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Roman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts - Season 1 - Episode 04: The Streets of Turin
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00:03I'm on another train and another adventure into the past but this is my most ambitious
00:11journey to date. I'm going in search of the Roman Empire. Taking the train I'll be traveling
00:221300 miles through Italy France and Spain to discover its origins and the secrets of its
00:30success I'll be exploring some well-known Roman sites this is where you can hear Pompeii and some
00:38unfamiliar ones there is nobody here from the massive it's curved yeah to the miniature it's
00:47like a fourth century Barbie doll I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast
00:53territory experts from around the world will help me bring to life Roman culture the sands of Capua
01:01become the jungles of India and provide insights into why this Empire was so successful who said
01:08the time machine does not exist we got it in this episode I follow the original Roman
01:17road north to Palma and Turin hello so this is absolutely beautiful this Roman gateway and then
01:32I cross the Alps to the city they call the Rome of France
01:50I want to go to Palma
01:59yeah
02:00yeah
02:05yeah
02:07yeah
02:32I'm travelling north on this train journey, firstly going across the Apennines with lots
02:38of tunnels, and then now we've reached the northern Italian plain, it's suddenly very,
02:42very flat. Now the Romans really wanted to get hold of this land, this was a large area of very
02:50fertile, very agriculturally productive land, they really wanted it. So they build roads, this is how
02:58they conquer Italy, we've seen that with the Via Appia pushing to the south, now they're going to
03:04build roads to the north. So in the third century BCE, they start by building this road, the Via
03:10Flaminia, north through the Apennines, reaching a colony which will be Ariminum, Rimini, and then
03:19this road which just tracks along the northern border of the Apennines is the Via Emilia, and along
03:27this road they will be seeding colonies, and these colonies have still got names which go back to
03:35the Romans, so there's a colony called Bononia, that becomes Bologna, Mutina, Modena, Regium,
03:43Regia Emilia, Parma, still Parma, Placentia becomes Piacenza, and they're pushing, pushing, pushing,
03:52further and further northwards. Like all conquerors, the Romans were after territory, resources to
04:00plunder, and strategic towns to fortify as bases for the further expansion of their empire.
04:08Parma's an interesting name in itself, it seems to have been an Etruscan name which was then adopted
04:13by the Romans, which obviously suggests there was an Etruscan settlement there before the Roman colony,
04:18and it's thought to mean, or relate to, a round shield, the kind of shields that the Etruscans
04:26had in this area, or perhaps to the fact that Parma was a metaphorical shield against the Gauls
04:32to the north. Right, where are we now? This is Parma. Yes, we've been through Regia Emilia,
04:42we're at Parma. Ten minutes from the station is Piazza Garibaldi. Below this modern town square
05:06lies the ancient Roman Forum. The Forum was a constant feature of Roman cities forming the legal,
05:17administrative and religious centre. Surrounded by impressive buildings, it was symbolic of the
05:23power and sophistication of Roman civilisation. Local archaeologist Marco Padini has arranged special
05:31access to guide me through Parma's hidden ancient past. Marco. Hi, nice to meet you. Buongiorno.
05:42Buongiorno. Yes? Nice to meet you. Buongiorno. So the square today respects the square in Roman times then?
05:48A great part of it corresponds to the ancient form, yes. Yeah. So, yeah, we have to get some
05:54helmets now. We have to be very careful here. This underground area has been closed off to the public
06:01for the last 20 years. So, I'll pass and be careful here. Okay.
06:11So, what is this place? This was a hotel that was built in around 1928 at Underground.
06:22An underground hotel? Yeah. Okay. Mosaic. Mosaic floor. Oh, look at that.
06:31When they built the hotel, the underground hotel, they found a mosaic and there was this beautiful
06:41centaur with a vase of cantars for the wine and since it was so beautiful, they decided to cut it
06:49and put in the museum in 1928. Yeah, yeah. So, that's where this piece of mosaic was lifted from in
06:551928.
06:55So, when was Palma founded as a Roman settlement? It was founded in 183 BC. Only Piacenza, which is the
07:06end point of the Via Emilia, was founded earlier in 218. But then Hannibal came and, yeah, it was a
07:16great
07:16battle near Piacenza. And so, there was a very difficult moment for the Roman Empire because Hannibal
07:24stayed here for more than 10 years. So, when he was finally defeated?
