Venice's Hidden Beauty | Alex Polizzi's Secret Italy - TRACKS

Italy one of the greatest countries on earth it's a beautiful I'm Alex policia and my Italian heritage is intrinsic to Who I am [Music] I've got a treasure trove of childhood memories that were made here now I'm returning on a voyage of discovery that will take me from top to toe gives me shivers to be back immersing myself in the culture of its vast regions [Music] [Applause] reconnecting with my roots and uncovering some of this magnificent country's secrets this is completely blown me away Wow Wow this is one of the glories of Italy and if you haven't seen it we really should come my grand tour starts in the north on a trip that will take me from the completely historic to the unmistakably modern from the exquisite beauty of Venice to the bustle of chic Milan Venice in my eyes one of the wonders of the world it's a perfect place to start my Italian Odyssey [Music] inhabited it's a beautiful second mirrors seem real it's a city I know well my grandmother who I called Nana was venetian that must have been here at least 40 times in my life and it can be smelly and it can be busy and like goodnesses six but none of that matters you just feel like you're treading in the steppes saw the great painters and architects and great thinkers who have ever walked this earth [Music] it's no secret Venice is a popular destination an estimated 20 million people visit each year but there is one way you can have this city almost to yourself if you can drag yourself out of bed you'll be rewarded [Music] yep to some addcom the very heart of Venice almost impossible to visit these days because of the crowds the only way to do it is very early in the morning or very late at night good after when I drove NAFTA this is early morning there's very few people around except your average venetian taking as daily run the street sweepers the cafe's for the workmen and me finally being able to get up close and personal with some of the beauties that you come to Venice to see I think it is very easy at this time of day to feel as if it's all a stage set it is so beautiful in five hours time this whole street will be a river of humanity very unpleasant there's a cruise ship that's about to disgorge five thousand people into the streets of Venice or with a packed lunch and a bottle of water it looks completely wrong look it's as tall as the camper Mila it's just ridiculous all right opposite the Bridge of Sighs I think this is the first time in years that I haven't had to fight my way through six layers of tourists with cameras people come here with a list of things to see and tick them off and rush off and never ever get a chance to soak in the true beauty st. Mark's Square is one of the most iconic sites in Venice and one of the priciest tomb you can get the most expensive coffee in the world here we had two orange juices a bottle of water four coffees and two cappuccinos and I think the whole lot came to two hundred euros in the old days there was a little old lady here who used to sell birdseed and you'd have all these pigeons on you I've got so many photos like that at home a vast younger covered in these flying rats nowadays feeding the pigeons is enormous ly discouraged because they've worked out how bad they're it's amazing to think that under this very solid seeming Square lies fathoms and fathoms of water it's quite easy to completely forget this is a city in the middle of the sea it's places like Venice that marks us out as a civilized world and it makes me sad because I don't think that when creating anything these days that is as impressive and this is miraculous on so many levels it's the triumph of faith and hope determination and tenacity feast your eyes on this square as empty as it is because this is the last time today it's going to look like this [Music] Venice is romantic and magical on any budget but it can be dazzling if you have money to burn open your wallet wide and you can find Suites fit for Hollywood film stars this is the playground of the rich and famous [Music] there are 12 five-star hotels in the city I think one of the finest is the hotel Bauer owned by Francesca bottle or Tom a Venetian through and through so Francesca I feel because of my nan now and every time I arrive I feel tiful at the beauty of it I mean it takes my breath away still now and I've come at least once a year every year of my life for me and has the same effect and the whole world comes to Venice you know every day you wake up and you look at this and you know why you're so privileged Francesca has agreed to give me an exclusive glimpse of their most exclusive suite here we go darling this is amazing I don't know what's look at first I think it's one of the most dramatic role of Venice in Charles and Camilla they were here by the way and they loved this room but they considered this very close to home this room is aptly called the Royal Suite and it comes at a royal price fifteen thousand euros a night we're stunning sterling room the Church of the solute is what I consider maybe the most iconic view of Venice the opulent suite is decorated in traditional Venetian style with silk fabrics period furnishings an original Murano glass chandeliers every touch of luxury is obsessed about even down to the handmade bathroom products like a lot in the Royal Suite its locally sourced made in a small but high-tech cosmetics lab in the city the lab produces soaps and lotions for the city's best hotels using fragrances grown in its own garden what's surprising is that this garden is in a female penitentiary and the people making the soaps are inmates this is the first time I've ever set foot in a prison Francesca is one of the founders of the