinette's

sister who married Ferdinand VII - the guy who used to

eat spaghetti with his hands -

that she was the one who said, "Oh, I don't like this food here."

And she sent all of the court's chefs off to Paris.

-And they arrived with all their airs and graces.

-Les messieurs.

And then the Neapolitan chefs, they decided to take that word

and change it for themselves, or they mispronounced it.

But the thing is that's fantastic, "You think you are a monsieur,

"do you think? I'm not a monsieur, I'm a monsu."

-Monsu.

-Monsu.

-The rice is over everything.

-It's a lot of everything.

-And there is a lot of everything.

I was going to say to you, but you anticipate me.

Four-and-a-half hours, so far, by the way.

Should we go and meet the people, our guests?

I think you deserve a drink.

In 18th-century Naples, the Marchese family was at the centre of power.

IN TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN:

This was the only time when Naples was independent.

That's right.

We have take this Bourbon recipe back to the right person, that could

be the maximum judge for it.

Wow!

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

The Marquise's family had their own monsu as recently as the 1960s,

and sartu was often served on special occasions.

GIORGIO SPEAKS ITALIAN

I really like it. I think... I'm proud of myself.

Mmm...it's fantastic.

You get ten only if you are a real monsu, so I'm not, I get nine.

You get nine. Passed the test.

'Oh, dear, only nine, I'd give it ten! It's delicious rich, meaty,

'sausage-y, ricey, tomatoey.

'To tell the truth, I don't really think either Giorgio or

'I feel quite at home here.

'Down to earth is more our style.

'Let's drink a couple of last toasts and beat a quick retreat.'

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Before we leave Naples, I can't resist taking Giorgio to see

one final masterpiece.

A work of art that, to me,

encapsulates the huge contrasts we've encountered here.

I really want you to see what I think of as Caravaggio's

greatest altarpiece, certainly his most ambitious painting.

He came here the summer of 1606. He has just murdered a man, there is

a price on his head, so Caravaggio is in deep trouble.

But his arrival here coincides with the establishment

of Pio Monte della Misericordia, it's set up by seven noblemen to

alleviate the plight of the poor here in Naples.

And they say to Caravaggio, "Paint us a picture for our altarpiece."

-And it's called "The Seven Acts of Mercy"...

-Of Mercy.

Caravaggio's commission was to paint a message of hope for the poor.

He set it in one of Naples' crowded streets in the night.

I think, because he has been asked to crowd

all seven acts of mercy into a single, very vertical composition,

the result is a fantastic distillation of what it must

have been like for him arriving in Naples.

And he is walking through these streets crowded with the poor,

crowded with lazzari. He's carefully included every

period of human history, so you've got ancient Roman history,

Simon and Pero - father and daughter.

He was confined to jail, he was starving

to death, and she saved his life by feeding him from her own breast.

She wasn't allowed to take him food.

-She is pure.

-She is pure Napoli.

-She is Napoli, isn't she?

-She is Napoli, even now.

You've got modern day, the... holding up the torch,

you've got modern life again in St Martin, the rich young man

like the rich young man who founded this place,

giving away his wealth in the form of his cloak.

-Vestire gli ignudi.

-Vestire gli ignudi. Clothing the naked,

then you've got Jesus Christ himself as a pilgrim, coming to be housed.

So all human life is here, all periods of human history are here.

And yet my impression is that just as there is so little light in this

terrible pool of darkness, how hard it is for people to be saved.

The old man has to struggle. He has missed some of the milk,

it's caught in his beard.

The corpse is on its way to the tomb,

but is that dead man or woman really going to be saved?

To me, it's as if Caravaggio almost felt that salvation was something

he could not touch or see any more.

And I think that angel is almost like pressing down on these people.

Is he lifting them up? Or is he pressing them down

into the pit of poverty?

Why is that hand of the angel like that?

That hand is the hand of mercy.

Naples wouldn't be merciful to Caravaggio.

Three years later, after injuring a man in Malta,

he returned to the city and was ambushed outside a tavern.

While the three accomplices held Caravaggio down, the man

from Malta got his knife out and cut Caravaggio's face off,

it's said.

So, see Naples and die - that was certainly true for Caravaggio.

At least we've seen Naples -

wonderful, life-affirming city that it is - and survived.

