- 6 weeks ago
Rob and Rylan's Grand Tour Season 1 Episode 3 - Full Episode
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00:00Right, as a tradition, take them.
00:02I'm not doing it.
00:03Take them.
00:04Darling, it's tacky.
00:05Babe, we are tacky.
00:08Right hand, left shoulder, a wish to return to Rome.
00:12All right.
00:12Let's go.
00:14Okay.
00:15Second one.
00:16Yeah?
00:16To meet an attractive Italian and fall in love.
00:18I'm into that.
00:20And lastly.
00:22Yeah?
00:22A wish to get married to them.
00:24With a prenup.
00:26Okay.
00:26Now, we can begin our tour in Rome.
00:37This is Rob.
00:39He's one of the cleverest blokes I know.
00:41Who just loves talking about art.
00:43This room, it's like fireworks in your brain.
00:46To anyone who'll listen.
00:48I mean, it's being in the middle of the greatest opera set ever.
00:52Right.
00:52Does that make sense?
00:53No.
00:54And this is Rylan.
00:57I don't like the aftertaste.
00:58Who doesn't know his arts from his elbow.
01:01I mean, this is a big old paint job.
01:03Despite our differences, we're good mates.
01:06It's amazing when I look at us that we're the same species.
01:09But we've both been through painful divorces recently.
01:12And are ready for the next chapter.
01:15Tonight, this trip is part of my restarting life.
01:19One tour.
01:19One tour.
01:20So we're getting away from it all on the original package holiday.
01:24The grand tour.
01:25This is utterly absurd in every conceivable sense.
01:28It's what we do.
01:29The grand tour was a life-changing trip.
01:32The young 18th century aristocrats who flocked to Italy on a cultural odyssey.
01:37You just take it all in.
01:39And I mean, there's a lot to take in here.
01:41They came back changed men.
01:43Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:43Independent, educated.
01:45I love it.
01:46This is me.
01:47With a bag full of keepsakes and often a dose of the clap.
01:51Blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:52We're following the most famous grand tourist of all, romantic poet Lord Byron, on the 200th
01:59anniversary of his death, from Venice to Florence and Rome.
02:04Byron, we challenge friends to swimming races here.
02:08It's full of sewage.
02:10So will the historic grand tour turn us into civilized gentlemen?
02:15My God, it's only when you step back and you notice them.
02:16Yes.
02:18Mend our broken hearts.
02:19And transform our lives forever.
02:24I never would have done it in a million years if I hadn't been this idiot.
02:28I have been looking at a painting for half an hour.
02:32The experiment is working.
02:49So why are we arriving by horse and cart?
02:54The grand tourists would have arrived like this, sometimes in a litter, actually, with
02:58people carrying them in the early grand tour.
03:00Oh.
03:01And I couldn't find anybody prepared to do that for us.
03:03So this is as close to the real deal as it gets.
03:07I'm going to snooze.
03:07I get Rob wanting our grand tour to be authentic, but there's just one problem.
03:13I'm allergic to horses.
03:15I love you.
03:17This is actually a really lovely way to look at the architecture.
03:21Because you're moving so slow, you can just see all the little minute details.
03:27I love you.
03:27Oh, for f***ing sake.
03:28After stops in hedonistic Venice and Renaissance Florence, Rome was the main event.
03:38This is the Holy of Holies for grand tourists.
03:41Right.
03:42Rome, with its architecture, its painting, even its music.
03:47It's like being in the back of a car and dialing up the stereo to 12 and having music banging.
03:54It's just big.
03:56Rrrr!
03:56When the flamboyant Byron first arrived in Rome in 1817, ever the adventurer, he galloped
04:04on horseback around the ancient city for hours, bothering at its marvels.
04:10I don't know where to begin.
04:12It's like a cultural pick and mix.
04:13I want to just eat all of the sweets in one go and just get fat on all this culture.
04:18You're going to be bathing in it all.
04:20I can't wait.
04:23That's it.
04:24My left.
04:25Ciao.
04:25Now, between me and you, I don't really know a lot about Rome.
04:30I know the Pope lives here, and I know it wasn't built in a day.
04:33But since being on our own grand tour, I've been having a cultural enlightenment.
04:37I feel like I'm getting to this point where I'll go to bed of an evening, and I'll know
04:45that I'm going to a gallery in the morning, and I'll be like, oh, that'd be fun.
04:49So, Rome's busy.
04:51It's the summer.
04:52Of course it's busy.
04:53It's almost like I'm looking forward to doing these things I never would have done.
04:56I couldn't be bothered to do it.
04:57But I'll leave it out.
04:58Let's go and have a nice croissant.
04:59That being said, apparently, it turns out grand tourists love nothing more than an espresso
05:04in Rome.
05:05Hi.
05:06Buongiorno.
05:06Buongiorno.
05:07I'm Rylan.
05:07Lovely to meet you.
05:08Tatiana, lovely to meet you both.
05:09So we're meeting art historian Tatiana, our tour guide, or bear leader, as they were known
05:15in Byron's day at Cafe Greco.
05:17Wow, this is beautiful.
05:24This is where all the grand tourists would come to meet, to talk.
05:28For real?
05:29Absolutely.
05:29So Byron, Shelley, Keats, they've all been here, among so many other figures as well.
05:34And do you know what's crazy?
05:36I actually know who she's talking about.
05:39So many grand tourists came here, the area became known as Little Westminster.
05:44Some wrote poetry or pondered.
05:46But the well-connected hobnobbed before returning home to take up positions in Parliament.