project and of course it are more expensive than average many peers in there tell so it's all natural or not oh no this is very good I love this mmm currently there are three inmates working in the cosmetics lab a con artist a romanian caught up in drug trafficking and a young North African girl involved in a theft another five inmates tend the garden where they also grow fruit and veg to sell to local people q outside the prison on a Wednesday morning and you can buy some of the freshest fruit and vegetables in the city Hey but then they get a certificate when they leave the jail that they have been working and so when they get out there can be more suitable to find another job once you have a difficulty in your life and feel good about them not to criticizing but then you do you're doing something beautiful it makes you feel better and knows and if you've done something not so beautiful this is a way to straighten up in some way what your past is B [Music] Venice is certainly a city of surprises and there are more to come many centuries ago the Republic of Venice was known as La Serenissima which translates as the most serene but you wouldn't think it when you see it's crowded canals today Venice is a city literally built on water everything you have to do in an ordinary city you have to do here on a boat my grandmother who only died five years ago who was Venetian said to me that the Rialto used to be a hive of Industry Venice has been a city of merchants that's why it some exists it was a staging post between the East and the West it were all the spices that were so in demand the modern merchants of Venice fight through the waterways and canals with the city's gondoliers for centuries the iconic gondolas were the chief means of transportation in the city these days they are mainly very expensive water taxis costing 80 euros for a 40 minute ride it is estimated that there were eight to ten thousand gondolas during the 17th and 18th century now only 425 remain a gondola is made up of eight different kinds of wood from gondolier the most vital part is a four-color the look the ore is held in it enables the gondolier to change the speed and the direction of his boat every four kala is a unique piece bespoke and handcrafted to the needs of each individual gondolier it's a dying art only for Orlock producers remain in the whole of Venice at 30 years of age Pierre Audrey is the youngest how long have you been doing this it's about 18 years what did you do before before I studied astronomy how many hours does it take you to make a no-look 1555 when you start from the piece of tree I look at it and I say oh no it's very difficult piero has offered to let me in on a local secret Venice lies on an archipelago made up of a hundred and eighteen islands it's separated by a hundred and seventy seven canals and linked by four hundred nine bridges and it's clearly best seen from the water as a Venetian born-and-bred Pierrot has offered to take me off the beaten track and give me a locals guide to some of its most beautiful canals this is amazing because your workshop is about 100 meters away from the Rialto Bridge but it's a world away it feels like a different City yeah yeah the NEC is divided in six big areas now we are drifting through the camera John the northernmost of the six historic districts here you can almost forget the hustle and bustle of the tourists and really admire this beautiful place so there's some areas where the gondoliers tented congregate yeah and then other waterways commit questa that you never see you don't see anybody in the in the most part of Venice we live only with tourisme you can find the real shops that a human need in inner city for for his life now the Iron Monger at the supermarket school pick up time yeah if there's only 48 thousand people who live here what who lives in the other apartments I mean it's a lot of empty houses yeah yeah many are empty because our second second properties of American people or whatever and the problem is that they come here one one thing every year yeah you know Venice will only continue to exist if real people live here the problem is rather like London that Venetians are priced out of the city and so there's less and less rita del Popolo everyday life here it's become almost like a Disneyland sorry it even thought a quasi coming Disneyland if you want to escape the theme park Venice there are other islands worth a visit Burano is a real surprise it's a small island a short boat ride from Venice every house is painted a blindingly bright and cheerful color legends say it was to help drunken fishermen find their home after a hard day's drinking whilst nearby Murano is famous for glass production Murano is all about lace it's been a desirable product since the sixteenth century and it still made here by hand today across Bhutan or an army of local ladies painstakingly hand-stitched the lace from their own homes each one of them specializes in a different kind of stitching it's incredibly intricate detailed work requiring great skill a tablecloth can take up to two years to make today there are very few lace makers left capable of producing needle lace like this it's another great Phoenician tradition with an uncertain future one local tradition that is still going strong is a love of food my venetian grandmother always cooked local dishes for me as a child and I remember them to this day delicious Venetian tradition of food is fantastic a few highlights our liver and baby octopus anything from the sea in fact but also they have a very sweet tooth Venetians and all these indulgences that quite often come out just for Carnival none of them look very good for the figure but they're delicious on the lips Monica Cesare