Now we're continuing our journey south into the region of Campania.

Our route takes us along one of the greatest coastal roads of the world.

It is spectacular, isn't it?

This road really is carved into...

it's almost like the time has carved through,

we've come through with people.

This road was created in the 1830s.

Andrew, one mistake and you're out.

You're not letting me do the guida sportiva?

Guida sportiva, be careful cos it's wet. If we turn around

and end up down there, man, we're going to be really...

-Dead!

-..going to be really dead, so watch it.

Today, Amalfi -

the little town that gives its name to this peninsula -

is a bustling tourist resort.

A thousand years ago, it was a mighty maritime republic

rivalling Genoa and Pisa.

Such a tiny little...

That is pretty amazing, Andrew.

What a huge cathedral for such a tiny place.

-It is, isn't it?

-Except, of course, Amalfi wasn't a tiny place.

An Arab visitor came here in the 9th century

and commented on Amalfi being far grander,

far more opulent, far more populous

-than little Naples around the corner.

-No way!

-Yeah!

-Amalfi was...

-I didn't know that.

Amalfi had population of 70,000 at its height,

comparable to the populations of Rome, Paris or London.

This cathedral, I mean, look at the size of it.

You've got this beautiful tower with Romanesque arches

and at the top are these Arab-style towers

decorated with Arab maiolica

and that's a key to

Amalfi's cultural and economical centre of gravity.

They looked east, east and south.

BELL TOLLS

This wasn't just a city, this was a republic.

And when they sacked Constantinople with the Venetians,

the Amalfitani stole the relics of St Andrew.

It was quite a common thing to do,

called a "sacre furta" - "holy theft".

If you didn't have a saint associated with your town,

which they didn't, steal his relics and make them yours.

In 1343, the coastline was devastated by a tsumani

which destroyed Amalfi's harbour.

The maritime republic never recovered.

Before we head further south, I'm taking Andrew on a small detour.

We can't leave the Amalfi coast without visiting a restaurant

that draws in connoisseurs of fine dining

from all over the world.

I want you to meet these guys

called Don Alfonso.

These are the guys we want to cook a plate of pasta with.

-He is the don of pasta.

-You know...

-The main man.

If there is somebody that can teach you something about pasta

or can teach even me something about pasta, that's the guys.

This Michelin-starred chef gets the inspiration for his recipes

from his beautiful kitchen garden overlooking the island of Capri.

-Dove siete?

-Qua!

GIORGIO LAUGHS AND CHATS IN ITALIAN

Ti ho portato Andrew guarda.

-Very pleased.

-Very pleased to meet you.

Look, no wonder these tomatoes are good,

they are looking at Capri all day.

It's like being on holiday!

We send the tomato plants on holiday in front of Capri

and then we eat them!

HE LAUGHS

The whole philosophy of this is,

when the chefs come to work for him,

the chefs have to work in the land before they get into the kitchen.

That's right.

So it has really reinforced this incredible tight feeling

that is between the food that grows and what we transform into food.

Cosa cuciniamo cosa facciamo da mangiare?

Facciamo il Vesuvio di rigatoni usando questi pomodori.

Vesuvius of rigatoni?

That's right, with these tomatoes

-And this eggplant.

-This aubergine.

-From the garden, from the farm.

The restaurant is a family business

and Don Alfonso has now passed the baton to the next generation.

-The older son.

-Sono Andrea.

That's Ernesto, his older son.

Andrew, this is the temple. This is a temple!

-We are in the place.

-This is the altar.

This is the altar, where, you know...

-Allora.

-Allora.

ERNESTO SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

The pasta has been cooked.

Two minutes only.

I've never seen a pasta dish made anything like this.

This is not a pasta dish,

this is a volcano, man, of pasta! Questo e un vulcano!

We've talked a lot about this great tradition of the monsu in Naples.

Si. They are the modern monsu,

they are the ones who have taken the idea of serving a fantastic meal

to a level that was never even talked about before.

Every five-star hotel now has an Italian restaurant in it

so it is this complete dedication to the land, to the ingredients,

to the natural flavours,

that has really given us this big step forwards.

-So, Andrew, look, we're going to get it out.

-It smells good.

It smells fantastic, not good.

-A little bit of Parmesan on top.

-Perfect.

-I love this.

