All language subtitles for Sicily Unpacked 3of3 Modern Sicily 720p HDTV x264 AAC MVGroup org_Subtitles01.ENG

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

Is it a town
or is it a piece of theatre?!

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

The sultana is really tangy,
a little aggressive.
Like a little Sicilian, huh?

'We both share a passion...'

THEY LAUGH

This is real Baroque, yeah.
This is decadent.

'..a love...'

Oh-ho!

'..an obsession.'
I've never seen anything like that.

'Her name?

'Citalia - the Mediterranean island
of Sicily.

SHOUTING

'We've both been
her ardent suitors for years.

'I love how layers of history
have created a unique blend

'of art and architecture here.'

It's like winning the World Cup
in archaeological terms. Exactly!
THEY LAUGH

'And I adore her incredible flavour
and no-nonsense approach to food.'

Here you are - ten square metre, you
could find all these ingredients,
here they are in front of you.

'It's only recently
we discovered that we share

'the same intense passion
for the island.

'So, we decided to team up
and travel here together.'

This really is the Naked Chef!
The real one.

He is the real naked chef!

'In sharing our knowledge and our
love for the island with each other,

'we hope to uncover even more
of the secrets and treasures...
..the sadness...'

This was a hole in a nation. This
was a hole in the heart of a nation.

'..and the pleasures
of our beloved Sicily.'

As a piece of sincere painting,
it's fantastic!

'From simple, delicious food
packed with incredible flavour...'

There you are - perfection!

'..to the truly jaw-dropping
art and culture -

'a mirror to the exuberance

'and extraordinary history
of its people.'

We're travelling to one of
the most fascinating places

on the whole island.

Over half a million years old,
but still bubbling with life -

the volcano, Mount Etna.

For me,
it's where everything begins,

inspiring countless ancient myths
and legends about the island.

The key to Sicily's future
lies in its ancient past,

so this is why we're going to
explore its origins.

We're winding our way up Etna
on an old narrow gauge railway.

It's surprisingly luscious
and beautiful, isn't it?

Look at that.

You have grapes,
you have, like, massive fig trees,

olive grove,
all the fruits growing out there.

I notice ginestra.

I was struck by this
extraordinary contrast

on this side and up there.

Right. You know,
there's, like, sort of Etna,

and then over here
it's like the Garden of Eden.

It's pure...
It's fertility, isn't it?

It's like you've got
the anger of the gods

and then you've got
the bounty of the gods.

The bounty, yeah. That's exactly...

Before we explore the foreboding
upper slopes of the volcano,

we stop off at one of the vineyards
which flourish at the foothills.

Wine has been produced
in this part of Sicily

since the first great coloniser
of the island, the Greeks,

arrived in the 8th century BC.

Etna wine, like Sicily,
has experienced mixed fortune.

Years of glory, followed by
a slow, painful downturn.

But thanks to producers
like Ciro Biondi,

this wine is finally getting
a second chance.

I'm very struck by the sheer
sort of verticality of the slope.

It would seem to me kind of perverse
to be growing grapes

on such a steep slope.
Why don't you grow on a flat field?

Because if you want to produce
a quality wine,

you had to give sun to the vines.

Think of the solar panel.

They're not straight.
They're not straight.

So, if one vine not give the shades
to the other one, it's better.

Right. And what about the water?
How do you water them?

Ah, that's interesting.

We not irrigate the vines
because irrigation means cheat.

If it's a year where it's no rain,
you will taste it in the wine,

but if you give the water,
you cheat. Right.

You will have the same kind of wine
every year.

The wine should be the result
of a year of work

and of the climate, and which
should be all with difference.

So, for example, if you have
a dry year... Maybe it will be
more flavour, more robust wine

because it's been in the heat.
That brings more alcohol,

rather than elegance
that normally we got here.

One thing that I notice
that is so much different,

that you have thousands
of butterfly, which, you know,

when you go to Piedmont
or something like that,

it's...there's no insect whatsoever.

Because we don't use any chemical

because we are so lucky not to need
this chemical spray in the vineyard.

So, you can make a wine
that's sort of almost organic,

even without having
an organic philosophy?

I don't want to say
on the label that I'm organic

because I want to sell the wine
because it's good.

What's Giorgio doing?

I was just thinking... He say
he doesn't spray the leaves -

the Greeks used to cook with that,
so maybe we should cook
something with that. No? Why not?

Before we sit down
to taste the wine,

I prepare the perfect snack -

Ciro's very own vine leaves,

dipped and fried in a batter
of flour, eggs and beer.

I hope they enjoy them.

There's a lot of activity going on
in there. There you are.