07:28He was finally defeated at the end of the 3rd century BC, so 201. Yeah.
07:35If you want, now we can go to the Roman Bridge, another very, very important excavation, which was
07:43done in 2010. Oh, lovely. Yes, I'd love to see that. Yeah.
07:50Just five minutes' walk from the Old Forum is the River Palma that divides the city and
07:56once proved a fearsome obstacle to Roman ambitions. Our walk takes us along a familiar route.
08:07So, this road, that is the original route of the Via Emilia? That is the Via Emilia?
08:12Yeah, this is, it's still called the Via Emilia. Is it?
08:15Yeah. Yeah. Actually, all the lines, the train line, follow the Via Emilia. I thought I must
08:23have been tracking along with it because I'm passing through all the towns which were originally
08:28Roman colonies. We came through Bologna, Reggio Emilia. And if I were to carry on, I'd end
08:34up in... In Fidenza and then Piacenza, which is the end of the Via Emilia.
08:38Yeah. In 2010, work began here to build a multi-storey car park. And what they found may have been
08:47the single most significant section of the Via Emilia here, where the road crosses the river.
08:55Oh! Yeah, exactly. Amazing.
08:59Yeah. Actually, we see the medieval phase probably in the 12th century, this moment.
09:07And this has been excavated right down to the footings down there. I mean, could it be that
09:12those footings are Roman, do you think? Exactly.
09:14This bridge dates to the reign of Emperor Augustus in the 1st century C.E.
09:20The Romans perfected arch bridges, built in stone and concrete, crucial for moving goods and troops
09:28around the empire. The bridge was built at a place where travellers would have previously waded
09:34across the river over a ford. Near this ford, there was probably some sacred area, a cultural
09:42area. Right. Because many pits were found, many metal elements, like 3,000 coins were found.
09:53And you can see all these pieces, these items that are exposed in the showcases.
09:59Where are the showcases? Here. We're going to see them here.
10:03It seems that locals crossing the ford may have been hoping for divine protection.
10:08Oh, wow. Oh, this is lovely. Yeah. You can still see the coins stuck in the...
10:17The main hypothesis is that there was probably a sacred area or a temple in some way or a shrine
10:27connected to this passing, to this crossing point. And you see, there are many metal elements.
10:36It's a gift probably to the gods. Isn't that interesting? I mean, we see this right across Europe,
10:41don't we? We see these kind of offerings in watery places. Yeah. In the Iron Age. Yeah.
10:47Exactly. The last coin found was around the third century. Yeah. And that they come from
10:53all the Mediterranean area. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There are some coins that come from
11:00the Ibiza Island in Spain. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a little lion's claw?
11:08Probably for... Probably for, yeah, a table in there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
11:12I love this. I love this museum in an unexpected place under the bridge.
11:19Oh, amphoree. I didn't even see those down there. Yeah.
11:26The cities and towns along the ancient Roman road network are rich in archaeology.
11:33Every modern building project reveals more ancient history.
11:38I've just over an hour before my next train journey.
11:42And Francesca suggested I make a quick visit to Palmer's Archaeology Museum
11:47to see what else has been unearthed here.
11:52Pilota Park is the city's historic centre, home to a grand palace and several other museums.
12:00In the courtyard here, there seems to be a philosophical message written on the wall.
12:06What does it say? It's in English.
12:08Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future.
12:19I like that and it's very apt for my journey because I am here in the present learning about the
12:28past.
12:29And you're watching this in my future.
12:34The museum has a vast collection of artefacts dating from the Bronze Age right through to the 19th century.
12:42A whole floor dedicated to the Roman era features an array of exhibits from Palmer's Forum.
12:50I'm hoping to find the mosaic that was removed from the floor of the underground hotel.
12:58There it is.
13:06So this is the missing mosaic from the underground hotel.
13:13Wow.
13:17So I've seen the edge where it was cut.
13:21And now I'm seeing the whole thing.
13:26He's great.
13:27What a fantastic image for a dining room floor.
13:30A centaur balancing a jug of wine on his head.
13:39This mosaic provides a glimpse of the wealth and sophistication of Roman society in Palmer.
13:46But the museum here holds a further extraordinary artefact.