-My God, the smell is just, like, unbelievable.

Now this the mozzarella sauce.

It's like a mozzarella sauce, like a mozzarella milk.

And basil sauce.

Colour of the Italian flags.

-That's fantastic!

-Come on, taste it.

Me first.

You've got to get a polpettina.

THEY LAUGH

Mmm!

Did you get a polpettina?

Mmm!

Is that delicious?

-This is a dish that I feel...

-It's really delicious.

I really feel that it shows all the goodness of this land.

-Ernesto, buonissimo.

-Grazie.

HE SPEAKS IN ITALIAN

I'm so jealous that I haven't invented a dish like that myself.

Just down the coast, there's a site

whose foreign origins predate those of the Amalfi Republic

by over a thousand years.

I really wanted you to see Paestum

because so many people come to this part of the world

and they go and visit Pompeii and Herculaneum.

But for me, Paestum is much older

and I think it's even more spectacular.

Look, here we are, here we are,

look, it's the oldest set of fortifications this extensive

anywhere, anywhere. I mean, look at that! That's ancient Greek.

For the ancients, Southern Italy was known as "Magna Graecia" -

"Greater Greece".

The city of Poseidonia was founded around 600 BC.

300 years later, it became part of the expanding Roman Empire

and its name was changed to Paestum.

I really love this place. Isn't it fantastic?

I mean, just the force of it -

it's like, "Grrr!" Ancient Greece, ancient Greece

and what is so unusual here

is that they managed somehow to leave it as it was,

you know, in the 18th century. You would come across it,

nothing's spoilt it, there's no shops.

These buildings are 2,600, 2,500 years old.

This was built before the Parthenon.

Before the Parthenon. This is ancient, ancient, ancient,

but you can also, I think, feel the strength of the early Greeks.

A great statement, isn't it?

They expelled young men from the city states

and said, "Go and found a settlement. You can't come back

"for ten years. If you come back, we'll kill you."

So this is what they did.

I'm really impressed by the scale and beauty of these temples.

For the ancient Greeks, these temples, dedicated to Hera

and Poseidon, were places of worship.

But to 18th-century visitors it was the structures themselves that

became objects of veneration.

Imagine that you've just come from Naples,

you've seen all of that Baroque architecture,

you've experienced the general debauchery of the city

and suddenly you're confronted by the majestic simplicity

of the ancient Greeks. And people who came here

were just bowled over by it.

Goethe said this was like a strike of lightning hitting his mind.

Winckelmann, the most influential architectural theorist of

the time said, "This is the pure water of antiquity."

And of course they didn't know Greek art,

they didn't know Greek architecture, not really,

because Greece was controlled by the Ottoman Empire,

so it was off limits.

Paestum was this... it was this bolt from the blue.

It's really outstanding.

It's not just the architecture here that's inspiring.

In 1968, the excavation of a tomb led to a discovery that

transformed our knowledge of Greek painting.

As far as I know, these are the oldest surviving wall

paintings from ancient Greek culture, therefore

they are the oldest surviving wall paintings in all of Western art.

It's been dated around 480BC.

-These pieces formed an enclosed tomb...

-Right.

..painted inside to be like a room or be like a world,

so that the deceased could have with him for ever,

the things or the people he wanted.

Over here, we've got the scene of the ancient Greek symposium.

This is a homoerotic world - no women.

If you're going to be in love, you'll be in love with a man,

-so there are two men embracing.

-Those guys look so muscly,

they really look like body-builders.

That's the ancient Greek six-pack right there, isn't it?

But the most striking thing,

and the largest image, is the one that was created for the roof.

-The ceiling.

-Yes, the ceiling.

This is what he would have

imagined himself looking up at for all eternity.

This extraordinary image of a diver in mid-air

and he's heading down towards the sea.

And he is this sort of diagram of energy coming down to enter

the great nothingness of the sea.

And this plant is coming up. And it seems to me like, if he is diving

down, the plant is diving up, and somehow he is becoming the plant.

Everything is becoming everything else, that life is

a form of becoming in death,

and that when you're gone, yes, you're gone,

but you're not completely gone, you end up coming up in another way.

But I don't know. I don't know. I just think it is a wonderful image.

Oh, Andrew, if you don't know, nobody knows then.

Well, I'm sure someone will work it out in the end!

