The Heart of Italy Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe

Whoever said all roads lead to Rome was lying.

For a thousand years, Roma dominated the world.

It was the capital of the greatest empire ever seen.

Its art and architecture shaped the western world

and became the emblem of "civilisation" itself.

Other capitals, like London, are just a part of the country they are in

and don't always represent it.

But Roma IS Italy.

When I think of the size of Roma,

and all the great buildings, statues and fountains, it's overwhelming.

We know Roma wasn't built in a day,

but I'm amazed it got built at all.

Romans are famous for being lazy.

They even have their own commandments, devoted to most sacred act of all - rest.

Rule number one -

Romans are more concerned with, how you say?

Putting your feet up and taking life easy.

They know their city is pretty good as it is.

The hard work was done centuries ago!

Roma is a city of fantastic sculpture.

It is everywhere.

But I have my own favourites which I visit again and again.

The Galleria Borghese is packed with sculpture

but it's the work of one artist that outshines everyone else.

His name was Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

He lived from 1598 to 1680 and as many as eight Popes

would seek him out as the most desirable artist in the world.

His work in the galleria Borghese would launch his career and come to define Baroque sculpture.

Baroque was the style that dominated the 17th century.

It means many things, but if there's a word that defines it, it's "movement".

Never before had sculpture moved in the way Bernini's did.

This great work, completed in 1622, shows the abduction of a young woman,

Proserpina, by Pluto, God of the Underworld.

He scoops her up and despite her struggle, carries her away before our eyes.

I love Bernini's attention to detail.

Pluto's fingers sink into Prosperina's flesh.

And his brow, twisted by her pushing hand.

So full of life and so...

How do you say? Sensuale.

In this sculpture, carved just a year or so later,

Bernini shows the god Apollo trying to rape a water nymph called Daphne.

According to myth, she cried out to her father, the river god, to save her.

And at the last moment, he transformed her vulnerable flesh into a tree.

Bernini wanted Daphne to turn into a tree before our eyes.

As we walk around the sculpture,

we see Daphne slowly changing.

Apollo no longer grasps a beautiful young woman,

but a tree.

# Down each avenue or via

# Street or strata

# You can see 'em disappearin'

# Two by two

# On an evening in Roma... #

Fantastic!

On my last night, I head for the heart of Roma -

like everyone else!

There are hundreds of fountains here in the city but Fontana di Trevi is the mother of them all.

Let's face it, if you call this a fountain,

it is like calling Big Ben an alarm clock.

This is a real monumento d'acqua.

Designed by Nicolo Salvi in 1732, it took almost 30 years to complete.

It shows the god Neptune harnessing the waters of the world.

But most people come here for one reason.

It's said if you throw one coin into the fountain you'll come back to Roma.

If you throw two,

you'll marry a beautiful Roman girl.

If you throw three coins, you'll marry a beautiful girl in Roma.

I don't know what happens with four...

but it's got to be pretty good!

ALARM BEEPS

For us Italians, a day has not begun until you have your coffee.

And what better place than the oldest cafe in Italy?

Coffee is not grown in Italy, and yet we have made it our own in the eyes of the world.

The Caffe-Latte, the Macchiato, The cappuccino...

all Italian.

But king of them all is the Espresso.

Coming here is a little bit like going back in time.

This cafe has been serving coffee in the same orange cups since 1760.

People like Casanova had his coffee here, so it's good enough for me.

Of course, you British can't really see the point of our espresso.

It seems too small, a waste of money,

but for us Italians, this is the real thing.

On the way out of Roma is the EUR district,

also known as "Roma moderna".

It's like a city within a city.

Every country has its embarrassing periods.

And Italy has plenty.

It was here in the 1935 that the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini

envisaged a modern city that would match the splendour of ancient Rome.

But when the Second World War broke out four years later,

EUR was far from finished.

Even so, there are reminders from the Fascist era all around.

This is the Palazzo della Civilta' Italiana -

an extraordinary marriage of Fascism and Modernism!

Mussolini's presence is still very much here, especially at the Palazzo degli Uffici.

You know, Italians have a strange relationship with Mussolini.

My grandparents had to leave their homes and hide away up in the mountains.

But in many parts in Italy, if you scratch beneath the surface,

you will find an uncomfortable admiration for his legacy.

Everyone remembers how Mussolini made the trains run on time, pushed the mafia out of Italy,

put the church in its place,

and created for the first time a sense of nationhood in the hearts of the people.

In the basement of the Palazzo is "Il Bunker del Duce."

It was built as an emergency shelter for government officials.

Macabre reminders of that time lie buried deep inside the building.

These heads, all of Mussolini, were intended to adorn monuments outside,

but now are just lying here.

It's a little creepy being down here.

Mussolini was a scary figure in himself.

But three of him? It's too much.

Mussolini failed to create his perfect city in EUR.

But, elsewhere, he was more successful.