Hey! Taste this.

Wow! Will be boiling hot.
A little bit.

Giorgio Locatelli,
to come all the way

to let me taste my own...leaves,

which I've never done in my life!

You've never tasted
your own vine leaves? No. Never.

What do you think? Amazing.

I think I like it!

This white wine named Outis

is made from the Carricante grapes
grown here.

So, we start with this 2010 white.

It's delicious.

And completely unique.

I can't think of another white wine
to compare it with.

It doesn't taste...
Often you can taste, ooh,
it's a bit like a Pinot Grigio,

or a bit like a white Burgundy,
but... Yeah.

Is this grape
pretty much unique to here?

To here, when you say "here", it's
Etna, it's not Sicily, because...

If you imagine, Etna is like
an island on the island,

so what you found on Etna
is completely different

to what you can find
on the rest of Sicily. So, we...

Because of the altitude, the soil,
all these things put together,

the grape's variety.

Well, it smells of honey to me.

It's got the sort of, almost like
a taste of saltiness or...

And you've got the sea over there,
so... Yeah, but I think

the saltiness is from the soil,
the mineral, from lava soil.

But do you agree that...?
Yeah, of course...

Well, it taste to me more than
all these adjectives

that we can put on it. It tastes
like Ciro looking for himself here.

Mm, yeah. This is your wine.

This is your collaboration
with this land and this soil

and this weather and this grapes.

It's teamwork -
the soil, people, grapes...

And it works like an harmony.
Yeah. It should be...

I mean, this is something... When
you work with nature, you are to...

You can't try to win the nature,
you have to go with the flow.

This earthy connection with nature
is what makes Sicily special.

And it's what a new breed of
Sicilians like Ciro is striving for.

To once again
be in touch with the motherland.

The next morning,
we set out to face the mountain.

Sicily is full of paradoxes,

but Etna captures
one of the most extreme -

the lushness of the foothills versus
the convulsive force of the volcano.

Locals think of the mountain
as female -

a great beauty
with a seductive, dark side.

We meet our guide, Carmello,
a volcanologist,

and take a cable car up the rocky
crater-scarred face of the volcano.

So, Carmello, how many times
have you been up here? Oh, hundreds.

You spend your life coming up here?
Yes. Basically, yes.

Etna is my life in every respect.

You're in love with it.
More than love, actually,

because it's just
a little bit of myself.

Actually, a big bit of myself.

I study Etna,

I come here in winter with skis,

for climbing during the summer,

I sometimes take people,
I take my students,

I go here all the time possible.

So, I've seen Etna in all seasons.

It changes, because every time
there is an eruption,

you see a new cone, a new lava flow,

the landscape changes a little bit
and it's really alive.

I've always been curious to see what
the top of the volcano looked like.

No photo prepares you for it.

The sight that greeted us
when we reached the summit

was truly awe-inspiring.

That's just incredible! Do you know
what that reminds me of?

Do you remember
when you were a kid, looking at...

the moon buggy - shots of the
moon buggy... That's exactly...

Neil Armstrong should be over there,
jumping up and down.

One of the most fascinating things
about Etna

is how this ancient mountain
is recreated with every explosion.

Sometimes with dramatic
other-worldly results.

This cone you see on the left

formed during two weeks of eruption
in 2001.

Only two weeks,
accumulated enough material

to rise the elevation of this cone
of almost 80 metres.

This is the first channel
on Earth

which has been carved
directly by a lava flow.

We have situations like this
only in other planets.

So, every time, then,
there is a different eruption,

we cannot forecast
where is it going to come from.

A cone could form any time,
anywhere?

Cones form any time, anywhere.

This happen since the beginning
of the formation of Etna

which is about
half a million years ago.

We trek up the steaming volcano for
another couple of hundred metres,

but it's just not safe
to climb any further.

Strange and mysterious.

It's easy to see why it inspired
the Ancient Greeks to concoct

so many myths and legends about it.

You feel like you've entered
the world of the gods somehow.

We've entered some other place.
Into hell...

Hades. Well, they thought
it was the Underworld.

It's like some vision of...this
is what the world would look like

if the atomic bombs all went off.

It's post-apocalyptic.

Yeah, except for the fog.

The fog makes it even more eerie.

Yeah, you're right.
I think you're right.

I had never quite realised
the extent to which Greek mythology

actually reflects, you know,
very precisely some of the elements

of this unique, exploding mountain.

Polyphemus, you know, the Cyclops
that Odysseus meets on Etna,

he's got this single round eye.

Maybe that's the idea of a crater,
one of these hundreds of craters.
Yeah, absolutely right.