Paestum was the last stop on the Grand Tour.

Even today, few tourists venture further south

unless it's to go to Sicily.

So, they miss out on the Mezzogiorno's wildest

and most mysterious region.

-Now we're going to get into the Mezzogiorno.

-Calabria.

Calabria.

It had a reputation in the 18th century, it was known as a place

where civilised people just don't go -

ruled by brigands.

I think it's probably changed a bit since then.

The Calabrian landscape is defined by its spectacular mountain ranges.

In the 1860s, much of this wilderness

was controlled by brigands,

southerners who resisted the unification of Italy,

because they saw it as a northern idea.

We've arrived in the Valli Cupe, in the Sila Mountains.

THEY GREET EACH OTHER IN ITALIAN

Carmine has offered to be our guide.

Why are we going into this rather beautiful Fiat Panda?

Because the car is too low, that one, to go anywhere and

because Carmine is a super driver.

You're going to have an experience now, Andrew.

-This is like...

-This is an experience for you.

Carmine knows this piece of the Calabrian

wilderness like the back of his hand.

He told us that Thomas Aquinas' mother once lived in these ruins,

just before making an intriguing adjustment to his car.

Now he's putting the 4x4s, now he's going to go fast.

Hang on for your dear life, my dear friends.

THEY LAUGH

IN ITALIAN

OK. OK.

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

Is this basically a Calabrian driving lesson?

This is a Calabrian life lesson.

-HE TOOTS THE HORN

-This is super, I love this.

-It's OK?

-Perfect!

-GO! GO! Go, Carmine!

You're a doctor of botanics?

He published two books about herbs and things like that,

that's how we get to know him.

This amazing smell of different herbs, I can smell oregano,

I can smell mint, yeah?

Lentisco, yes.

It's like a pepper, yes?

Lentisco is like a wild pepper and it's really,

really good to serve with meat.

As we are going across, we are obviously crushing some stuff.

Carmine isn't just a botanist, he is also a local historian,

and in the heart of the valley, he points out

the ancient hideout of the bandits who used to terrorise the area.

OK, so the briganti used to steal things. So then they would

take their bounty back here, so they will discuss how to share it so

this area here is still called "Parlare" which means "talk".

You can still hear the briganti.

They call those woods the talking woods, cos you can

-still hear them.

-That's right, they're arguing about...

Carmine also wants to show us the bandits' hidden trail,

a track so rugged, even he can't drive down it.

Wow, Andrew! That is incredible! Look at this...

-No way! No!

-There is

something of the Wild West about it!

-So menacing, isn't it?

-It is kind of menacing.

-HE REPLIES IN ITALIAN

-It's 7km long!

-7km long! It sliced the mountain through.

-Si.

This has been discovered about 10 years ago.

So it was like a secret passageway for the briganti to

move around, so obviously normal people wouldn't use it because

if you met the briganti, then you are finished,

nobody would come by here.

When we are talking about this place being wild, this is it!

This is what Calabria is all about. Wild men.

So, when you're a child in Calabria do you play like brigands

and peasants instead of cowboys and Indians.

Can you translate for me?

The brigands of old still exist in Calabria.

They're called 'Ndrangheta -

a fearsome local Mafia - and they've tarnished the region to such

an extent that many tourists are scared to come here.

But Carmine wants to change that. He wants to alert the world to

Calabria's rich, cultural heritage and vast areas of unspoiled nature.

Next stop, his favourite tree in the forest - the Good Giant.

Wow! That is fantastic!

I've never seen a chestnut...

You know, I've only ever seen oak trees this big, never a chestnut tree!

Wow!

600 years old!

600 years old, this is like a monument,

this is not a tree!

So this tree on its own, produces 400 kilos

of chestnuts a year and that's why they call it the Good Giant.

Obviously the chestnut comes in a very low season, it's

the last gift, it's the one that is going to get you through the winter.

Not only would they eat the chestnuts

roasted like that, they would dry them

in the pastillaro, which is this purpose-built house. And then

it would be turned into flour. They bake bread.

-They make chestnut bread?

-They make pasta.

I've never heard of chestnut bread.

When you're starving, I'm telling you, you find out things

that you could never imagine. And these people were starving.

There was nothing else to eat, there was produce of the land,

plentiful in certain seasons, but a really hard, long winter.