13:52It's a rare written record found in the ancient town of Vallea, 40 miles southwest of Palmer.
13:59And it offers a far more detailed picture of Roman life.
14:06It is a massive inscription.
14:09Look at it. It's completely covered in letters on bronze.
14:13In fact, it's the biggest inscription from the Roman world.
14:18There's some 40,000 letters engraved on this piece of bronze.
14:24And what it is, is a record of a loan.
14:28A loan from the Emperor Trajan to the people of the town of Vallea and the surrounding region.
14:37Which was hard hit.
14:39They were really struggling.
14:40And so he gave them a loan.
14:42And they are going to have to pay back interest, but a small amount of interest.
14:46And actually that interest is going to be used also to support the people in this region, particularly orphans.
14:53And what we've got here is just an incredible record of everything in this region.
15:02All the towns and villages that were given pots of money in this big loan.
15:08So it's almost like a census as well. It contains a lot of information.
15:15And this was discovered by a farmer who knew it was bronze, folded it up.
15:23And presumably he was going to sell it to be melted down.
15:28But the local priest got to have a look at it.
15:30And of course he's a priest, so he can speak Latin.
15:33And he realises that this is a really, really, really important inscription.
15:39And in fact this kicks off then the excavation of the lost town of Vallea.
15:45Which had been destroyed in a mudslide in the middle of the first millennium.
15:51And there were many, many more treasures to be found.
16:04What a beautiful bronze of a young woman.
16:08And it's possible that we even know her name because we know that somebody called Barbia Basila
16:15gave money to the Forum in Vallea to build a new portico along the side.
16:22And this could be her.
16:24Looking at her hairstyle with this hairband, that gives us a rough date as well.
16:31Because this was the fashion in the first century BCE.
16:35It's amazing to read the inscriptions, to be able to read words from 2,000 years ago.
16:41But I think it's even better to come face to face with a Roman.
17:13I've left Palma and I'm now heading West.
17:16towards Augusta Torinorum, more commonly known today as Turin.
17:23There, I'm hoping to find out how the Roman population
17:27was kept satisfied, as the satirical poet Juvenal said,
17:31in a rather deprecating fashion,
17:33that the Roman population could be kept happy with bread and circuses.
17:38I've seen the circus at Capua,
17:41and now I'm going to explore the meaning of bread in the Roman world,
17:46as I head towards Turin.
18:02Turin was an important military base for the Romans
18:05in the time of Julius Caesar,
18:07when he had his sights set on the conquest of Gaul.
18:11The town sits on the mighty Po River,
18:13just ten miles from the Alps,
18:16with Gaul on the other side of the mountains.
18:19During the reign of the first emperor, Augustus,
18:22Turin was re-founded as a Roman colony.
18:27And yet, apart from the classic grid layout of its streets,
18:31Rome's barely visible here.
18:34That's because much later, in the 16th century,
18:37the ruling Duke Emanuele Filibert rebuilt Turin in the Baroque style.
18:49Buongiorno.
18:50Buongiorno.
18:52Ooh.
18:54So many sweets and chocolates.
18:58And all so beautifully packaged.
19:01The Duke was also like a real-life Willy Wonka,
19:05introducing his subjects to the cocoa bean from the Americas.
19:09And I've got five minutes before the museum opens.
19:12Nocciolotto al latte.
19:14So, nuts and milk.
19:18Cute little hearts.
19:20More nuts.
19:22That might be nougal, I think.
19:24Some kind of fondant.
19:27Pistachio.
19:28That, that, that, that, that.
19:32What's that one?
19:33That's got nuts in it.
19:35I know you've got what's that one.
19:37They're all so beautiful.
19:39They're like little jewels.
19:40That's a very nice little bag of chocolates.
19:47That's 21 euros and 70 cents.
19:49Lovely, thank you.
19:52Congratulations.
19:54Fantastic.
19:56Grazie mille.
19:57Arrivederci.
20:07Travel gifts sorted are now heading to the museum,
20:11which is housed here in the Palazzo Madama,
20:14currently listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
20:22Part of this structure dates back to the 1st century BCE.
20:30Today, it houses a wonderful collection of ancient artefacts.
20:44This is a really fascinating museum,
20:46and not just because of what it contains,
20:48but because of what it is.