And that's how myths are born.
It's exactly for explaining reality.

And when reality is a little bit
too complicated to explain

then they made up something -
a myth, right.

And is there a reason why they don't
let us go right to the top?

Yeah, in this sphere,
the activity at the main crater,

the main crater, is very sudden
and there could be explosions.

So, in other words, we might die.

Calm down!

Yeah, there are sudden
very violent explosions

that can last for three, four years,

emitting big volume of rocks
like this.

Then they stop
for one and a half months

or only ten days, who knows.
Right. And then again.

Next time there is an eruption,
I want to come and have a look
at it. You should, you should.

Etna is ancient, but it's also
alive, just like Sicily.

A living organism full of turmoil
and unpredictability.

A fiery phoenix rising
out of years of destruction.

Travelling through Sicily today,
you really do feel

as if the island
is experiencing a renaissance.

Having spent most of the modern era
escaping poverty

and the suffocating grip
of the Mafia,

Sicilians are now rediscovering
the true value

of what's been left
by the island's ancient colonisers.

Places like the Valley of Temples
in Agrigento.

In the 5th century BC,
Akragas, as it was called,

was one of the richest of all
the cities in the Greek Empire.

And today
these breathtaking Doric temples -

the finest outside Greece - attract
visitors from all over the world.

And there are jewels of the
Ancient World all over this island.

We've headed to the fishing town
of Mazara del Vallo,

to find one of the most precious.

It's a place I visit every year
with my family.

This time, I'm turning the table
on Andrew and introducing him

to a great work of art.

In 1998, a magnificent
Ancient Greek statue

was fished out of the sea here.

But before I take Andrew to see it,

we catch up with the local
fisherman, Captain Cicchio,

who caught the bronze statue
in his nets.

It came out with the face?!

Like a shipwrecked person.

Just come out. And the face come out
the water first, just like that.

Were there barnacles on it?
Fish on it?

HE TRANSLATES

There were prawns...

Prawns and little crabs
coming out of its ears! Yeah.

Yeah, it was the house,

there was a house inside it.

Captain Cicchio could have sold his
special catch to a private dealer,

but instead,
he returned it to the state.

He wanted it to be shared and
looked after by ordinary Sicilians

as a precious piece
of their heritage.

And he had his wish.

Today, there is an entire museum
dedicated to it.

I've seen the statue many time,

and I'm really excited
to see what Andrew makes of it.

Well, every time,
it's such a revelation.

Wow!

So, it's been under the sea
for 2,500 years. Yes.

And...it looks like he wants
to swim out, doesn't he?

He does. He looks like a diver
swimming to the surface.

Well, I can see why they built a
whole museum around a single object.

So many things about this beautiful
statue remain a mystery,

but it's believed
he's a mythological creature,

a satyr - part man, part beast.

The archaeologists always struggle.
They don't really know what it is.

I think what we can say is,
the satyr...

represents...

uncontrol, inspiration.

One of those arms
that we don't have any more

would probably have been holding
a cup of wine.

And I think the figure is meant
to be in the throes of this ecstasy.

Spin around.

He's spinning around
the god Dionysus, the god of wine,

and what he represents
is man's connection to nature,
to the natural world.

The hole in the back here
maybe would have had a ponytail

to signify...

that the satyr
is part animal, part human.

And you see he's got
these funny ears. Yes.

Not like human ears. Pointed.

I think there's something about
works of art that are mysterious.

I mean, there's people who believe -
I quite like this idea -

that that hole in the back

was actually where the statue
would be attached to the front
of a boat. Oh, right.

So, this would actually be
this ecstatic figure,

the boat would be sailing and this
would have been a figurehead.

In the front.

I think it's just
a beautiful mystery. Mm.

Was he created for a temple?

Was he created
to mark a Greek victory?

Was he created as a single work
of art for sale on the open market?

Or was he the figurehead of a ship?

In the end,
we're left with the enigma.

The seas around Sicily
are full of treasure.

I got another surprise
up my sleeve for Andrew -

it's at the docks,
a few minutes' walk away.

The fishing port of Mazara del Vallo
is the most important,

not only in Sicily,
but all of Italy.

And my friend Vincenzo
is the skipper of a fishing trawler

that hunts the most precious fish -

the most sought-after prawns
in the world.

The Gamberi Rossi - red prawns.

Hi, Vincenzo. Ciao!

Come stai? Bene.

Vai salire? Prego!

Andiamo.

Questo e Andrew.

Ciao. Grazie. Ciao.

'Before we get a look at the prawns,
he gives us a tour of the boat.'

They stay out two or three weeks!

So, these are the living quarters.

Or the eating quarters.
This is called the cambusa.