If you had chestnuts, you had life. You can survive the winter.

If you didn't have the chestnuts, that's it, you would die.

-That's the way it was.

-So, that's why the veneration of the

-chestnut tree?

-That's why. It's the big boss looking down on us.

Before we leave Carmine's corner of Calabria, he wants to give us

a taste of his hospitality. He has invited us

to an evening feast at his family home.

And luckily we've got a couple of hours for our stomachs to get

over the 4x4 experience.

-I keep banging my head on the roof!

-Really? That's good.

Maybe you mature a little bit!

Carmine is such a mild-mannered gentleman scholar!

Behind the wheel he's quite transformed!

Calabrian cuisine is as varied and as generous as the land.

I'm curious to see what Carmine

and his family will be serving up tonight.

I'm expecting a lot of meat, they don't eat much fish here,

even though they live so close to the sea.

I wouldn't be surprised to see quite a lot of Greek influence,

but let's see.

THEY KNOCK ON THE DOOR

CARMINE GREETS THEM IN ITALIAN

What have we got here?

THEY SPEAK ITALIAN

So, it is between a pizza and a pitta bread,

because the Greeks were here. They ruled this place.

This is so typical of the cuisine of Calabria.

And there is this mixture of vegetables and pork.

The pork lasted the winter and vegetables will last the summer.

From humble ingredients comes an extraordinary bounty

and a rich cuisine.

I love this method. She's rolling it around a stick.

This is the only way to allow the pasta to have

the space in the middle so it cooks evenly.

The sauce will run through and the cooking will be even

because the boiling water comes through the thing.

When you are talking about ergonomics

and you think about Italians being so good at designing cars

and designing beautiful stuff,

this is where it all started.

Andrew, come and have a look at this.

We have to come down here to get the pinata.

-Wow, this shows the Greek influence in their food.

-Cooking in

-an amphora?

-So chickpeas, salt, water, in an amphora that is put

next to the fire, for at least four hours. I want you to taste it before

they go up. He's going to take them out now.

-Mmm.

-Good?

-Really tender.

It's the custom for every guest to contribute something and my

dish is simple fried potatoes and wild mushrooms from Carmine's woods.

-Just saute them like that.

-Carmine is a biologist,

-so the mushrooms are safe?

-I hope so!

It seems to me that

-you are always most at home in this kind of situation.

-You see, Andrew,

I feel affinity with this food. There is the produce of the land

and the produce of the experience of the people over the years.

This is nothing scientific, this is not pretentious.

This is transforming something

into something edible, with the best that they can do.

That's it.

A Calabrian feast is like a banquet of different dishes

and flavours. And to enjoy it you'd better have a healthy appetite.

Make sure there is enough to go round.

It comes at you from all angles. It's like Carmine's driving!

Boof! Baff! Baff! Boof!

Then there is some chilli sauce on the side,

and there's pasta and cheese, it's all happening at the same time.

If you look for truthfulness, come to Calabria!

Aaawww! That is the chestnut bread!

APPLAUSE

If this was the bread that they have to eat

because there was nothing else to eat, they were quite lucky!

THEY CHEER AND LAUGH

THEY CLAP AND SING

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

After the fall of Rome, Calabria was ruled by the Byzantine Empire

for the best part of 600 years.

We're looking at this beautiful landscape, very dry,

very mountainous.

It reminds me of parts of Greece, particularly

this part of Calabria is a little piece of the greater Greek world.

In Italy, they spoke Greek here till the 1600s, that was its

principal language.

And I think the reason we're coming here is

I wanted to show you this place that, to me,

really is like a little piece of Byzantine Greece,

here in Calabria.

In the 7th century, the valley of Stilo became a refuge

for Greek monks who fled the East to escape religious persecution.

They call this bit of Calabria "Mount Athos in Italy", but here

you've got one of the few remaining relics

of Byzantine Greek Christianity.

10th century, I mean, really early,

difficult to find these churches nowadays. I visited

a beautiful one in Macedonia, I've never seen one in Italy.

Isn't it beautiful?

Unfortunately the fresco that would've once been

in the dome has gone.

I love these angels, very eastern faces don't you think?

They look Greek, but you still see those faces in cafes

and on the streets. You still see them. And over here,

they've dated this column, apparently this is 4th-century BC.