05:52Rome was the perfect stage to flex your intellect and get noticed.
05:57I mean, Rome in itself as a city, even back then, was all about opulence and drama and
06:03theatricality and showing off.
06:05It was the city of vanity.
06:07It was a narcissist's paradise, that's how I like to put it.
06:10And it was the place that the grand tourists had to see and experience.
06:14And the idea was...
06:15Like a show-off film.
06:16To show yourself off.
06:17Peacocking.
06:18Exactly.
06:18What's peacocking?
06:19To watch people...
06:19Peacocking is when you sort of try and lord it about and just prove to everyone what
06:24you are.
06:24Yeah, I think everyone peacocks to a certain extent on a night out, don't they?
06:28I mean, you were peacocking in Florence, I love you know.
06:30I'd had a lot to drink.
06:31That's why you were peacocking.
06:33That weren't the only cock.
06:34So unlike Florence, which is all about the Renaissance, which is fantastic, what you're
06:39going to be seeing here is something else entirely, Baroque art and architecture.
06:46The Baroque was a dramatic new style of art and architecture that originated in Italy
06:51in the 16th century.
06:52By the time Grand Taurus started arriving here, the movement had helped transform Rome into
07:01a city of scale and grandeur.
07:04All right, let me show you one of Rome's most beautiful piazzas.
07:07This way, this way.
07:08We're almost there.
07:09And just a short stroll from their favourite cafe is one of the most famous examples of
07:15this bold new way of building.
07:17This is the Spanish steps, is that right?
07:25The steps absolutely embody the character of the Baroque, no?
07:28This is the largest stairway or staircase in the whole of Europe.
07:32So this is what Rome is all about, these gorgeous open spaces.
07:35And the idea is you can just kind of sit around and be seen.
07:41Panini's painting, Modern Rome, captured loads of Baroque landmarks in a sort of
07:46pictorial guidebook to the city.
07:50Grand tourist Thomas Gray visited most of them, writing,
07:53You cannot pass along a street without views of some palace or church or square.
07:58The most picturesque one can imagine.
08:02And the blingiest Baroque tourist trap was the Trevi Fountain.
08:07What's it giving, would you say?
08:09It is boating.
08:11What does that mean?
08:13Is that a word?
08:14He's a bit of a boat.
08:15A bit of a boat race.
08:16He's a bit of a place.
08:17Boating?
08:18It's giving.
08:19We've got a bit of money.
08:23It was a succession of popes that footed the bill for Rome's Baroque revolution.
08:30By funding audacious building projects, they asserted the power of the church and secured
08:36their own legacy.
08:38Oh, look at these.
08:39These are cute.
08:40Oh, you look fabulous.
08:41That's crap.
08:42And it all started here, with the very first Baroque church, the Chiesa del Gesù.
08:49Consecrated in 1584, its understated facade belies its true magnificence.
08:55Oh, wow.
08:56Oh, wow.
08:57Oh, wow.
08:57Oh, wow.
09:01I mean, this is a big old paint job.
09:10Look upwards at this gorgeous, illusionistic painting that you see.
09:15This was by somebody called Gauley.
09:17Look at the amazing effects that you have.
09:19This is what we call trompe l'oeil, because it tricks the eye as you look at it.
09:24You feel as if you're receding upwards into the heavens together with all these amazing figures.
09:28Byron's fellow poet, Joseph Addison, wrote,
09:32It is almost impossible to imagine the beautiful and glorious scenes, as are to be met in the
09:37Roman churches and chapels.
09:40Look at how the painter has even painted shadows to kind of mimic the three-dimensional effect
09:45of clouds actually existing there before us.
09:48That's been done with the stonework as well.
09:49Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:50Like, you can see, like, the cherubs and the angels coming out of the sea there.
09:54Baroque art was all about breaking boundaries.
09:57And literally breaking the boundary of the frame.
09:58Literally, and metaphorically, exactly, yes.
10:04The Baroque was part of the Counter-Reformation.
10:08Martin Luther's new Protestant religion had emerged, threatening the power of the popes
10:13and giving people a simpler connection to God.
10:19The Catholic Church fought back with ever more spectacular art and architecture,
10:25designed to bring worshippers to their knees.
10:29You really have to put yourself in the mindset of the people at the time.
10:33They didn't have any other kind of visual material, so no TV, no photographs.
10:40So this was the only way to kind of bring to life these saintly figures.
10:44It was essentially the most expensive ad campaign in history.
10:50And I'm sold.
10:51But they are preaching to the converted.
10:56I was an altar server in a Roman Catholic Church.
11:01This smells like my childhood.
11:05It's like I feel smothered in a good way, like a cuddle.
11:08You just don't really think of anything.
11:15You just take it all in.
11:17And I mean, there's a lot to take in here.
11:21The Catholic Church certainly knew how to put on a show.
11:25And every day, for the last 300 years, at 5.30 p.m. precisely,
11:32that's exactly what happens at the Chiesa del Gesù.
11:36Before our very eyes,
12:02a painting of St Ignatius falls away
12:05to reveal a dazzling high camp sculpture of him instead.
12:10I mean, even Madonna would struggle making a bigger entrance than that.
12:13I'm just going to say this,
12:16despite the exquisite nature of the art,
12:18it was rather tacky.
12:20It's not Rob's cup of tea.
12:22And many a Grand Tourist felt exactly the same.
12:24One wrote,
12:25Do you think there's a good chance you're going to be beatified?
12:45You know, you made a saint when you...
12:46I think so.
12:47I think so.