What's this?

This is his bedroom for three weeks!

There's always a Madonna.
C'e una Madonna li?

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

The Madonna of the Rocks.

Even the boat has a patron saint.
That's right. That's right.

E dov'e la cucina?

La cucina sta qua.

So, what's this kind of funny
contraption on the cooker?

Well, this is...

Yeah, this is useful
for when the sea is rough,

so you just unscrew that,
move it up, close the pan in,

so you're not going to end up
with all the pasta on the floor.

E cosa mangiate?

Do you eat the prawns?

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Naturally...naturally
they like to eat the steak,

since they live with fish
all day, they like to...

So, really, they don't...
No. They don't eat fish.

Very little.

But we want to see the prawns.
Possiamo vedere...the fish?

Si.

He understood! What kind of Italian
am I speaking to?

Possiamo vedere il fish! "Possiamo
vedere il fish." What is that?

'The Gamberi Rossi
are a real delicacy.

'Meant to be eaten raw,

'they're frozen on board
as soon as they are caught.'

Ah, they really are red,
aren't they?

They are absolutely beautiful.

This animal lives at 600,
800 metres underneath the sea,

and because the current is
so strong, he really needs to swim.

They kind of suffer, they have to
work hard to be alive, you know.

How does the current
affect the taste of the prawn?

Because the prawn
has to work against the current.

He has to suffer.

So, this is... Why is there always
suffering involved in Sicilian food?

What is that all about?

Even the prawns have to suffer!
So, what am I looking for?

What you're looking for
is, you know,

is this absolutely sweetness
that will come out of the prawns.

I mean, now, look at that.
It's so beautiful.

That is a monster!
And can you eat it raw?

No. You HAVE to eat it raw!

You have to eat it raw?
That's what it is.

So, what am I...? Eat maybe
the bottom that is still... OK.

The prawns is sweet.
The sweetness is incredible.

It's, like, denser. Yeah.

On a farmed prawn,
it's a little bit sort of, you bite,

there's no bite to it. Yeah, the
white prawns doesn't have to have...

It's almost like more fat.

The animal living at such a deepness

really needs to have a lot of fat.

If you eat that from the top...

That's what you eat.
That's got even more flavour.

Uh-huh!
That's like the top of the brain.

Yeah.

I can't believe I'm sucking
a prawn's brains out!

But I've been told
that's the best bit.

It's an acquired taste.

I think I prefer the meat. Yeah.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

And you know,
what is amazing as well,

these have been washed in sea water
and then they're placed

in the box perfectly like that,
obviously weighted and put away.

So, wherever you are in the world
and you receive one of these frozen,

when you defrost it,
you have a piece of this,

of the Mediterranean
in the front of you.

Literally, the water that
will be left there,
it's water of the Mediterranean.

And I think this is an exceptional
way to serve something like that.

Simplicity.

So, you've got to be nice
to Vincenzo so that he keeps
supplying you, right?

If Vincenzo stops fishing,
I'm in trouble!

Grazie, Vincenzo.

Grazie.

This journey really does feel like
a treasure hunt.

We're heading
to the heart of the island,

home to a unique statue of Damita,
the Greek goddess of fertility.

And although she's a local,
she's only recently returned home

to the town of Aidone.

This prized work of art
had been looted

from the ancient site of Morgantina
nearby in the '70s

and eventually sold
to the Getty Museum in California.

But when the Getty realised
that she had been stolen,

they returned the statue
to the rightful home.

Davide, one of the curators
of the town's archaeological museum,

proudly introduced us
to this long-lost treasure.

Que bella! Bellissima!

Very impressive. Yes, yes, yes.

It's such a rare thing
for a statue to come back.

This idea of restitution,
it's so unusual.

And for the statue to have come back
all the way from California

to this little town, that's almost
like a David and Goliath story.
Yeah, yeah, you're right.

When we found out that the trip
of the statue was illegal,

we tried to make this big step
of the restitution.

And we won. It's something
very special. You're right.

It must be a great feeling
after years
of feeling ripped off completely.

Suddenly they got one over, not
only, got one over the Americans,

which is really big for them!
What could be better than that?

It's like winning the World Cup
in archaeological terms! That's it!

This statue's almost as old
as the sculptures on the Parthenon
in Greece.

It's truly exceptional.

How did they definitely establish it
to the point the Getty
were prepared to surrender it?

Because of the proof
of the material.

The limestone was the same
of the other statues here.

So, it was DNA evidence.

The archaeological equivalent
of DNA evidence.

That limestone has been geologically
established as definitely, boom,
X marks the spot.

Exactly.