I'm driving south through the Pontine Marshes

which once stretched 800 square kilometres.

This area used to be known as "I Pantani d'Inferno" -

the Marshes of Hell.

Many great men in history had tried to drain the marshes.

Emperors like Julius Caesar, in Roman times,

and the Popes in the 1500s.

But they all failed.

It was Mussolini that succeeded.

Today, this is all that is left of the marshes of hell.

In the 1930s, thousands of unemployed

were moved from the north of Italy to drain and develop this land.

Here's Mussolini himself, joining the workforce.

The land they cultivated was then handed back to them as a reward.

But Mussolini also wanted to build towns to show the world how he, Mussolini,

had tamed the marshes and had made heaven out of hell.

Sabaudia is the best of several towns Mussolini created.

Work began on 5 August, 1933.

It only took 253 days for the whole town to be completed.

Mussolini wanted to take the best of Italy's history.

So the streets are laid out in a Roman grid,

while the government buildings boast medieval-style tall towers.

This balcony was for speech giving.

Here, Mussolini could stroll up and down and proclaim

and thousands of adoring followers could cheer below.

Back on the road, I'm driving towards the hilltop town of Tivoli.

In 1549, a new Governor arrived to rule this district.

His name was Ippolito d'Este.

It should have been a big honour - but not for Ippolito.

You see, he had just failed to be made Pope so this town was just a consolation prize.

Ippolito's problem was his incredible ambition.

But it was to have an unexpected and wonderful result.

Ippolito built himself a magnificent home, thinking,

"If I can't be Pope, at least I'll have a palace worthy of one!"

The water gardens of Villa d'Este are one of the marvels of Italy.

There are 51 fountains

with 398 spouts...

..364 jets,

64 waterfalls,

220 basins

and 875 meters of canals.

Nobody since the Romans had realized the potential of water as a creative medium.

This became the inspiration for every water garden in Europe.

Ippolito created a theatre of water.

These fountains are like stages.

The water leaps and bounds, performing for our delight.

Despite being a candidate five times, Ippolito never became a Pope.

His garden, which had begun as a hobby,

became an obsession - it is the only thing he is now remembered for.

But maybe this is not a story about failure after all.

Many Popes have been forgotten about, but nobody forgets this garden.

I hope you like what we Italians call gialli...

crime stories.

And this is one of Italy's best - and it's real.

The setting is this, the remote hill town of Gesualdo.

The year, 1590.

It is a story about death - tragic love -

and one of the most delicate subjects in Italy - infidelity.

Let me tell you something about Italian men.

There's nothing worse than the idea that your wife could have been unfaithful.

It's the most humiliating betrayal.

Even today, if you really want to insult an Italian man, you do this.

"Cornuto", which means "your woman has been cheating!"

Let me introduce you to our anti-hero.

The mysterious prince Gesualdo.

He lived in this castle

towering over the town.

Prince Gesualdo married Donna Maria d'Avalos and they had a son.

But soon Donna Maria took a lover - the dashing Duke of Andria.

One night in October, Gesualdo told his wife he was going out hunting.

But legend says he was hiding.

He waited for the lover to come around.

At the right moment, he quietly crept up to her room

and killed them both in bed.

But soon the sense of guilt tormented Gesualdo.

It is said he became a recluse in his castle and slowly went mad.

Then Gesualdo began to compose some of the most haunting and beautiful music

to come out of my country.

Let's face it, Caserta today is not the kind of place you would want to spend the rest of your life.

And yet it's in this little southern town that lies the greatest palace in all Italy.

This enormous palace was begun in 1752 by the ruler of southern Italy,

the King of Naples, Carlo di Borbone.

He wanted a palace befitting the new kingdom he had created.

It feels a little obscene.

The south of Italy was one of the poorest areas in Europe.

Still a medieval and feudal society.

The palace stretches over 44,000 square metres.

It has 1200 rooms,

an observatory, a chapel,

34 staircases and over 1700 windows.

The throne room wasn't completed until 1847,

almost 100 years after Carlo began this palace.

The current Bourbon king didn't have so much time to enjoy it.

The Bourbons were so concerned with looking grand

that they hadn't noticed the revolution growing in their kingdom.

Only 13 years later, the revolutionary patriot

Giuseppe Garibaldi swept through the south of Italy with his army.

The Bourbon dynasty was brought crashing down.

But at the very heart of this immense royal building

lies something small and intimate...and wonderful.

This is a piccolo teatro -

a jewel-box theatre.

My favourite.

It was completed in 1769 for King Ferdinando,

and has been used for opera ever since.

It's not supposed to rain in the south of Italy.

Lake Averno.

It sits in a great volcanic crater -

one of 40 volcanoes in the area known as Campi Flegrei -

the Flaming Fields.

No where else in the world are you so aware of going through a legendary landscape.

According to the Romans, this lake was the entrance to the underworld.

Next to the lake is the only active crater - Solfatara.