20:49Because this building's actually the original Roman decumanus gate
20:55into Turin, or I should say Augusta Turinorum,
20:59as it was originally founded.
21:00And this series of illustrations are brilliant,
21:03because you can see how the two towers,
21:06the two octagonal towers,
21:07are part of that original Roman gate.
21:09And then the building evolves so much over the centuries.
21:14But all the way through,
21:16those towers are part of it.
21:18Until today, you've just got the tops of them poking out of the roof.
21:23And then over here,
21:25the excavations inside this courtyard area
21:28have been laid bare and then preserved under a glass floor,
21:32so I can actually walk over the ancient Roman cobbles.
21:51So you can walk up inside this tower,
21:53I'm walking on an 18th century staircase,
21:56but then I can step into this space.
21:59And here we've got the original wall of the Roman tower
22:04of Augusta Turinorum.
22:07Isn't that incredible?
22:08So this is part of that gateway,
22:10the gatehouse into the old Roman city.
22:14And I just can't believe it's still standing
22:16and it's still part of this building.
22:22Over the centuries,
22:24the building was extended and took on many forms.
22:28After the fall of the Western Roman Empire,
22:30it was still a defensive stronghold.
22:34It was enlarged into a castle before becoming a palace.
22:42The current building has got four towers.
22:44The original Roman one only had two.
22:46And now I'm looking across
22:48at one of those two Roman towers of the original gate.
22:53And it's just pushing up through the roof.
22:57This is a great building
22:58and it has really just accumulated over time.
23:02There's been so many different phases
23:04from the Roman through the medieval
23:06right through to the 19th and 20th centuries
23:09when it became the civic museum.
23:11But sometimes it's great just to pause
23:13and look for archaeological clues
23:15and try to work out how old something is.
23:19Sometimes it's just about feel.
23:21And I think if I feel these bricks,
23:23I can work out that actually
23:26they were laid in 1884.
23:29It requires a lot of experience and expertise
23:31to do something like that.
23:43As their territory expanded,
23:45the Romans had to feed their ever-increasing population.
23:51I'm meeting up with archaeologist Farrell Monaco.
23:57She's been sifting through the evidence
23:59with her investigation into the staple ingredient
24:02of the Roman diet.
24:04So, you're lovely to meet you.
24:05Lovely to meet you too.
24:08So, I've been learning a lot about Roman life,
24:12but I want to kind of immerse myself in it a bit more.
24:15As a Roman, how important was bread?
24:17I think it was incredibly important.
24:19If we look at archaeological evidence,
24:21such as bakery counts, for example,
24:24in Rome, we have upward of 250 Roman bakeries
24:29were in place, according to the regional catalogues.
24:32In Pompeii, we have 35,
24:33and there's still a quarter of that site
24:35that remains unexcavated.
24:36So, this shows us clearly that bread
24:38was the backbone of the Roman diet.
24:41But part of my mission is to show
24:43that it isn't just about carbohydrates and calories.
24:46It's so much more complex and beautiful than that.
24:49Bread is very symbolic in the Roman world.
24:52It plays a substantial role
24:53in the religious sphere as well.
24:56Yeah.
24:56I mean, it's interesting, isn't it,
24:57walking around Pompeii and seeing the bakeries,
25:00and then it's almost as though
25:01there's one on every insula.
25:03I mean, there are loads of them.
25:04It's like Roman Starbucks.
25:06Yes.
25:07They're on every corner.
25:07Or prédemanger.
25:08You just turn a corner and there it is again.
25:10Yeah.
25:10And were people making bread at home
25:12or was everybody going out
25:14and buying it from these bakeries on the street?
25:17They were making bread at home,
25:18but they were also buying bread
25:20in these commercial bakeries.
25:21And this is because approximately 50% of households
25:25wouldn't have cooking facilities.
25:27Okay.
25:27So, they would eat out at the Tabernay
25:30or they would buy their bread at bakeries.
25:33Isn't that interesting?
25:34Because I think, you know,
25:35today when we see a bit of a shift
25:36towards less home cooking
25:39and more going out to eat
25:40or getting other people to cook your food for you,
25:43we think this is something that hasn't happened before,
25:45but actually the Romans were doing it in their cities.
25:47Yeah.