12:48Me and Rusty Lee.
12:49I mean, I love it.
12:50I totally get it.
12:51Not only are you in the house of God,
12:53but you get a little 5.30 show.
12:57And I love it.
12:59What?
12:59You'd go.
13:00You'd go.
13:01Why did you find it tacky, Rob?
13:03I wonder whether we're in the art
13:05or whether we're conscripted to worship the art.
13:08Where I was most moved
13:09was when people really felt
13:10an authentic spiritual connection to it,
13:14kneeling before whatever it is they had.
13:18Not it.
13:19Does that make sense?
13:21Well, Rob,
13:21you haven't answered the question.
13:23Why did you find it?
13:23Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
13:26Mwah, mwah.
13:28Enjoy.
13:29We'll see you soon.
13:30Adewideci, bella.
13:31Livedera, livedrincha bella.
13:33Ciao.
13:33Bye, Tatiana.
13:34Bye.
13:34Bye, boys.
13:38For most British grand tourists,
13:40the Roman church was exotic and exciting.
13:43Some even tried to wangle an audience with the Pope,
13:47leading parents to fear their good Protestant sons
13:49would return home Roman Catholic.
13:54As a nice Jewish boy,
13:56my mother needn't worry about me converting,
13:58but Ryland's mum's thrilled he's in the Eternal City.
14:02Bonjour.
14:03You OK?
14:04I think people would be surprised that I've got a faith
14:07I mean, don't get me wrong,
14:08I don't go to church every Sunday
14:10and sit there praying every night before I have a meal,
14:13but growing up, yeah, you know,
14:15I went to a Catholic school.
14:17It's a Murano class.
14:18That's Murano?
14:19Yes.
14:19I was just in Murano.
14:21Yes.
14:21I don't know, it just sort of sticks with me.
14:23So, like, for me, like, a church or someone like that,
14:25it is a special place,
14:27and to be standing in front of the Vatican,
14:30you know,
14:31I've got my holy water and my rosary for my mum.
14:34She'll tell people the Pope gave it to her.
14:36Ciao, ciao.
14:37Ciao, ciao.
14:40Around the turn of the 17th century,
14:42the Catholic Church's attention was grabbed by an artist
14:44who would go on to become a superstar of the Baroque.
14:51Is it here?
14:52I think so.
14:54Thank you, Terry.
14:55Caravaggio's radical series of intensely dramatic
15:02and often graphically violent paintings
15:04shook the art world.
15:06The 18th century travel writer, Lady Anna Miller,
15:12was thrown into a trembling and made very sick
15:14at the thought of his gory scenes.
15:19I've more of a stomach for Caravaggio's work than Lady Miller,
15:23and one of my favourites is hanging in this church.
15:26Oh, it smells like it hurts.
15:30Wow.
15:32Oh.
15:33Oh, my God, Rob.
15:35Goodness.
15:36Look for the drama.
15:52Look for the drama.
15:54I'm excited to see if Ryland can spot it.
15:58No, this isn't it.
15:59This is beautiful, but this isn't it.
16:00I just found my light.
16:07I didn't like it.
16:09It is.
16:10I love it, though.
16:13I'm going to find it.
16:22It's this, isn't it?
16:23It is, yeah.
16:25It just sticks out.
16:31The Madonna of Loreto captures the moment pilgrims arrive
16:35to worship Mary and Jesus.
16:39Without that halo,
16:40and without her holding that large child,
16:42how would you know who she was?
16:43You wouldn't.
16:44It could be any woman.
16:46Which is what the church wanted to do.
16:52Promote to the everyman.
16:55I get it.
16:56People that don't know me
17:02or haven't watched what I've done
17:04over the past 10 years
17:05since sort of early days of X-Factor
17:06think, oh, idiot.
17:08Oh, he's not all that bright.
17:09Leave him to it.
17:11I'd like to think I'm the complete opposite of that.
17:14What I'm hoping to take away from this experience
17:17is the knowledge of not being frightened
17:19to talk about art,
17:22to not be frightened to talk about history.
17:23I've never seen Mary like this.
17:27She's a normal woman who got an important job.
17:31The ordinary door,
17:32the ordinary moment,
17:33the drama of reality.
17:35Look at the dirty feet
17:36of those who have come to pray to her,
17:38but also her feet.
17:40They're filthy.
17:41When have you seen that in any other depiction?
17:43Rob, I've never seen the Virgin Mary
17:45wearing an outfit
17:46that I'd go out in.
17:49Bit of blue satin
17:50and a bit of red velvet.
17:51Who would have thunk?
17:52When this was unveiled,
17:54it caused uproar amongst the people.
17:58Really?
17:58Yeah.
17:59Well, they've never seen anything like it.
18:00Right.
18:01And it could be a photograph,
18:04zero filter, HD, 4K.
18:08You feel more connected to Mary and Jesus as real.
18:12You know, I grew up a Catholic,
18:14taking the meanings
18:15rather than the literal side of it.
18:17But then when you see something like this
18:20in that
18:20time period,
18:23Yeah.
18:23It's almost trying to tell you,
18:24no, it's real.
18:25We're real.
18:26Like, this actually happened.
18:27Here she is.
18:28Yeah.
18:28And she's just like you.
18:29That's right.
18:30That could have been Jean up the road.
18:31That Gabriel just knocked on the door and went,
18:33darling.
18:33That's right.
18:34Got delivery.
18:35That's right.
18:36And now I've just noticed something about Mary.
18:41God.
18:42She's almost turning her head away
18:44to let him have that gaze.