And where do you think she stood?
In the centre of the agora.

So, it's the main square
of Morgantina,

because it was representative
for all the city.

There's a mixture of the god
but also the human. Yes.

It's very human. Exactly.
It's human because of the body.

And she's a goddess
because of the head. The face, yeah.

What I think's amazing about the
sculpture is the sense of movement.

This is that time in Greek sculpture
when you got this tremendous sense
of movement and energy.

In fact, from here...
Giorgio, come here.

I think only from here...

when you stand at this angle...

Can you see how the sculptor
has created, with the flow
of the drapery backwards,

with these wave-like forms,
there's a sense of movement.

It shows her body kind of thing,
advancing. Exactly.

And not just she's advancing,
you think where she advancing to.

She's Damita
looking for her daughter,
Persephone, in the Underworld,

and she's got
this solemn expression in her face,
maybe even a bit of sadness.

Yeah, it really gives you
the sense of movement, for sure.

Like of search, almost.
It has this kind of searching
sort of pose, isn't it?

Exactly right.
She's searching for her daughter

to bring back spring,
to bring back growth.

So much in Sicily is about
things growing, about fertility.

The Greeks saw this place
as a plentiful place.

Land was so rich.

A tutta la Sicilia.

Aw! Patron goddess of Sicily.

It's been such a pleasure.
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Davide. It's
been a great experience. Thank you
for coming. We're delighted.

And the food of Ancient Sicily
is just as refined as the art.

Back at our guesthouse,
I treat Andrew to a recipe
over 2,300 years old.

It comes from a food guide
called The Life Of Luxury,

written by a brilliant
Greek Sicilian named Archestratus.

If people think about Italian
cookery, you know,

they always think about Apicius
as being, actually, the main writer.

Apicius was not the main writer.
He portrayed very much
the cooking of Rome.

But you know, Archestratus
was just a couple of hundred years
before that,

and to me, he really talks about
what I'm talking about
when we're talking about food,

which is the quality of the raw
ingredients, the knowledge.

I tend to think of classical food,
ancient food,

as being quite heavily sauced
and spiced,

perhaps because
they didn't have refrigeration

and they were perhaps wanting
to cover up... That's right.

..certain things.
But this guy is a purist.

He's the first guy
who says, keep the meat rare.

You know, we're talking about,
you know, 3,000 years ago, you know,

and this guy
had this kind of knowledge.

He had a very refined palate.

He talks about using a piece of
a she tuna, a female tuna,

and the underbelly,
so kind of nice and fatty.

If you can think about this guy
as somebody modern,

that would have been like
kind of a Michelin guy.

But instead of being interested
in a restaurant,

he was interested in what town
did what, fished what, grow what,

what type of bread.

So, he's almost like
a philosopher of food? Yeah.

I think he had a very heightened
capacity of interpreting flavours.

The recipe is so simple,
you can't... It's like, you know,

you don't mess about at all,
it's just a piece of tuna,

a little bit of olive oil
and a touch of oregano

which would have grown completely,
like, wild all over the island.

What leaf are you using?
Using fig leaves.

Fig leaves
will release some flavour.

Also, some other essential oils
will help to flavour it.

And it will keep it really moist.

Look at the time for me, yeah?
Sure, yeah, I've made a note.
How long does it take?

Six minutes I will give it.
We like it rare, don't we?
We don't want it extra cooked.

OK, now it's roasting gently
there, and...

There you are! Perfection!

That's your tuna wrap.

I guess that maybe this would have
been cooked in the street

so you walk away
with your fig leaves in your hand.

Early Greek-Sicilian takeaway!
Takeaway, yeah!

Grazie.

It's a nice, straightforward way
of cooking, isn't it? Absolutely.

It's nice and rare.
This is pure food.

So, eat it like an Ancient Greek,
with the hand.

Mmm. It's particularly nice
in the middle.

Yeah. That's really soft, but
it's taken the flavour of the fire.

Yeah.

For me, food like this
puts you in touch with the past

just as vividly as any work of art.

It's history you can eat!

While the Greeks saw Sicily
as an ethereal place,

full of magic and mystery,

the island's next great colonisers
made Sicily their heaven on Earth.

The Romans took over
in the 3rd century BC,

and there's a place nearby
that shows just how sumptuous

and lavish their world was.

This is Villa Romana del Casale.

Built in the 4th century,
it boasts the largest collection

of Roman mosaic floors
anywhere in the world.

It's like walking into a painting,
isn't this?

'The mosaics in here positively
seethe with vivid detail,

'intricately designed,
brilliantly executed.

'But there's one room in particular
I want Giorgio to see.'

Now, this is completely unique.