25:47It's like living in a studio in Manhattan.
25:49Yeah.
25:49You go out and you go out for dinner
25:51and you come back home and you go to bed.
25:52And to see Turin's Roman agricultural past,
25:56you don't have to line up at a museum.
25:57You don't have to pay to get into an archaeological site.
26:00All you have to do is hit a bakery
26:02because the bread forms that are on these shelves
26:04haven't changed in millennia.
26:06Really?
26:06In hundreds of years.
26:07Yeah.
26:08So I brought one for you to try,
26:11well, for us to try together.
26:13I mean, this is extraordinary
26:14because you think with globalisation
26:16that bread's going to become standard everywhere,
26:19but it's not.
26:19No.
26:20That's the beauty of Italy
26:21is regional breads have stayed relatively unchanged.
26:25Yeah.
26:27Over a hundred years, it's gotten, you know,
26:30since the war and since the railway was put in,
26:33things have changed a little bit
26:34because people move back and forth.
26:36Yeah.
26:36But Italy is a bastion of bread culture
26:39that has been unchanged for centuries and millennia.
26:43So this particular loaf here,
26:45this is called paninero or black bread.
26:48Black bread, yeah.
26:49Right?
26:49Yeah.
26:50It's very dark.
26:51It is mixed with rye and wheat.
26:54Can we taste it?
26:55Yeah, of course we can.
26:56So we are, we're going to go,
26:58we're going to do this old school.
26:59We're not going to use a knife.
27:00We are going to break bread from chopinus.
27:02So go ahead and break it.
27:03And then we are going to have it
27:04with a little bit of olive oil.
27:06You can also have this with a robust red wine,
27:10like a yannico.
27:11I'm going to break off a chunk as well.
27:13Bread is my carbohydrate of choice.
27:15Hmm.
27:17You know, along with porridge,
27:19it's been what we have been eating
27:22since the dawn of agriculture.
27:23This is delicious bread.
27:25Isn't it great?
27:26It's lovely.
27:27This has been absolutely fascinating.
27:28The fact that you can go to a bakery down the road
27:31here in Turin and buy bread,
27:34which is basically the same as the bread
27:38that the Romans would have been eating,
27:39I think that's really interesting.
27:40Yeah.
27:41Where are you going next on your travels?
27:43I'm headed to Rome next to do some research
27:47into the Eucharist.
27:49So now I'm going to start looking at the representation
27:52of these forms in early Christian context,
27:57the feeding of the 5,000, for example,
27:59and how they're being used to portray something sacred,
28:03much in the same way as they did in a pagan atmosphere.
28:06But this time they're, you know, Christian in nature.
28:09That is fascinating because, of course,
28:11Christianity is nothing if not a Roman religion.
28:14Yes.
28:14Yeah, exactly.
28:17What an enthralling first day in Turin,
28:20discovering more about its history and ancient cuisine.
28:24Tomorrow I'm going to find out about the newest method
28:27of dating Roman cities,
28:29and I'm hoping to find a famous movie landmark.
28:44The ancient Romans, like the Greeks before them,
28:48were stargazers.
28:50They named the stars and planets after their deities.
28:56And their understanding of astronomy helped them
28:59in navigation, farming, predicting the seasons,
29:03and marking time.
29:05Their astronomical observations fed into the development
29:09of the calendar.
29:12They used the stars and the sun to determine directions
29:16and to lay out their towns.
29:19Two millennia on, this ancient knowledge of the heavens
29:23helped to solve one of archaeology's great riddles
29:27right here in Turin.
29:30There's no record of the actual date
29:33of the foundation of Turin.
29:36But astrophysicist Mireia Teresa Croster
29:39and archaeologist Sandro Caranzano
29:42wondered if the answer lay in the stars.
29:45This is absolutely beautiful, this Roman gateway.
29:49Shall we walk down to it?
29:50Yes, sure.
29:50And are we walking on one of the principal Roman roads
29:54of the city here?
29:55Yes.
29:55The archaeologists can tell better than me.
29:58Yeah, let's talk about this road.
30:00Originally, it was the Cardo,
30:02which was the main city road running south to north.
30:06OK.
30:07So they rebuilt the pavement because, you know,
30:09it's not exactly the original one,
30:12but it was very similar.