18:47Yes, it's my son,
18:48but it's the son of God
18:50before he's my son
18:51and I'm just here to look after him.
18:53So you guys have your moment with him.
18:56She was the host
18:57and he's the product.
19:01My God, it's only when you step back
19:02and you notice that.
19:03Yes.
19:03And with a little bevel-y foot.
19:08What's a bevel?
19:09Little bevel.
19:10Go up on a little bevel-y foot.
19:12There it is.
19:13You should have learned that on Strictly, surely.
19:15I didn't learn the bevel.
19:16She's not only turning away,
19:17but she's done it
19:18like Jeanette Mamrara.
19:22I really like it.
19:24And actually,
19:25I think this is my favourite style of art
19:26so far.
19:28Mm.
19:29Isn't it?
19:31Heaven.
19:33I thought I would not want to stand
19:36looking at a painting
19:37for an hour.
19:40But actually,
19:40after spending time with Rob
19:42and doing Venice,
19:42doing Florence,
19:44I've worked out that
19:45I actually can see things in art,
19:48like understand the depictions and stuff.
19:49I feel definitely more empowered now
19:52that I can hold my own.
19:54I'm like,
19:55Rob,
19:56I know.
19:57Thank you,
19:57Lord.
19:59Our grand tour is not me educating Ryland,
20:01it's as much as him educating me.
20:04And every painting we've looked at,
20:05some of which I've seen multiple times,
20:08he's found something new and beautiful in it.
20:10You know,
20:11he's done something very bold in there,
20:13very, very bold.
20:15Yeah,
20:15I identified with it.
20:16And I'm sure the people that were outraged
20:17identified with it as well,
20:18they felt like it was them.
20:20And that's exactly what he was trying to do.
20:25To help with the realism of his paintings,
20:28Caravaggio preferred to use ordinary working people
20:31as models,
20:31including prostitutes
20:35who he controversially cast
20:37as the Virgin Mary.
20:39He also developed revolutionary shading techniques
20:43like chioscuro and tenebrism
20:45to capture his subjects in extreme contrasts
20:48of darkness and light.
20:51After seeing the Caravaggio in the church,
20:54I'm interested to find out more about
20:57how that's affected sort of,
21:00I don't know,
21:01cinema and film
21:02how we know it
21:03because I've seen this before.
21:05Things like The Godfather
21:06and things like that imagery
21:08that I didn't realise
21:10must have been influenced
21:11by Caravaggio.
21:14To try and understand more
21:16about the techniques
21:17Caravaggio used
21:18to create his unique works.
21:21Hi, guys.
21:22Third floor on the right.
21:25We're on the outskirts of Rome
21:26to meet Giuliano Froyo.
21:28I feel bunker-y.
21:30A portrait photographer
21:31who's heavily influenced
21:32by the Baroque master.
21:35You knock.
21:35You knock.
21:36You knock.
21:37I feel like I'm going to get a massage.
21:39You knock.
21:41We come for a legal purpose.
21:43Hi.
21:44Welcome to my studio.
21:45To get the lowdown on Caravaggio's methods,
21:48Giuliano's going to recreate
21:49one of his most famous works
21:50with us as the sitters.
21:53I was in love with Caravaggio
21:55when I was a child.
21:57Did you?
21:57Yeah, really.
21:58For me, it was the very first photographer ever
22:01because he built the light and the shadows.
22:05He put the drama in the pictures.
22:09Take a look at this one.
22:10This is one of my favourites.
22:11Oh, my God.
22:12Jesus.
22:12Yeah, we have beautiful lighting.
22:15The details in the forehead.
22:17You are part of the scene.
22:18You are there with them.
22:19Yeah, it's a snapshot.
22:21Guys, take a look at this picture.
22:23That's David and Goliath?
22:24It is, yeah.
22:25Pay attention to the leading guiding lines.
22:28One of these is the sword, the arm,
22:31the glance of David.
22:33And the truth, the real subject of this picture
22:36is not David.
22:38No.
22:38It's Goliath.
22:39It's the dead Goliath.
22:41The look in his face is like,
22:42I didn't want to have to do this,
22:44but I had to do this to protect myself.
22:46And he's sort of trying to come to terms
22:47with what he's had to do.
22:49There's no jubilance.
22:50There's no celebration.
22:52That's a man, not a monster.
22:53Right.
22:55You know, there's lots of different theories
22:56about this painting.
22:58That's probably Caravaggio's head.
23:00Caravaggio was a Baroque era's original bad boy.
23:06Living a violent wildlife on the streets of Rome,
23:09he fled the city in 1606
23:11after murdering a rival in a brawl.
23:15Caravaggio makes this work
23:17at a time when he's exiled from Rome.
23:19And there's some legend about him
23:22sending this back to Rome.
23:23And I'm going, OK, we're going to give you
23:26a pardon for the murder you committed
23:27because this is an incredible piece of art.
23:31But before he gets on a shit back to Rome...
23:34He died.
23:34He died.
23:35Wow. OK, let's do this one.
23:37OK.
23:37I have something for you to wear.
23:39Come with me.
23:40He's quite particular about what he wears.
23:41Yeah.
23:42Rob, Rob, shut up.
23:43He's down to the bedroom.
23:43I've pulled.
23:44Come.
23:45Don't be shy.
23:45I'm not.
23:46This one...
23:48What's that?
23:49Oh!
23:50I mean, to cut his head off?
23:52Yeah.
23:53Without any blood, please.
23:54It's been weeks.
23:55Why are you doing that at...