toe is a food writer and Venice's best known gastronomic guide why is there such an amazing and varied cooking tradition because this was a port so there is the influence of all the countries to which she was exposed so you have a bacala from northern Europe you have over spices from a Middle East you have all the fruits and vegetables from Africa and as well as the produce Venice was important also over different recipes for me no trip to Venice is complete without eating my favorite Venetian recipe the frito-lay or sweet cake chef ah Ducato is a Venetian treasure who makes frito-lay the way that my grandmother used to my Nonna used to make these for us but she only made them in the winter the high calories in winter and in summer yes very Tyler used to be called anything that could be fried ah now we got to the point where we are identified as free Stella the sweet cakes for Carnival and Fratelli is one of the oldest recipes for cakes he actually goes back to the Roman time and then in the 1700 it was declared a national cake of Venice the dough is simple enough to make water sugar butter and plain flour and then you add egg she's gonna check if temperatures ready just by putting where we fall Ebola if he makes it so when you stick in a wooden spoon and the bubbles rise to the surface that moment the oil is ready is exactly the right temperature once the oil is hot add are simply spoons in the free throw mix and cooks until they puff up into golden-brown balls turning regularly every city in Italy has their speciality yes but in Venice they have it seems that the nations have a very sweet tooth yes because vanished discovered the use of sugar in culinary use rather than pharmaceutical use and that's why we got so many cakes and then we were spices they combine the sugar with all the spices from from the Middle Eastern the recipe varies from household to household some people add ricotta to the dome some people fill them with chocolate drops and raisins but my grandmother made hers with zabaglione cream a mixture of eggs sugar and Marsala wine [Music] now she's putting my powdered sugar on top like in the old days and that's what gives the extra sweetness just in case you didn't know we'll help you Fred them Thank You Bonnie whoo nice seam I'm a fan I could not sell a bond Oh Mamma Mia quantum cancer that is really delicious Manji call causative angle cause it'll say transport data Thank You Banco they just won't smell one flavor of something brings you back a memories like oh you're we're again reminds me so much Mike Ranney good I'm pleased that all that [Music] I honestly I wasn't expecting to feel as emotional as that it really bought a complete verse of my father back to me and she was an amazing cook and I'm really sad that I didn't take more advantage at the time you somehow think when you're younger people are gonna be there forever and that things are going to continue in that way forever but I tell you something after that example before me I'm gonna go home and before I forget and I'm gonna make sure that I do it at least once coming back here has reminded me just how much this city means to me I think Venice is impossible and magical and unique and I think unique is a word that's so overused but this place there is nowhere else like it in the world this is the only Venice [Music] I've traveled two hours west of Venice to the majesty of the Italian Alps home to the Great Lakes of Garda and Como but I'm not here for them hidden in the mountains is a gem of a place the remote village of baggoli no village it's at the end of a road there's one road in the same way out and it is incredibly wealthy wealthy enough to have constructed this amazing church bagua Lina is a prosperous place whose wealth originates from mining today though this small hilltop village is home to one of the most expensive cheese's in all of Italy Vegas is a salty cheese infused with saffron only 1,500 wheels are produced each year on small family farms dotted around by galino it doesn't come cheap bagus cheese is sold in Rome for 71 pounds a kilo the Staniel family has been producing Vegas cheese for centuries and they still make the cheese today using the same techniques their ancestors did hundreds of years ago Alex was ashamed of all of that is gonna make just one cheese the finally Mateen i'll formaggio to the door to t jordan de la vita set eternal city mana growing up he didn't want to do this and he tried to escape it but he realized it was useless this was his destiny it's bloody hard work so he did the sign of the Cross before starting because this is an important job wanted to go wow this milk is 48 degrees sometimes even 50 I've ever variable ever actually cooks by now in the beginning it was a bit harder fin too bad but he's so used to it now he says he's his tan from here downwards look at this thing is enormous yesterday 14 Mamma Mia yum-yum they managed and so for module 2 t journey that takes a minimum of 36 months of us to mature then the cheese was ready primo learned his trade from his father incredibly at 82 years of age Josep Hassan Yoli is still making Vagos cheese every day Oh kill yamaraja see Wow Wow Ben look a Qui Mamamia molting placin onthe quest of kube actually quite low first or not no measure a year and a half old crystal three on me three years oh let's see Oh Grazia you don't know my trovato prima no mommy a transitional hmm it's quite a strong flavor even a year old mmm Grazia it's quite pungent it's absolutely delicious quantity naturally de la familia and the first request for module second or line but the Shepherd's I said this attitude only far from a central hub to Gustavus Theory Schembri for sure auto zld general surely theatre tomato or uni oh