30:13Yeah, yeah.
30:13It's stones and...
30:15No, this is the north gate of the city.
30:17And the whole city's laid out on a grid,
30:20like most Roman cities.
30:22Yes, yes, yes.
30:22Roman love very much, geometry love very much.
30:25Yeah, yeah.
30:26The Romans used the sun and stars
30:29to align their street grids north, south and east, west.
30:32But the exact positions of sunrise and sunset on the horizon
30:37have changed over time.
30:39Combining Sandre's archaeological research
30:42and her knowledge of astronomy,
30:44Maria Theresa believed she could precisely calculate Turin's foundation.
30:49So what did you do?
30:51How did you try to establish the date of the foundation of Turin?
30:57OK, so just by combining archaeological findings
31:02with astronomical data...
31:05Yeah.
31:05..and the Anissian text written by surveyors.
31:09Yeah.
31:09They were in charge to dividing the land,
31:13take measurements in order to construct the ideal town.
31:18Right.
31:19Which has to integrate with the cosmos.
31:22This was fundamental because astronomy was essential
31:28in those days, in the past, to measure the time.
31:31So when we look at Roman towns,
31:33do they all have this attention to detail
31:35when it comes to making sure
31:37that they are facing cardinal points,
31:40that they have a north-south road,
31:41that they have an east-west road, or does it vary?
31:44Yes, this was fundamental for them.
31:46The main axis of the town should align perfectly with east-tower to west.
31:54That perfect alignment worked for them at a particular time,
31:59but if the grid were to be laid out in the same way today,
32:03using astronomical markers,
32:05the alignment would be slightly different.
32:08With archaeology providing a rough time frame,
32:12Maria Theresa's challenge was to work out
32:14when the astronomical conditions
32:16would have perfectly matched up with the Roman grid.
32:22And that should yield a date for the origin of the city.
32:29This is fascinating because it's...
32:31I think that it's an approach to archaeology
32:33where it reminds me of the difference
32:35between relative dating and absolute dating,
32:38where you might say,
32:40I'm dating this on the basis of a style of pottery,
32:42and I think it's this particular date.
32:44Then you have something like radiocarbon dating,
32:45and you can absolutely pin the date down.
32:47And what you're doing,
32:49where you're trying to reconstruct the solar year in the past,
32:53seems similar to me.
32:55Because the sun is...
32:59Yeah.
32:59I'm keeping.
33:00So what was the date you finally arrived at?
33:05The 30th of January, no?
33:0730th of January.
33:0730th of January.
33:09In which year?
33:109 before Christ.
33:12That's absolutely wonderful.
33:13Yes, people...
33:14And what a fantastic example of interdisciplinary research.
33:17Exactly, yes.
33:18You know, a physicist and an archaeologist.
33:19Who'd have thought?
33:20Yes, yes, yes, exactly.
33:22Thank you so much.
33:24Thank you to you.
33:25It's really clever.
33:26And it also just tells us how clever the Romans were.
33:30That when the Romans are trying to find north,
33:32they haven't got magnetic compasses.
33:34Yes, true.
33:35They're using the stars.
33:36Of course, they use the stars.
33:37The stars as the perfect guidance.
33:42Thank you to you.
33:44Maria Theresa and Sandro's conclusion
33:47is that Turin was founded on the 30th of January
33:51in the year 9 BCE.
33:54They put their mathematical model to the test
33:57on the city of Aeosta.
33:59That has a foundation date written in stone
34:02and their method proved to be correct.
34:07They plan to take their expertise to other Roman cities
34:11with unknown foundation dates.
34:16Now I'm off to find out where they blew the bloody doors off.
34:21I've been exploring Turin,
34:24looking for evidence of the Romans here,
34:27and I've seen some fantastic, upstanding Roman archaeology.
34:32This isn't Roman.
34:33It's 19th century, this church of Gran Madre de Dio.
34:37But it's nonetheless incredibly historical
34:40because these were the very steps
34:42that the minis drove down in the Italian job.
35:05It's 7am and my next train journey
35:09is the first on this adventure
35:11that will take me across an international border
35:14and a spectacular physical border.
35:20Buongiorno.
35:22Una biglietto per Lyon, per favore.
35:26Sono andata?
35:27Si.
35:32Great.