23:58Because his hair's down.
23:59Yeah.
24:00This is how my hair naturally sit.
24:02You know, you have to practice his face
24:03to get the drama.
24:04What's going to help channel agony for you?
24:07OK.
24:09Weeks in Italy before I bring that.
24:14Bravo.
24:15You look much better like that.
24:16Oh, stop it.
24:17I've got to get through.
24:18OK.
24:19Caravaggio was meticulous
24:20in his attention to detail.
24:22No grubby fingernail
24:23or decaying tooth
24:24was unintentional.
24:27I'm really sorry for this.
24:29Yeah, I'm sorry too,
24:30but just go for it.
24:31Make-up artist Camilla
24:32is hoping to transform Rylan
24:34into a decapitated Goliath.
24:36You look like I fell over in a park.
24:39Head first.
24:42See this frown line here?
24:43Fuck's sake.
24:45In the teeth.
24:46You're wearing Nan's curtain
24:47and I'm looking like I've been dug up.
24:49Treader really amuses me
24:51that this trip has ended up
24:52with me decapitating you.
24:54You know, me too.
24:55I thought it would be
24:55the other way around.
24:58You know what I look like?
24:59I've been on a dodgy sunbed.
25:02Ten minutes for a fiver.
25:05And they've got dodgy chews.
25:07You do that.
25:09I know.
25:11Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
25:15Stop, I'm feeling too guilty.
25:17so throughout the trip when things have got funny you've reverted to this alter ego elsie
25:36yeah people need to meet elsie who is she elsie is 86 yeah she is around around wartime like
25:44rations and bunkers um she looks up at vira lynn idol and she just makes anything so to keep morale up
25:55so how would elsie sing that she's going to take part in a caravaggio
25:59i've had me face down to have me head ripped off here's me body nobody knows nobody's what i've got
26:09are you pleased with uh how things are looking oh i'm thrilled with how things are looking i think
26:17i've never looked better are you ready i'm ready okay and you have to yeah so just for testing the
26:28lights light me up darling some suggest caravaggio was a master of photographic technique two centuries
26:36before the invention of the camera don't from you almost angelic oh i i killed him but but i didn't
26:43want to do that yeah it's something like that when he famously punched a hole in the ceiling of his
26:48studio it's now thought he was creating a camera obscura to project an image of his sitters to
26:54sketch around scientists have even found light sensitive mercury salt on his canvases that turned
27:01them into primitive film don't be sad just be perplexed perplexed yeah oh that won't be hard for him
27:13oh no no you got it
27:20that is so ridiculous thank you so much i absolutely loved it thank you my pleasure
27:28caravaggio i'm a caravaggio yeah a few days ago you hadn't heard of caravaggio one sort of great
27:40artistic love of my life and now i feel like you get him more now i am him yeah i feel like you
27:48understand him even more than i do i love a bit of caravaggio will you take me to see some caravaggio at
27:52home i think there are a few let's find them what i've got now is a couple little dinner party lines
28:00oh yeah the caravaggio yeah yeah it's crazy for its time you know because you know it's very realistic
28:07i could get away with it listen you want to pipe up with your picasso i'll see your picasso and i
28:18challenge you with a caravaggio and a tintoretto like me grand tourists came to rome in search of
28:24an education they were drawn here not just by the baroque art but by the remains of the once mighty
28:31power that had first built the city ancient rome during their grand tours writers like byron came to
28:42be inspired by the remnants of a once all-powerful empire scottish poet and playwright james thompson
28:49wrote these venerable ruins are far more noble than all the other artifacts of the world put together
28:59no grand tour was complete without a visit to the best preserved roman monument of all the pantheon
29:05so you know what byron said about this place what simple severe erect sublime erect
29:14well so it is a rare a grand tourist would come here to come and look at this architecture
29:19bear in mind they've been to private schools and they've read their latin and their
29:22classics and you know this place featured in some of the stories that they would have read
29:28this is where it begins here i mean it's rome in it yeah but there must be greek input into this as
29:35well because that sort of triangle with the columns that's really greek as well it's the og the original
29:44built in the second century ad as a temple the pantheon is one of the crowning glories of classical
29:51architecture combining greek and roman ideals of beauty grand tourists were so impressed that 17th and
30:0118th century british architects started channeling roman imperial grandeur in their designs influences
30:08from the pantheon can be found in many of our landmarks including the dome of saint paul's cathedral
30:14they're building great big empire buildings which look like this bank of england thread needle street
30:24that's exactly it you know when you're thinking of grandeur when you're thinking about permanence
30:31this idea that you're telling the world that we are the new rome voila i didn't realize how much
30:37architecture in london must have come from the romans yeah and what do you think they were saying to the
30:42world what's a given we can do it as well even better than you i'm so in love with you in a spiritual
30:55for some grand tourists just studying these ancient sites wasn't enough
31:00in the 18th century rich brits excavated roman ruins in order to take home priceless artifacts
31:06antiquities antiquities collector charles townley claimed hundreds of treasures during three grand
31:14tours including marble statues from hadrian's villa culturally inappropriate now back then it was an
31:22ostentatious way for grand tourists to claim that they'd walked in the shoes of emperors oh my god
31:28voila as they say in italy we're treading in the footsteps of emperors and lord byron this is the
31:34poet's favorite roman site and one i've always wanted to tick off the bucket list oh my god rob look
31:45it's the actual coliseum i've never ever been here so to see it in real life i can feel the grandeur
31:53the archways everything's completely symmetrical it's almost like the perfect cake it's got the perfect
32:00top of the fluted edge just to give that grandeur and it's so subtle but so effective because when
32:06you think of the coliseum you don't think of just that you think of that flute but yet you can tell