So this column they've taken from a Greek temple, and they've

re-used it and you almost get the different slices of history.

Because down here, you've got

-a Roman capital.

-So, that should be on top?

-It should be

on top. You've got Roman, Greek,

and here is an Arabic inscription which says "there is

"only one true God" and that dates from when the Arabs had a great

deal of power here and they probably used this building as an oratory.

It's almost like an X marks the spot,

one of the very few surviving remains of this astonishing

upsurge of eastern Christianity, here in this corner of Calabria.

It's astonishing how this church has witnessed the passage of

so many different religions. To me it's another beautiful

and revealing chapter of the history of Calabria.

Oh, please, Andrew!

-Look at this! Norman cathedral, Arab details.

-Back in time, we are.

Coming to dinner. I'm going to cook you something for tonight.

I'm hungry. Again.

It's going to be your... It's going to be fantastic, you will see.

Two days I am working at it.

-I love these little alleys.

-Do you?

There, undo that. This is what you're going to eat tonight.

What is it?! It's like a kind of prehistoric creature.

Funny enough, we are in a piece of land that has got

the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side, the Ionian in the other side.

What the people eat on the land is this.

-What is it?

-Stockfish.

It's married with potato, Tropea onions -

the most famous red onions in the

world, this one. Bit of parsley, tomato sauce which is local as well.

The fish gets kind of salt for 48 hours. So here is what it becomes.

-So, that is this?

-This is rehydrated, you see?

So, we have got some olive oil, which is

obviously local olive oil, which is fantastic.

We get the onions to go in the pan, and this goes on the fire, OK?

So, let's go.

We're going to break it in like that, with it. A little bit.

And then the other, we're going to add it after.

The onions have grown in the very sandy terrain,

because apparently where Tropea was, there was like a volcano

and then the sand from Africa has been brought in by the wind

and filled up the volcano. So you have a very special, sandy terrain,

and so the onions are sweet.

We don't put any salt, because the fish is already salty enough.

Some water from the Aspromonte,

this is the water that comes from this mountain.

So it is beautiful. Get the fish now.

Get the fish. You idiot!

-THEY LAUGH

-You're incredible, I love it. OK.

-We are going to put the potato on top of it.

-You don't put any salt?

-No salt at all.

-So that really is straightforward.

Should we go and contemplate the beauties of the landscape?

Now we can. Is it boiling? I want to hear it going like that.

Raaargh!

After enjoying a passeggiata,

I think it's time to check on the stoccafisso.

-The smell of food wafting up.

-Our food should be ready in a

-minute.

-Do you think it's ready yet?

-I think so.

-Let's go

-and have a meal.

-Let's go and have something.

Look at this, one little square after another little square.

Such a pretty place, isn't it?

-Wow.

-Stoccafisso.

-Bubbling away.

-Just add the parsley

-at the end of the cooking.

-That looks perfect.

So, what do we start with? A bit of fish and...

-You start as you want.

-OK.

-I'm responsible for what's in the pan.

You are responsible to put it in your mouth. It could've done

with a little salt...

-It's true.

-It could've done with a tiny bit of salt.

I've been really careful because I was really scared about the salt.

It's really, really lovely and it's simple.

That's lovely. I have to say that personally,

this is my kind of food. I prefer this.

-That's why we travel together.

-Chin-chin.

-To Calabria.

-To Calabria.

Our final destination, on the toe of Italy,

is the city of Reggio Calabria.

Reggio has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and the way

it's been rebuilt hasn't always represented Italy at its finest.

-It's not the best architecture, is it?

-No, it's just gone wild.

Reggio might not be as picturesque as Naples,

but it is home to two of the greatest works of art in the world.

So you wouldn't imagine it from the setting - Regional Government

-Building for Reggio Calabria - but inside...

-A bit scary, isn't it?

The Riace Bronzes are a pair of truly exceptional

ancient Greek sculptures, currently undergoing restoration

by Nuncio Schepis, a wonderfully warm conservator,

who has welcomed us into his den.

-Welcome.

-Just have a look, Giorgio, at the Bronzi di Riace.

I cannot believe I'm so close to it.

They're two warriors, they were found by a scuba diver,

who was diving just off the coast and he saw a hand sticking up

from the sand and his first thought was,

there was a dead body down there.