35:33Grazie.
35:38Believe it or not,
35:40Turin's Porta Sousa station
35:42opened a century and a half ago in 1868.
35:47But it was modernised in 2006
35:50to take in extra regional services
35:52as the railways here expanded.
35:55It's an early start this morning,
35:57so I need this.
35:58So I'm going to be leaving Italy,
36:00travelling into France,
36:02catching the train to Paris.
36:03I'm not going as far as Paris,
36:05I'm getting off at Lyon
36:06and then changing trains
36:07and then by about lunchtime
36:10I should arrive into Nîmes.
36:18This is my first time ever doing this journey
36:21and it's one I've been looking forward to for weeks.
36:25After all, what a way to see
36:27the mighty Alpine mountain range.
36:53So we're generally just travelling up river valleys,
36:58through the Alps.
37:00I can see some snowy peaks up there.
37:03But occasionally, of course,
37:06we do have to go through mountains as well,
37:08so I've just been through one tunnel.
37:10I think there's going to be another one
37:11because there are some very, very high mountains
37:13ahead of us here.
37:16And these are going to be time-honoured routes
37:18through the mountains, of course,
37:20because people will have always been utilising
37:24the valleys
37:26and then trying to find the lowest pass,
37:30the lowest, easiest pass
37:31to get from one side to the other.
37:39And the architecture's changing as well.
37:42It's very different from Parma and Turin.
37:52This part of northern Italy
37:54is known for its world-class wines
37:56and intense truffles.
38:00The white Alba truffle
38:02was prized by the Romans,
38:03who considered it a delicacy
38:05with aphrodisiac qualities.
38:11About two hours into the journey
38:13and I'm around halfway through the Alps,
38:16this small Alpine village
38:18is quite a significant station.
38:21They've just stopped en route
38:22at the border town of Modan.
38:25I'm now in France.
38:26And this railway line
38:30was built in the 19th century,
38:32right on the border
38:33between France and Italy.
38:35And that fort was also built.
38:40The fort at Modan
38:41sits at 1,210 metres above sea level
38:45and it was built 140 years ago
38:47to defend the entrance
38:49to the railway tunnel.
38:51Around 2,000 years before that,
38:54one of the greatest human feats
38:56took place somewhere
38:57in these mountains.
39:01From the 3rd into the 2nd century BCE,
39:04there were two superpowers
39:07fighting it out for supremacy
39:09in the western Mediterranean.
39:11You had the Roman Republic
39:13to the north
39:14and the Carthaginian Empire
39:17in North Africa to the south
39:19and eventually, of course,
39:22the Roman Republic would win.
39:24But in the 2nd Punic War,
39:26the Carthaginian general Hannibal
39:29invaded Italy,
39:31coming through the Alps,
39:33bringing all his forces
39:35and just fighting elephants
39:37and just fighting elephants with him.
39:39And historians have tried
39:40to work out the route
39:41that he took through the Alps
39:43and we just don't know.
39:45We don't have enough evidence
39:47from the literature of the time
39:49and the geography means
39:51that there are too many possibilities
39:53to know.
39:55French historians have come up
39:56with this incredible term
39:58Hannibalism
39:59for trying to answer
40:00an impossible question.
40:11I've now travelled 100 miles
40:13from the Italian border
40:15and I'm arriving
40:16into the French city of Lyon
40:22where I'm changing platforms
40:24to find the connecting train
40:26to Nîmes.
40:28Now, Lyon was
40:29an incredibly important
40:30Roman city.
40:31It was important
40:32before the Romans were here.
40:34Back in the Iron Age,
40:35it was a regional capital
40:37for the Gauls
40:39and it was called Lugdunum.
40:41That becomes Luon
40:42and then eventually Lyon.
40:44So we're basically using
40:45the same name
40:462,000 years later.
40:47And under the Romans,
40:49it was a big city.
40:51A couple of emperors
40:52were born here,
40:53Claudius and Caracola
40:54and it was a hub
40:56for Roman roads in Gaul.
40:58It's got an absolutely
40:59beautiful Roman theatre
41:00but I can't stop
41:02because I'm on my way
41:03to Nîmes.
41:29Nîmes is 600 miles
41:32from Rome
41:33and is known
41:34as the Rome of France.