32:13that it's decaying and it's not perfect like you can see the ruins like the remains of what once was
32:19this amphitheater of blood and fights and death but it's actually something so beautiful
32:32byron came to marvel at the coliseum on a spot like this
32:36over 200 years ago and like rylan was similarly moved by its crumbling charm
32:42on a moonlit night he spent hours marveling at what he described as a noble wreck in ruinous perfection
32:52up until that point grand tourists had come for the status of making an imperial pilgrimage to gawk
32:59rather than to be inspired but later in the 19th century visitors came carrying copies of byron's poems
33:06in their pockets his emotional experience had roused a new romantic vision of the ancient world
33:14for me this represents something poetic and beautiful but also tragic now here you have
33:20this eternal city the center of at that stage the western known universe is great power and yet
33:27it all disappeared and now what we're looking at is a ruin the coliseum is like an aging person
33:33and if you've got a good foundation you look after it you'll be preserved for as long as possible
33:40but ultimately things do decay and things die so your idea of this is the fact that it's ephemeral
33:46and doesn't last forever is part of the poetry of the building of course it is because in a thousand
33:52years time if the world is still going this probably won't be here
33:55this is probably one of my favorite historical sites i've ever seen architectural wise and that's
34:05a big deal for me it's amazing to think that byron's poetry pretty much transformed the reasons why we
34:11travel today and i can see how the grand tour inspired so many people because being in rome has
34:17stirred something in me oh look at this oh look at the view this is so pretty thank you this trip has
34:30given me the chance to redefine who i really am what you having yeah it's got to really is that a beer
34:37yeah it's like a urine song well it could be genuinely to be sat on this rooftop in rome
34:44at sunset with you it's special it really is like it means a lot i feel like i've learned so much
34:55these things don't happen to the little boys like i used to be which was his little ginger kid from
35:01stepney grain living in council house grand tourists were basically a bunch of poshos poshos and there's
35:09you and me here delighting in it all you know when you're something people want you to be that something
35:19and stay in your lane sometimes it's nice to indicate slip over
35:26and that was the gayest high five i've ever done it was quite gay let's try again
35:35that hurt oh man lads lads lads yeah
35:48grand tourists love rome for its drama and romance they could see it in its architecture and in its art
35:54and hear it in its music
36:00in the 18th century italian baroque opera was all the rage with grand tourists
36:06author sir chevreul stevens wrote the singing is extremely fine the performance noble and the scenery
36:13magnificent but one small group of extraordinary singers drew the biggest crowds in rome the legendary
36:22castrati we're used to a sound of opera the three tenors let's say you know
36:27all of that stuff okay that's opera for us but in the baroque period the real voice that you wanted
36:34was the high-pitched man's voice singing like a like an angel like a choir boy but loud and
36:41that had mega sex appeal contemporary countertenors enrico and stefano along with their accompanist
36:50angela are keen to keep the spirit of the castrati alive i've arranged for us to enjoy a private
36:57concert with them in this gorgeous baroque palace where are we going we're gonna have a lovely time
37:04lovely time yeah don't get me wrong i don't mind a bit of alfie bow when i've got my mum in the car
37:09but rob absolutely loves opera and he's hoping hearing some castrati bangers will make me as much
37:16a fan as he is oh my god rob look here we are this is so beautiful oh my goodness so hang on are you
37:22guys singers we are countertenors okay i don't know what any of this means you you do you do it's just
37:28different words for things that you totally already know mickey mouse yeah yeah imagine this voice
37:34singing okay it comes from castrats castrats singers who were quite famous in the 18th century right
37:44why were they called castraters because of the castration i'm sorry because of castration yeah they
37:50were as in exactly exactly there when they were children i'm sorry what 12 or 13 years yeah why
37:58to keep this voice as long as possible you have to imagine the body of a man the chest of a man
38:06with a book of course of a child hang on this has happened to you guys no it didn't happen because
38:12thank you legal it's a lot it was illegal to say what a waste thankfully enrico and stefano are able to
38:20mimic the castrati through years of falsetto training
38:22this 18th century practice saw 4 000 boys a year castrated an eyewitness of the procedure wrote the
38:33boy five to seven years of age was placed in a hot bath he was given a potent drink and the organs
38:39were snipped out with a knife what the with that hey would you try i've never seen that before
38:48this is yeah it's a little bit too late now for you but that's like that one got that one go for
38:54half of it that's how it worked hang on so literally children would be castrated like that exactly
39:03men that sung like children and had no testicles
39:07i mean what a day out
39:21castration was intended to keep the purity of the child voice falsetto is as close as male singers can
39:28achieve today
39:34grand tourists love the castrati's piercing otherworldly sound some scheduled their
39:40whole trip around seeing the most famous of all farinelli who one described as a blazing star
39:46these are the pop stars of their day sometimes people listening to the music and these arias
39:55and the emotion of it all and the sex of it all would quite literally climax
40:03think harry styles on steroids
40:05so
40:12bravo that was so good honestly that was unbelievable thank you so much that's i mean the sound it's like
40:21heavenly i love the countertenor voice and i've always wanted to have a go
40:26that was so good honestly i haven't told rylan but i've signed us up for a quick lesson
40:30would you like to to try something to sing something with us i think rylan would love it
40:37he can't think of anything there's there's an aria who's quite famous for us which is
40:42lascia kiopianga by handel let let me cry
41:00i can't get there perfect
41:21wow gorgeous