There is nothing like this
from the Ancient World

that survives anywhere else
except here.

And if it hadn't been
for the discovery of these mosaics,

everybody would still think

the bikini was invented
in the 20th century. That's right!

Here we are, we've got
Ancient Roman girls wearing bikinis!

You can see a woman running around
on Bondi Beach now

with their weight in their hands.

It's incredible!
It's amazing, isn't it?

In Latin literature they record this
thing that aristocrats would do,

is that they would sponsor female
gymnasts to engage in team sports.

And they think
that's what this shows.

So, these girls have all been
competing in different sports.
Different sports.

She's been given the victory palm.

Look at this one. All different
texture of colours of the skin
on her belly. It's incredible, this.

It's a tour de force.
Modelling of human anatomy in mosaic
is about as hard as it gets.

Archaeologists get annoyed because
the people who promote tourism here

call them "the bikini girls",

and they say, "No, they're not
bikini girls, they're gymnasts!"

'Nobody's sure who lived here,

'but they think it might have been
the summer retreat
of a Roman emperor.

'And there are some mosaic images
here that certainly feel like

'a proclamation of Roman power
on Sicilian soil,

'a statement
they really were here to stay.'

I guess in part,
it was the Romans' way of showing

anybody who came here
that they had power.

All the way from Asia to Africa,
they could take
whatever they wanted.

These wild beasts symbolise
the reach of their empire.

The detail of everything
is just incredible.

How they managed to do something
on a large scale like that.

In some ways,
it's almost like naive art.

All the figures have got
these sort of strange shapes.

What is it? It's actually
a diagrammatic version of a shadow.

Right.

These people look like they've got
things attached to their feet.

They're meant to be their shadows.

This is one of
the most spectacular rooms.

'Although the mosaics were first
unearthed in the 19th century,

'it was 100 years before a complete
restoration started in 1991.

'Peter and Elena are two
of the army of conservators

'painstakingly restoring the mosaics
to their original splendour.

'They allowed us to take a sneak
peek at the work still in progress.'

Elena, when you have
the information...

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

..you can complete the shape,
is that right?

Yes.

She's matching the whites
at the moment.

And then she'll reveal it after.

It's a painstaking job, isn't it?

If she's in any way doubtful,

she'll create
an abstract jumble of forms

that are in the right set
of colours,

so that when you visit
and look down, you can see...

Your eye is not distracted
by a great big blank.

THEY SPEAK IN ITALIAN

I'll try to make one.
I'm going to contribute to this.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

This feels really nice to be
part of these things, this process.

Thank you.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN
This colour?

It's nice to get a feel of it.

How many tesserae are there here?

120 million? Millions.
We've done one each.

THEY LAUGH

It's not a big contribution
but it's something. Yeah!

'For me, the villa's a kind of
emblem of what's happened to Sicily.

'A jewel of the Ancient World,
hidden for years,

'but now being given
a new lease of life.'

And this renaissance extends
to the agriculture of Sicily.

The food produced here,
like the art,

is experiencing
a revival of fortune.

Sicily's colonisers exported
the crops grown here for centuries.

But with the rise of the Mafia,
it became more difficult

to trade successfully
with other countries.

Now that's changing and one of
the greatest success stories

is the most Mediterranean
of fruits -

the tomato.

We've come to Pachino
in the south-east of the island

where today the regional cherry
tomatoes are its most prized export.

Pachino's seaside location, with its
mineral rich soil and sandy climate

make it perfect
for cultivating tomatoes.

Salvatore is one of the growers

managing to capture the unique taste
of this territory in the produce.

Salvatore, what's the secret?

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

The hard work.

Oh, you've even got a...

you've even got a piece
of volcanic lava in the...

Stone, yeah.

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

The water...

The type of water that's not...
that's not too sweet, not too soft?

No, it's kind of salty.

Like the saltwater gives
a certain taste. A certain taste.

It's always good to have salt
with tomatoes anyway, isn't it?

And what really is amazing,
it is like with the grapes,

you know,
to keep the tree under stress,

that really allowed you
to have a superior quality tomato.

So, you don't want a tree
that yields millions of tomatoes?

Millions of tomatoes.

ANDREW SPEAKS ITALIAN

SALVATORE SPEAKS ITALIAN

This greenhouse is not a greenhouse.

This is like a house
where you protect your family.

Family. here is your house
where you protect your tomato.

So, that allowed you to have

something that hasn't got
any pesticides

and nothing gets preyed on...

So, the function of the greenhouse
is not primarily to concentrate

or focus the heat,
it's actually just to protect?

To protect.

What would be the opposite end
of this beautiful tomato?