41:47Once again,
41:49a key military base
41:50for Julius Caesar
41:51in his conquest of Gaul
41:52in the 1st century B.C.E.
41:54the Emperor Augustus
41:56would invest in it,
41:58turning it into
41:59a beautiful,
42:00thriving Roman city.
42:04It lay on the Via de Mithia,
42:07a vital route
42:08for Roman troops
42:09and trade,
42:11travelling between
42:11Italy and Spain.
42:19Today,
42:20it has the best preserved
42:21amphitheatre in France.
42:24The French have named it
42:25Les Arrennes
42:26and it's still in use
42:28for a range of musical
42:29and sporting events.
42:31And this,
42:32the Maison Carré,
42:33is the best preserved
42:35Roman temple
42:36anywhere in the world.
42:38Not quite as well preserved
42:40as the Temple of Diana,
42:42which will be
42:43my first stop.
42:46And I'm pleased to see
42:48that it's still in use.
43:11It's not what you expect
43:12to find
43:12going on
43:13in a Roman temple.
43:21What an amazing fact
43:22to watch for a music video.
43:32Do you speak English?
43:35A little.
43:36A little.
43:36Are you a band?
43:37Yes.
43:38Yeah.
43:39We're a dance crew.
43:41Are you...
43:41So you're filming
43:42a music video?
43:44Yes.
43:44Where can I see it?
43:45On YouTube.
43:46On YouTube?
43:47Yes.
43:47That's amazing.
43:48Why did you choose
43:49here to film?
43:51I think that
43:52out of Nîmes,
43:53that's the best place
43:54to film that music video
43:56because that fit
43:57the best vibe
43:58of the thing
44:00we want to give.
44:01Yeah, yeah.
44:02I don't know
44:02if you want to say.
44:03The best vibe in Nîmes.
44:05Yeah.
44:05And this Roman temple.
44:06Yes.
44:07Yeah, yeah.
44:08Are you Nîmoise?
44:09Yes.
44:10Yeah?
44:10Yeah?
44:10Born and bred in Nîmes?
44:12Not born here.
44:13Yeah.
44:14But I'm living here.
44:14They're living here now.
44:16And there's Romans
44:17everywhere in Nîmes.
44:19There's Roman pastors
44:20everywhere and you're
44:21bringing it alive.
44:21It's absolutely brilliant.
44:23Thank you very much.
44:25See you on YouTube.
44:30The temple of Diana
44:32may in fact
44:33not originally
44:34have been built
44:35as a temple.
44:36It was probably
44:37a library.
44:41During medieval times
44:42it was transformed
44:43into part of a monastery
44:45ensuring its survival.
44:49Today
44:50it sits proudly
44:51in the Jardin
44:53du Fontaine.
44:57These gardens
44:58are beautiful.
44:59They were engineered
45:00in the 18th century
45:02by Jacques-Philippe
45:03Maréchal
45:04working for
45:05Louis XV.
45:07And there'd been
45:08some excavation here
45:10trying to get
45:11at the source
45:11of the spring water
45:13actually in order
45:14to provide water
45:15to the city's
45:17textile industry
45:18the dyeing industry.
45:20But then
45:21when they started
45:21to find more
45:22and more Roman remains
45:23these assumed
45:25an importance
45:26in their own right
45:27and Maréchal
45:28laid out
45:28these fantastic gardens
45:30really putting
45:32all of this
45:33Roman archaeology
45:34on show.
45:35And it became
45:37famous.
45:38They're the first
45:39public gardens
45:40in Europe
45:40apparently.
45:42And at their heart
45:43is this
45:45astonishing
45:46archaeology.
45:52Next time
45:53I take a closer
45:55look at this
45:56most exquisitely
45:57preserved Roman temple
45:58What a wonderful
46:00treasure to have
46:01in the city.
46:02It's fantastic.
46:03And experience
46:04one of the most
46:05awe-inspiring monuments
46:06of the empire.
46:07And we're out
46:08into the sunshine.
46:11And I follow
46:13the Romans
46:13into Spain.
46:15This is
46:16consummate
46:17artistry.
46:24This is consummate
46:33artistry.
46:50And I follow
46:50the Romans
46:50who are
46:50that
46:50in the city.
46:50The Romans
46:50You
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