41:22so you you can try that part no yeah it's too high for me that is so your range
41:30i mean it's not my way i can't do it i feel like i've been together okay
41:41perfect
41:41perfect it's wonderful it's beautiful right no now uh let's try to sing this one
42:02okay i literally want to go home why i hate it hate the scene no it might sing
42:08just wait a second if it was english i won't be singing just let just bear with me i will do it
42:14i will do it you can do it ross i feel like a real prick why do you feel like i'm i want to cry i
42:23feel like shut up i feel like i'm fine because i feel like i put you in a position you've not you've not
42:26i put myself in that position things that i've been through in my life i've definitely got a guard up
42:33when i was on x
42:35every week i was thrown into like the lion's den doing stuff that i didn't know not having
42:40enough time for it not to imagine this is handled this no i told rob it's not difficult
42:45rob it could be bar bar black sheep okay it's like an internal thing now once you've been
42:49through that experience when someone goes go on just do it i can't bear it it makes me go i can't
42:55i can't just do that i feel like i've worked so hard to get away and move away from that
42:59fucking idiot you earned it that i was perceived as that character that couldn't sing that can
43:05fuck someone up like majorly my job on x-factor wasn't to be the singer and i knew that so i played
43:12that role what was it my job was to be the joke hat to be the one that everyone spoke about and be
43:16on the front page of the paper every day if i've learned anything on this grand tour is that there's
43:23more to me than that i'm not thick i've got more to give than you know just being the idiot on the
43:29telly with a big old shiny teeth i don't know finding a deeper what's supposed to real me i suppose
43:35that's that's what this grand tour is all about so i'm here to learn about this and yes i used to be a
43:45singer i know what i'm capable of you know what i'm capable of but i went through such a bad time
43:52and it's like a thing for me now i had no idea just how um affected he had been by his experiences
44:01in the past and i hope you're not offended because i think you're all amazing so i was upset that he had
44:08that moment and he was back there love the grand tour is giving me more self-confidence
44:28but there's one area where i've always had swag fashion is my bag and rome is full of the designers
44:35i love in fact when it comes to style me and the original grand tourists have got a lot in common
44:42i totally understand why the grand tourists would have come to rome rome is where you walk the walk
44:46you talk the talk you dress the way that you're supposed to dress it's all about the fashion it's
44:50all about how you look it's a little bit narcissistic you know me i put on this armor every day and
45:00there is this peacocking element i'm really fascinated that i know back in the grand tour
45:05days they sort of would take that back to england continental fashion was a new treat for the grand
45:12tourists they loved the lush fabrics lace and frills some were so obsessed that they pimped up their
45:20italian outfits even more when they returned home so much so that they became ridiculed during the 1760s
45:27and given the nickname the macaroni i've brought rob to the academy of costume and fashion
45:35one of the world's most prestigious fashion schools
45:40oh my god we're gonna learn what it was like to walk in the same shoes and threads
45:45of the original macaroni whether rob likes it or not all of the clothes that i'm wearing were
45:52organized by somebody else who put them in a bag and said wear these because they're nice
45:58it's a bit leery for me but i like this my friends called me the gay that style forgot
46:02i was giving mary poppins at a wedding
46:05yeah i like it fashion's a big part of rome
46:08i don't know anything about this well that's what we're here to learn about
46:11what a hi hi hello adrian that's me you found me hi adrian i'm rylan adrian's the international
46:18director of education at the academy that's the fashion's your thing right i do love a bit of
46:22fashion yes rob not so much i like he's looking all sweet now i like the theory of fashion okay
46:31fashion is about culture fashion is about history so you are in the right place adrian's an expert on
46:37all things macaroni there we are and our personal stylist for the day you're on the grand tour think
46:43of yourselves as these people called the macaroni it was an exaggerated term to say you've been on the
46:49tour you've taken some italianism back with you but they were very much playing with the queer look of
46:55the day not just stopping at the clothes but also the makeup the hair the wigs the wigs were so high
47:02they had to use the tip of the swords to adjust their hats because it was so exaggerated often
47:08they were told they were effeminate and they were an abomination even a homosexual because they were
47:13obviously being questioned because of their sexuality not that that term even existed then no no it's fair
47:20to say 18th century brits didn't exactly embrace queer culture back then the press humiliated the
47:27macaroni some publications dehumanized them one magazine wrote there is a kind of animal neither
47:35male nor female a thing of the neuter gender lately started up among us it is called a macaroni
47:44this feels so contemporary now curating your own look let's say it's effeminate and walking through the
47:50streets of london or parts of the uk yeah and being screamed let's say a homophobic epithet that just
47:57sounds like the age is 16 to 21 for me yeah it sounds like now rediscovering the femininity
48:04these guys were definitely living their fashion i can't wait to see rob in that fashion
48:08i'm actually excited now oh wow okay we've achieved something changed guys
48:17please look for something that's exuberant
48:21you've chosen that one yeah i really like the shape of it and you'll sparkle
48:27it's not gonna go don't just there's too much hit it's like the 80s think flash dance and put it
48:33on oh it's like the met gala what met gala have you been invited to in my head does it have bulge
48:40appeal it's giving camel well it doesn't have much full on camel toes that's nice
48:46awesome it's amazing when i look at us that we're the same species
48:54we've got the wigs to come yet what wigs the wigs we've got to complete the macaroni look
49:00so the macaroni were really famous for their wigs exaggerated wigs so even more exaggerated than