-Of course.

-So he dived down, touched the hand and realised it

was bronze and this was sticking out like that! They're

the greatest surviving sculptures of true ancient Greece. And in such an

-amazing state of preservation. Look a this.

-The six-pack.

-The heroic

marshal - military six-pack. He was once holding a weapon. We don't know

the origin of the sculpture, but I like to think, they were perhaps

one of this famous group of eight bronze heroes,

created as a great monument to the Greek victory

at the Battle of Marathon.

Interesting that they should've been found

here in Reggio Calabria, because during the period

when the Romans took over Magna Grecia, of course Romans loved

Greek art and to have managed to get their hands on these,

that would have been fantastic. So I wonder if the boat that lost

these sculptures off the coast here was actually on its way to Rome?

What makes these sculptures

so remarkable was the technology pioneered to create them.

The so-called "lost wax" method.

So this shows you how they created the sculpture,

it's hollow inside. Bronze was immensely expensive material,

so what they did was they made

the model of the foot and of the leg, they would create

that from clay, they would then paint wax inside,

fill it with earth, pack it with earth from the outside

and then pour the bronze. The wax would melt

and you are left with the form that you've modelled, but now

-it's made of bronze.

-Yeah.

-But so many bronze sculptures

are gone. Bronze sculptures got melted down, turned into cannons.

Into weapons. So much was lost. That's one of the miracles

of this discovery is, you know, just the fact that it's still here!

If you really look at the detail, under this missing hair, you can see

-the ear.

-They even bothered to create the ear,

-that was going to be covered by the hair.

-I can't believe this fact

that he has the ears, underneath of his hair.

-Did you notice the tooth?

-The teeth, I noticed the teeth are made of silver.

-They are covered in silver.

-Those are the only teeth

-of any bronze sculpture from ancient Greece, right?

-Right.

-Right.

-You can actually see they've got eyelashes.

-Eyelashes.

-Rare.

-Yes, little eyelashes made of points.

-Actually they use

the lamina. They attach each little piece, they make each hair.

-Each eyelash?

-Each eyelash.

-It's like the past is looking at us.

At you. You feel like you look at them and they look at you.

-It's like they want to protect you.

-Like guardians.

-Yeah.

-So, what do you think? Are you pleased to see them?

-I'm so pleased

that we've come here. Thank you for that.

It's really fantastic. Like what Nuncio says,

they have a personality. It's a person there, it's not just

a statue, it is something that is alive. You can see the blood running

-through their veins.

-Good finale to the trip?

-I think it's

-the best finale we could ever have.

-Yeah, for me this is the top.

Our journey that began in Genoa,

over a thousand kilometres to the north, is at an end.

-We have reached the tip.

-Sicily.

-Beloved Sicily is there.

-Look at that.

-Very close to the foot.

-Yes.

But there is one thing, there is one thing that you cannot miss here.

It's called 'Nduja. 50% pork, 50% chilli.

The antibiotics property of the chilli are used to cook,

to cure the actual pork, so that means there is no salt in it.

Ching! Close your eyes.

Close your eyes.

-And that is Calabria coming to you. It's hot.

-Oh. It's hot.

-They're extremely warm people, and generous and, you know...

-Mad.

I think it is a bit like Sicily, the story here.

The Calabrians are beginning to realise what they have

got in terms of art and architecture and antiquities and cuisine.

-And they're beginning to...

-And nature.

-Exactly.

They're beginning to put that together.

Do you remember where we started?

We started in Genoa and travelling around Liguria, the pesto

and it's all green, and the people are rather reserved and quiet.

-Very English.

-And as we've gone on and on and on further south.

The Tuscans. Remember Livorno?

It becomes louder and louder and louder and hotter and hotter

-and hotter.

-Hotter, we're getting close to Africa here.

I think on this journey, I've been more conscious than ever

of the vast differences between the different regions of Italy.

The difference between the people is so enormous,

and you need to understand that.

A Milanese is an Italian like a Neapolitan,

-but they are two different animals, you know? Completely.

-Cheers.

Andrew, we reach the bottom,

-but now what is left to do is to go up to the Adriatic side.

-More?!

-You want to go around the Adriatic?!

-Yes! All the way up to Venice!

-That's more than 1,000 miles.

-That's OK.