you little Kriner feel amazing there's a big history here my course as I said the filly quantal quanta Livorno tectonics theory very I'm okay okay do know perkier Mysterio van of compare and oh very encouraging he says all the old traditions going out and his desperate keep them alive at least this one by far a quest of history the wrong and commentary encourage only founder Thomas T return and indeed request a lurid educate report our deeper man he says really to do this job well you have learn it as a child in their own way Farms like the Stan yoli's are just as much of an Italian treasure as historic cities like Venice Italy has been mined for years and yet you can still turn the corner find something like this so you just never knew existed I do think that it is really deep in their blood they love it and it's obviously something they hold very dear if it wasn't for families like these all the old traditions would die out once and over glamorizes life it's very hard it's working 365 days a year come rain comes snow you know I'm only third-generation removed from a whole load of subsistence farmers in the hills around Rome my grandfather's family raised horses the Italian cavalry and it was a bloody hard life and that's why they will escaped look they all ran away and his family moved to England I mean I admire this not for holding firm I'm leaving behind the peace and tranquility of the Alps and heading to the big city [Music] no trip to the north of Italy would be complete without a hit of modern Milan I lived in Rome in my late 20s and we used to often come to Milan to have a taste of modern Italian life because of course this is the city you live in if you don't want to live in the historic past the capital of the north and Italy's second largest city Milan is brash bold and fun even the hotels are achingly cool it's got a very high opinion of it and one that's probably justified it's easy to drop an enormous amount of money because the shops are fabulous and everywhere you see the very modern and the ancient juxtapose and I find that very attractive in a typical way that happens early in Milan you have a very modern office block next to this glorious Galleria this is a city that's misunderstood Torah think it's just some concrete jungle but actually there's so much here there's beautiful churches there's beautiful historic monuments I've become more and more fond of the city as I've got to know it better and I think there's plenty to discover and to enjoy here Milan may have the reputation of being Italy's most modern and forward thinking city but it also has a lot of history and tradition too but to sample some of Milan's finest history it's not a church you need to hunt out it's a cafe I don't think there's an Italian alive who doesn't love panettone I like it toasted with butter and almost every time of the year my grandmother used to say Mette from Christmas until Easter and it was a highlight for weekend even internet this is the place to come Villa Cafe cookie is the locals favorite and lays a claim to serving the best panettone in the world they've been baking the classic Italian cake since 1936 king of panettone the cafe is the rather aptly named head Baker Tony he's been mastering his art for over 20 years most of us think of panettone as an Italian Christmas cake in Tony's kitchen they bake it all year round it's not just a seasonal treat here so how long does the whole process take to make a connectome for the beginning to prepare the Easter 36:40 hours what goes into panettone then obviously yeast flour butter yeah that's the yolk yolk yeah and sugar yeah and this is a with vanilla orange peel of Oh Ranjha candied yeah very nice there's a gifted the taste of the panettone do you like making Polito yes like because is a different every time and you have to control the East very very well what makes the cookies panettone so special is their mother yeast it's more than 70 years old refreshed by Tony on a daily basis with more water and flour [Music] this is called pilla - ah yes and give up the panettone it's strong it's a real skill no you can't just come off the streets and learn how to do this it takes years to learn it well before the panettone czar ready to go in the oven the dough is washed with egg a scattering of flaked almonds and a yummy topping your skin's terrible trouble as children because we used to pick that bit the topping of the panettone delicious it's all sugary and nutty and he used to leave the cake and just eat the topic which is very founded I believe in my family sugar and sugar this is the best bit once the cakes have been baked there's one last secret to their success so this is the trick to panettone unless they hang it upside down it collapses like so this is how they make so in cases [Music] it's better to to eat after 25 days all right I'm ready to risk it mmm my goodness I don't think I've ever had a penny Tron is so fresh and this is my favorite by far that's wonderful thank you thank you the panettone was just for starters the Melanie's main course is still to come [Music] everyone knows Milan is famous for fashion what you might not know is that it's also home to the world's oldest shopping mall this arcade was built in homage to vittorio emanuele ii the king of Italy from the Milanese built in 1865 it was dubbed insalata di Milano the living room of Milan and since then the Galleria has become the favored meeting place in the city this has got to be one of the most elegant beautiful shopping arcades in the whole world I love it [Music] I love everything about it from the mosaic floor to the unity of all the shop signs being in gold on black there's the most wonderful shops here delicious restaurants this is a hub