Would it be like some kind of
Dutch tunnel, full of water?

Aiming for size, instead of flavour.

So, you end up with lots of tomatoes
that kind of taste of water?

They look all the same,
they're perfectly looking...

on the look, but they don't have
any flavour left in them.

And so each one of these
is kind of...

it's concentrated
the flavour of that volcanic soil,

so you're ending up with a kind of
Sicilian taste-bomb of this...

You're eating
a piece of Sicily then.

You literally
are having a piece of Sicily.

It tastes good!

This produce is...

I feel then, somebody in London can
have access to a tomato like that,

he can feel like he's spending
an afternoon in Sicily

when he's having lunch
in my restaurant.

So, if you make Pasta al
Pomodoro Fresco with his tomatoes...

Yeah. ..that's a collaboration,
that's not just a Giorgio dish...?

No, that's... 75% is his job.

And only 25 mine.

And I'm taking
all the credit as well!

ALL LAUGH

There have always been people
like Salvatore here in Sicily -

ordinary workers making
an honest living off the land,

as those in charge of the island
play out their own agendas.

To many foreigners, Sicily was
simply the home of Mafia villains.

So much so that the real world
of ordinary Sicilians

was obscured for years.

But someone has been documenting
this hidden Sicily.

We've come to the town of Ragusa
to meet a photographer

who's been taking pictures
of Sicily for over 50 years.

Giuseppe Leone's pictures
have won him many fans,

including the fashion designers
Dolce and Gabbana

who were inspired by his sensual
pictures of Sicilian women.

But what I find compelling
about Giuseppe's pictures

is how the changes in Sicilian life
are captured in subtle ways.

Yeah.

He's nostalgic about this world.

And the boat is so small,
and you know,

the risk that is taken
to go out fishing is enormous!

Again, like, there's no radar,
there's no nothing,

it's just going out, getting
the food and just bringing it back.

And it's just so real.

This idea of living your life
in the street,

that the street is almost
a public form of theatre.

GIORGIO SPEAKS ITALIAN

It's almost like that's their
bedroom, this is their living room.

Andrew, I love this picture
because it reminds me so much

when I was little

and the people in the village
would take all part of the wedding.

Obviously they all went
to the celebration.

So, everyone in the village...

Everybody would be out,
everybody would see it

and wait for the sposa,
the bride, to come,

especially if the bride was from the
village, everybody would be there.

I love this cast of characters.

I mean, I love...

Actually, I really love the way
he's used the chiaroscuro...

This...way that the light
has caught the bride

and she looks so happy,

and all the older generation
are watching.

He looks like maybe he's remembering
the day he got married.

Look at her! What a face!

Theatricals is so important.

He wants to show us
an extraordinary...
Something extraordinary. OK.

No way! Look at that!

It's unbelievable!

These are the old gargoyles.

Yes.

Oh, no. Look!

'I love these pictures.

'They're so beautiful,
full of humanity and fun.'

I think the Sicily in Giuseppe's
pictures is the best of the island.

Proud, sincere,
with a strong sense of identity.

And I believe
time won't change that.

Sicily's had so many foreign
influences over the years

but it's never compromised
its true essence.

'That's why I think Sicilians

'can now afford
to start taking more chances.'

I know of a rising star,
a chef in the nearby town of Modica,

who is taking the best
of Sicily food tradition

and putting a modern twist on them.

15 years ago, Accursio Craparo's
restaurant, La Gazza Ladra,

would have struggled
to attract visitors.

But today, it's got a Michelin star

and diners are queuing up

to sample his inventive take
on Sicilian food.

Buongiorno!

Hello. Hello.

Andrew.

'We arrive just before lunch
and Accursio offers to make us

'one of his most original recipes -

'a tuna-fish burger
with oyster tonic.'

Accursio...

He loves sandwiches!

Food.

Street food, again,
for Sicilian is important. Right.

'This dish may be inspired
by Sicilian street food,

'just a simple panino like they have
been making here for centuries,

'but Accursio's version
has an ingenious modern twist!'

I assume this is the burger?

OK, it's turning around.

The bread of the panino,
of the burger, is fish!

So, basically, he's...
he's creating something

that's going to fool my brain into
thinking it's like a burger bun?

That's exactly...

You have this absolute fishcake
that will be incredible!

The famous sesame seeds
that you find in every bread.

OK.

He takes the part
from right to the tail,

so hard, and so when you eat,
when you're going to eat it

you're going to have a little bit
of bite into that.

It's beautiful tuna, isn't it?

'It only took a few minutes
to steam Accursio's burger bun,

'but it still didn't look like bread
to me!'