For centuries Solfatara has been famous for its steaming jets of sulphurous vapours.

Even today, it's a dangerous place to explore.

It's warm and stinky!

The whole area is closely watched by scientists and vulcanologists,

because of the frequency of earthquakes

which make the ground level rise and fall from year to year.

Nobody can tell when the next one is going to happen.

In Roman times this was believed to be the home of Vulcan, the God of Fire.

Today it is home to the Angarano family which has lived here since the 19th century.

ECHOING BOOM

"See Naples and Die" they used to say.

But today even getting here alive is a remarkable thing.

Neapolitans are perhaps the worst drivers in the world.

You British may think it's too noisy,

probably even too dirty.

But once you get to the centre you discover the jewel of real Naples.

If Roma is the heart of Italy, then Naples is its soul.

Ciao!

The streets of Naples are always full of ritual.

The people here are religious and superstitious.

It was here, in the middle of the 18th century in the Spaccanapoli quarter,

that rumours spread of a mysterious prince.

Some said he'd sold his soul to the devil for magical powers

and certainly he had visions of the future which cannot be explained.

It's easy to see how such rumours got around.

Prince Raimondo was an unusual figure.

For a start, as most Neapolitans, he was an inventor.

He invented the first raincoat, a shotgun, an amphibious carriage, an eternal lamp.

But I think his greatest creation... was this chapel.

In the 1750s, Prince Raimondo began decorating the family chapel.

He called in the greatest sculptors of the day to work under his guidance.

The result is a treasure house of baroque sculpture.

This monument, entitled The Modesty,

is dedicated to Raimondo's mother who died at the age of 20.

The broken tablet marks her premature death.

This is "Disinganno" -

Release from Sin.

Dedicated to Raimondo's father.

His father had led a dissolute life

but at last he found release in piety.

The highlight of the chapel is without any doubt Sammartino's Veiled Christ.

This beautiful sculpture, carved from a single block of stone,

depicts the image of Christ covered with a shroud.

What strikes me most is His face.

From this angle, it looks like Christ is still suffering.

But as you move along his body,

his face changes, as though, at last, He has found peace.

Out of the thousands of images of Christ in my country, this is the one that moves me most.

Naples has many wonderful things,

but I think its greatest cultural contribution to the world was pizza!

Naples is full of tiny and ancient shops.

They are called Bassi.

This is a typical Neapolitan basso.

A one-room house which is also a shop.

Bassi have existed since medieval times.

Today there are still over 40,000 of them,

where entire families live and carry on their day to day business.

But many bassi hold a secret.

In this one lies the entrance to another world.

You see, there are two Naples.

The one we all know

under the sun and another one - under my feet.

Below the city are hundreds of tunnels and caves.

Some of the tunnels are over 5000 years old,

and were certainly used by the ancient Greeks.

These tunnels are 40 metres deep.

They stretch for over 100 kilometres.

Listen! Complete silence.

Quite a change from the loud hustle and bustle of the city above.

It's spooky.

The Romans continued to build the tunnels,

into an ambitious system of canals and huge wells.

All this kept the people of Naples supplied with water all year round.

As I'm walking down the temperature slowly drops,

and the tunnels are getting smaller and smaller.

It's a little bit claustrophobic.

During the Second World War these tunnels were used by people for shelter from air raids.

There are stories of couples who got married here,

women who gave birth...

and many who died because of the bad air

and the filthy conditions.

All along these walls are reminders of the suffering of those people forced to live down here

for weeks, sometimes even months.

Look - "AIUTO"... "Help."

Look at this graffiti - Mussolini - Hitler the world "vinceremo".

We shall win.

Well, not quite!

But there's an even darker side to underground Naples.

Crypts dating as far back as the 1600s.

In 1656, Naples was hit by a terrible plague.

At its peak 1,000 people were dying every day.

There were so many bodies to bury, that they began dumping them in these caves beneath the city.

It is believed there are many hundreds of thousands of the dead down here.

Neapolitans have a strange relationship with death.

They used to come to underground crypts like these and adopt a skull -

keep it polished and put it in a box.

They would cry for its death and pray for its soul.

In exchange, they would ask the spirit to perform favours -

heal a sick relative or give winning numbers for the lottery.

In the end, the Church forbade these practices.

And in the 1980s this section of underground Naples was closed to the public.

Forever.

Grazie.

'I emerge into the church of San Gregorio Armeno.'

The keeper is anxious for me to leave as quietly as possible - so no-one knows where I have been.

Ah! Light again!

# O sole

# O sole mio

# Sta 'nfronte a te

# Sta 'nfronte a te! #

Maybe I stop smoking!

PAVAROTTI SINGS: # O sole mio

# Sta 'nfronte a te

# Sta 'nfronte a te! #

In the last leg of my journey, the mystical south of Italy,

where antiquity is revered,

tradition honoured.

'And at last, a fantastic homecoming,

'as I arrive in the land of my mother.' Mama!