for Milanese life this was built from the turbulent era of Italian unification and represented in the mosaics some of the symbols of the bigger cities in Italy so there is the Lily representing Florence and the bull of Turin it's considered good luck to step on the bull's genitals and you'll see every minute a nice person makes a detour just to do that which is why there's such a whole thorn in the mosaic this Galleria took years to build and on the ferry day opened the architect men gorni fell to his death right at this spot in the typical way of Italy this has now become a lucky area and the bull is the center of all that luck the tradition is you're supposed to spin backwards three times but I think that tends to mark you out as a tourist [Music] ah these tourists going to step on the bull's balls oh yeah and Mandy goes he's going forward someone ought to tell him everybody does it not just tourists though even the Milanese dis Galleria connects two of Milan's most famous landmarks the Duomo the fifth largest Cathedral in the world and the legendary La Scala theatre this theater is a Milanese treasure Wow every time I walk into La Scala I get shivers up my spine this is probably the most famous Opera House in the world and it has made and broken more reputations than any other La Scala was opened in 1778 and over the past 200 years the greatest stars of opera and ballet have performed on this stage luminaries such as Luciano Pavarotti Rudolf Nureyev and Maria Callas one of the hidden secrets of this Milanese institution is La Scala's workshops located in an old steel factory on the outskirts of the city here you can get a unique la scala experience watching the best technicians in italy design and produce sets and costumes for every production fujairah Bellini is the general director of set design at La Scala Qwest refer annamaria implemented Yoshimi presto same espacio pro yeah momentarily Chanel [Music] there's one area of the workshop I'm drawn to like a moth to the flame the costume department quantico's to me nuova fatale on no person Oh sh e no sausage in tacos to me pero sólo para uno para dissertation of pure operas a nova opera ought to navigate you are very eager cinque say ballot Wow see monkey creature sensitivity carla motor contemporary magazine Wow at the rank it slims people tony to tennis ball a mama mia commercially no fine curly villain cockadoodle dilemma reveal a perm am a dog - Christine you know all these velvet ribbons I'd like it cupboard like this at home La Scala have built up a priceless collection of over 60,000 costumes including outfits worn by Pavarotti a Maria Callas head archivist Rita is giving me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get up close and personal with some operatic history to a parish in costume Eddie Electra Marquess MDBA bellissima la storia di questa Jennifer cassano fatty daddy school Tory Quinlan safe Otto L calcio soul artists opera very last tour physica capo teleport arduous a [Laughter] Sumida Luciano Pavarotti famoso NK / K fear motto kuniko's to me da missin I'm a picture a bit così tanto the direct marcos de la calles see Italians love opera and I'm no exception Maria Callas is an idol of mine her life was marked by scandals and ended with sudden death at 53 however in the 10 years she performed she set the world of opera alight her costumes are now kept under lock and key as they are incredibly valuable and need to be preserved known of everyone I get the question Monell cincuenta setage in canto - hindi momento puke - grab the lock at the area yes there are Alta pericranium now see the corner Khun Bell physical I can't imagine singing and wearing that and the most of pretty impressed by how tiny she was she's a tiny little wastage is lovely and - I'm very jealous Wow look at these some of the currently Zakir elephant look at that differently - Connie Tania that's mummy if you are three così tanto caleb or after Elya job isn't that fun okay okay so you know the Leawood team aesthetically Kalia cantatas Carla this is stuff from Van Andel apellido but I mean to take a do not cause okay yes that is what it's just pretty incredible to be touching this piece of history and this piece of history that has warned so well I mean it's beautiful now just as it must have been then non-seeing senior or seen senior Power Co because I startled me no dramatis key system cool because I Michael Jackson law school someone asked if I had an outfit in Michael Jackson secrecy goes to me I know Valerie her voice he loved erotica story part time she Cynthia Modi conserve our own patrimonio italiano Milanese back quaint restaurant patrimonio D 2 T we know solo de las casas vero that was just amazing I could have spent all day there I think my favorite bit there was obviously the costumes to hold something of maria callases in my hands was an amazing experience my trip across the north of Italy is just the beginning next time my journey takes in one of the most beautiful and undiscovered coastlines and then on towards the hustle and bustle of Rome and the hilltop village where it all began coming back here it's rather amazing that my grandfather made such a success of himself coming from this place so high in the mountains [Music] you

Channel: TRACKS

Views: 121,386

Rating: 4.7505422 out of 5

Keywords: secrets of italy, italy, venice, hidden venice, italian culture, italian food, italy dark side, itally issues, prison documentary, foreign prison, ancestry, who do you think you are, italian prison, TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel

Id: K8oiJajGhAA

Length: 43min 36sec (2616 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 21 2019

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