Ah, now I get it!

Mm. It's like a little joke
on a Big Mac, right?

It's like a Mini Mac!

'And there was one final stage
to the dish.'

He wants me to drink an oyster?!

That's right.

ANDREW LAUGHS

Ah!

Mm!

Mmmm! Man!

Is...is it a good joke?

It's a very good joke.

All in one. All in one.

Yeah.

Due?

Maybe two.

And it's like
the waves hitting the rocks.

It is, the waves hit the rocks.

Ah!

Accursio, grazie.

Grazie per la gita in barca.

Thank you for the boat trip!

ALL LAUGH

Grazie. Grazie.

Accursio managed to combine
the old and the new so easily.

He is the epitome
of the new Sicilian -

someone generating fresh ideas, but
still keeping faith in their roots.

On our trip, we've seen many
positive stories like Accursio's

scattered all across the island.

I think Sicily's reaching
a turning point...

..and the islanders
are finally understanding

and appreciating
the richness of their own heritage.

I wonder what they can do
to keep this new energy alive?

For the final stop on the trip

we have returned
to the capital, Palermo,

where I think
we may find the answer.

We are visiting a prince at his
grand palazzo in the city centre.

It's a kind of unassuming doorway,
isn't it? It is.

Hello. Buongiorno.

'Principe Bernardo Tortorici's
family

'have been in Sicily
since the 12th century.'

Ciao.

Giorgio Locatelli.

Thank you for having us.

Who would imagine that
that was here?!

Coming from that little street,

we never imagined
that something like that was...

I can't help my eye being drawn
to this lady here.

Is she one of your ancestors? Yes.

She's a very important ancestor
because she was...

..so rich and so beautiful,
as you can see, that...

ALL LAUGH

But she's got character in her face,
hasn't she? Beautiful dress.

It's a Bottaro of the 18th century.

Bottaro, I love that!

'I wanted to know
what the prince would make
of our experience in Sicily.'

One of the things that struck me

on this...
travelling that we've done,

this journey that we've done,

was that...I saw the youth,

I saw the young people

having this great passion
of reclaiming their culture.

I mean, we were in Aidone,

and we saw this statue

that has been reclaimed
from the Getty Museum, and...

There was the young curator
and he was so...

The whole town was proud,
but the young curator,

you could see, he was visibly proud,

you know, that, "We in Sicily
have taken that back".

It's like, Sicily 1, America 0,

we've got it back
from the Getty Museum.

The Aidone statue
from the Getty Museum

was to have back something beautiful,
which was Sicilian.

So, I'm sure that when a Sicilian

has back beauty,

he is proud of his territory
or his country

because we produce...
beauty always in art,

and the territory is beautiful,

the sea is beautiful, the sun
is beautiful, the food is beautiful.

Sicily must go after its beauty.

All the contemporary art,
all the food,

all the beauty that we produce

must be the sense
of the future of Sicily.

So, the answer for Sicily is,

look at what you've got,
or for the youth is,

look at what you've got,
look at your beauty and valorise it.

Yes, and try to do it better.
To grow with these things.

Build... You have these things,
grow yourself and grow these things.

Principe, it's been a great pleasure
to talk to you, and...

'Our audience with the prince

'confirmed everything we'd seen
and experienced on our trip.'

This place is a truly unique
cornucopia of tastes,

cultures and influences,

but above all,
a place of incredible beauty.

We're spending our final evening
in Sicily down by the seafront...

..the perfect place to get away from
the intense summer heat of the city.

I feel I've seen sides to Sicily
on this trip

I've never witnessed
or even thought about before,

and that's because Giorgio and I
teamed up and came here together.

I think the thing
that I never really realised

until I came and saw Sicily from
your perspective, through the food,

I never realised how completely
the different cultures

that shape the art that I love here

completely shape the food.

It's like the art and the food
are a mirror image of each other.

So, you go from
a beautiful Arab building,

straight to the fact that the Arabs
left this legacy of sweet and sour,

and all of the vegetables
that they brought.

Or you go from the Greek temple
to the recipe of Archestratus,

that at every layer,
it's a complete...

It's represented.
It's represented, yeah.

This time, just looking at

all the art and the architecture
with you,

it really put it together
as a whole thing.

And as a cuisine, and it's out,

not comes out, not from the mind,

comes out from the belly of
the people, you know, what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

That's why I feel it's so important
for me to come here with my chefs

and bring them here to see this and
see what they work out with that.

I hope you're going to take them to
some art galleries next time you...

Definitely!

I'm going to look like, really with
authority, talking to them about it.

And it won't be my final trip
to Sicily either.

I'm definitely coming back!