49:07uh your original haha monsieur de cont i feel like a conch that's for sure oh oh
49:23oh no it's magnificent actually it you look very eurovision i don't like it
49:29your go oh look oh it's a better fit oh it's like a glove it's giving letitia dean
49:37get out oh it's giving us scott i want to say it's behind you
49:43all right biggins calm down oh no you didn't oh here we go in out at some wigs
49:50wrong i've got a camel time around this is utterly absurd in every conceivable sense it's what we do
50:04we're slowing down okay let's go excuse me there was no use coming on the grand tour
50:23unless you could brag about it back home hello hello and the best way to do that was to get your
50:29picture painting the vainest hide rome's most celebrated portrait artist pompeo batoni
50:38batoni churned out 154 paintings of grand tourists in full regalia he charged extra for
50:45ancient ruins but dogs were thrown in for free here we are castella sent angelo here we have a
50:55painting by botoni oh my god we see look castella sent angelo is there in the back here so you're
51:01actually in the same spot let's do it real macaroni i want macaroni vibe
51:12rob put your back into it be a bit more fey giving it one of them yeah give it one of them
51:18the pope is waiting for his audience with you
51:21for grand tourists hanging a batoni on your wall in england was the ultimate status symbol
51:26it was a passport stamp with flair and of course they would have had their dog so hold the puppy
51:34posting that you and your faithful hound had left your mark on the continent
51:39very noble working the puppy's posing nicely
51:49it was amazing there is an arrogance and a swagger about it all because what it gives you is
51:55you know pop back to england and you're basically trying to tell anyone that can see you yeah i've
52:00been about in italy i'm better than you you know i'm well educated i've been on my grand tour what
52:06about you and your rags you know people go on the gap here and on parents money yeah the modern day
52:12grand tour is you know i've been to laum and like you know fed the at the hippos the landmarks in the
52:19grand tourist holiday snaps were everything that they themselves wanted to be impressive imposing
52:26important but one of the most significant monuments for grand tourists lay just outside the city
52:34before we head home we're taking a trip to the countryside to see it for ourselves
52:44this is the most uncomfortable bike i've ever been on just imagine removing the seat oh god
52:50such an uphill struggle
52:57we've got a little car park so we're on the appian way oh that's that long road that goes all the way to
53:02um pulia yeah yeah it's like the a1 but charming yeah
53:11built in the first century bc this tomb is the final resting place of cacilia metella
53:17the wife of a prominent roman politician who served under julius caesar
53:24despite her elaborate mausoleum little is known about her life what's her story it's a mystery
53:31contained within there we just know that a man 2 000 years ago thereabouts loved her enough to create
53:39this building in honor of her this ruined story captured the imagination of many of those who traveled
53:47the three miles from rome to see it the english romantic artist turner sketched it
53:55and of course it inspired the man we've been following all this way
54:01byron loads of poetry inspired by this ruin imagining who this woman was
54:06i bought some gone then are you making a face no i'm playing going then okay there is a stern round
54:15tower of other days firm as a fortress with its fence of stone and with 2 000 years of ivy grown the
54:25garland of eternity what was this tower of strength within its cave what treasures lay so locked so hid
54:33a woman's grave do you reckon byron sat on this stone yes i do we know he did to what the tour is
54:42i could have a go i mean i'm i'm no tony hart oh my god you're like mary poppins what else you got
54:48in that bag well funny you should ask telly why do you think people are inspired by ancient ruin
54:54i don't know just think about it but there's something about time and you know in 5 000 years
55:04who knows what people will think of us what do you think they will think about somebody will look back
55:10at perhaps some of your presenting or this and think goodness me rob and rylan really did represent the
55:18apotheosis of western civilization yeah that's exactly what i think i'd say
55:24i'm done it's beautiful like this is like a child's drawing no it isn't well i had a go
55:33and that's what this is all about i think that would be the t-shirt we would buy
55:37to summarize our time together well i had a go was he a great man nah but he had a glow
55:42in a cap chin chin down do you know what the thought of running off on the grand tour was so
55:54appealing but i thought you know it might not be all that but it was all that and more
56:04before our grand tour i thought travel was about switching off topping up my turn and having a good
56:09time oh my god look but now i realize it can be so much more than that the grand tour has empowered
56:16me to talk about art and not be intimidated by it now we see a young david as the victor and it's
56:22given me a renewed confidence in myself oh my god it's only when you step back and you notice yes
56:27she's not only turning away but she's done it like jeanette man marala
56:31i ran away i learned i'm going to take so much back with me you're real romantic
56:41you feel everything that i envy in the most benign beautiful way i can be an enthusiast but
56:48what you've helped me to do is to stand inside the art to see it from a new perspective
56:52you well we really are connected now for me consuming art has been my escape but it's also
56:59left me stuck in my head instead of risking being in the moment
57:05it feels like the grand tour has set me free
57:10our french border don't cuddle to us the grand tourists cheers babes cheers
57:22a little party one last thing in you go rob wanted me to sing in rome so i'd hate to disappoint
57:32him but if i've learned one thing it's that you do the grand tour on your own terms
57:42it's you frankly karaoke isn't really my thing but you know what the grand tourist said
57:48when in rome do as the romans do come on
57:53your eyes should rise they tell me how much you care
58:00oh yes you will always be
58:09mine and the star
58:15please give out for rob brinder everyone
58:18it's
58:23oh
58:27oh
58:28oh
58:32oh
58:36oh
58:39oh
58:40oh
58:42oh
58:44oh
58:46My end was alive
58:48Riding with love
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