Francescos.Italy.Top.to.Toe.E01.PDTVx264.JIVE.mp4

Author and architect Francesco de Mosto presents a guide to his native Italy, travelling from the north of the country toward Sicily .

Part 1 of 4 – ” The Romantic North”
Francesco heads for the north where he encounters the birthplace of Renaissance art, the home town of Romeo and Juliet, the tomb of Lucrezia Borgia, the world’s oldest university, the greatest modernist factory in the world and Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, before diving under the coastal waters of Portofino to gaze upon the Statue of Christ.

Part 2 of 4 – “A British Love Affair”
Author and architect Francesco da Mosto explores the countryside of Tuscany, Umbria and the Marche. He prepares pasta and picks grapes, before joining actress Maggie Smith to view Florence’s art treasures. He also relates the story of St Francis of Assisi and visits a garden once owned by a British woman who fell in love with an Italian aristocrat.

Part 3 of 4 – “The Heart of Italy”
Francesco da Mosto discovers why Rome is the Eternal City and goes head to head with Mussolini. Travelling via the fantastic water gardens of Villa d’Este and the royal seat of the Bourbon dynasty, he arrives in Naples. After an encounter with Italy’s most astonishing sculpture – Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ – and a lesson in Neapolitan pizza making, Francesco descends deep into the caverns of underground Naples and discovers an eerie cult of the dead.

Part 4 of 4 – “The Land Of My Mother”
Francesco da Mosto visits the south and Sicily, home of his mother’s family for more than 500 years. Easter celebrations in the south involve the streets running red with celebrants’ blood and the locals indulging in frantic dances to ward off the threat of the tarantula. On Sicily, the brooding majesty of Etna terrifies Francesco as he stares into the volcano, but there’s beauty and art at the Villa Bagheria and an explosion of baroque decadence at Noto. Finally for Francesco, there’s an emotional reunion with his family, who have come down from Venice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0073m2f