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Great Continental Railway Journeys - Season 9 Episode 3 - Nuoro to Macomer
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00:01I'm embarking on a new series of railway journeys, exploring Europe's most
00:08beautiful and historic regions. Oh, we're about to set off.
00:14From Belgium. Oh, I'm loving this.
00:20To Hungary. Oh, this is amazing. And the islands of Sardinia.
00:29Fantastic. And Corsica.
00:34I'll enjoy nature, history, culture and fun in some of Europe's most enchanting places.
00:44I am looking forward to a tremendous railway adventure.
01:18My beautiful railway journey across the large Mediterranean island of Sardinia has brought me towards the north, from where I
01:27descend into the sea.
01:27To paganism. I'll sing the praises of an engineer from the hills of Wales who came here to build railways
01:35in the mountains of Sardinia.
01:43I began my journey in Cagliari, the island's capital.
01:47From there, I explored the island's dramatic coastline, marvelling at its towering cliffs and beautiful beaches.
01:53I ventured into the peaky interior on a narrow gauge railway known as the little green train.
02:00Now, I'm travelling on one of the regional services, which, along with standard gauge lines, transport me through towns and
02:08villages towards the north coast, from where I'll take the ferry to Corsica.
02:20On this beautiful late summer's day, I'm journeying eastward across the island on a narrow gauge line.
02:28The railway company has specially laid on one of its vintage diesel trains.
02:37From Nuoro station, I've travelled to the small town of Mamoyada.
02:42It's famous for a distinctive and mysterious pagan festival, rooted in ancient Sardinian culture.
02:48It bursts forth every year on the cusp of spring.
02:53Hello, friends!
02:55Good morning!
02:56Good morning!
02:57How are you?
02:58I'm Michael.
02:59Here's Enzo.
03:00Enzo, Enzo, a pleasure.
03:01Good morning.
03:02Good morning.
03:03Good morning.
03:04Enzo.
03:05Tell me.
03:06I've never seen anything similar in life.
03:10I've never seen anything like this in my life.
03:12What is this?
03:14This is the clothing of Mamutones and Soccadores.
03:17This is an archaic, pre-christian.
03:28The shaggy figures in black masks and dark sheepskins are known as Mamutones.
03:34Their colourful leaders, in red and white, are called Isuadoris.
03:40This extraordinary ritual was unknown outside this small town until a Sardinian anthropologist
03:47revealed it to the world in 1951.
03:51And this tradition is preserved?
03:54This tradition is always distributed by parents and children to our young people.
03:59This is the tradition and this is the ritual.
04:01So it's preserved the tradition until now?
04:04Yes, until now, yes.
04:05And we continue to distribute it.
04:07Signor, one moment for you.
04:09Excuse me.
04:10You can turn it for a moment.
04:12Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
04:17How many kilos?
04:18I'm going to present you.
04:1930 kilos, 30 kilos of weight.
04:22Amazing.
04:23Good evening.
04:24Alice Meda has been studying the origins of this historic ritual.
04:29Michael?
04:30Oh, Alice, what a pleasure to see you.
04:32Tell me about this amazing tradition.
04:34We think that all these masquerades are what remains of pagan rituals
04:40celebrated by shepherds and farmers to drive away the winter,
04:46the evil spirits of winter.
04:48That's why they all wear cowbells, tragic masks,
04:52and to call the spring back and to ask for the renewal of the nature.
05:01Is there also some connection with carnival?
05:04The carnival came later.
05:07Anthropologists think that these rituals are pre-Christian
05:10and carnival is part of the Christian calendar.
05:14Some anthropologists think that the church couldn't forbid completely
05:22these kind of pagan rituals.
05:24Yes.
05:25And they allowed people to dress up during carnival
05:30and celebrate these pagan rituals only during carnival time.
05:34So the time of the year is the same.
05:36And during carnival time, you can do anything you want.
05:41I'm seeing two costumes.
05:43Tell me the difference between the two.
05:45So mammutone, he represents all the negative elements of life,
05:50the darkness, the winter, death.
05:53So adore, on the contrary, represents the life, the rebirth,
05:58the light, the fertility.
06:08To learn the secrets of the mammutones, I must descend into an underworld.
06:17Thank you. What an emporium.
06:20And another room through here.
06:23Enzo, what an extraordinary place.
06:36So these are all made from black sheep.
06:38From black sheep.
06:39I'm wondering whether I dare ask to try on a costume.
06:42Would it be possible to try on a costume?
06:46Ah!
06:46Would it be possible?
06:47Yes, yes, yes, please.
06:58This is where I become a black sheep.
07:01Ah!
07:10Very comfortable.
07:11I've dressed up a few times, but today I'm the belle of the ball.
07:19I don't know how you bear this weight.
07:23I'm just lacking passion.
07:27So can I muster enough passion to dance in approximate rhythm
07:33with my fellow mammutones?
07:48Go away winter.
07:50Welcome spring.
07:51Welcome fertility.
07:56The man behind these magical masks is Franco Saleh.
08:00I beard him in his den.
08:04Franco.
08:06Buongiorno, salve.
08:08Buongiorno.
08:08Sono Michael.
08:10Piacere.
08:11Piacere mio.
08:12Allora, la maschera.
08:14Quanti anni lei fa la maschera?
08:15Io ne si atto tardi.
08:17Io ne si atta lavorare in legno a 42 anni.
08:21Ah, it was 42 when I began.
08:39Sì.
08:43Sì.
08:44Sì.
08:45Sì.
08:46Sì.
08:56Sì.
09:04Sì.
09:15Sì.
09:40Sì.
10:09Sì.
10:11Sì.
10:16Sì.
10:17Sì.
10:35Sì.
10:44Sì.
10:56Sì.
10:59Sì.
11:05Sì.
11:09Sì.
11:15Sì.
11:19Sì.
11:42Sì.
11:47Sì.
12:00Sì.
12:01Sì.
12:04Sì.
12:04Sì.
12:05Sì.
12:12Sì.
12:15Sì.
12:17Sì.
12:22Sì.
12:23a family home that he built in the late 19th century, Villa Piercy,
12:28where I'm meeting historian Giovanni Fiordi.
12:39Giovanni, hello.
12:40Hello, Michael.
12:41Lovely to see you.
12:42Nice to meet you.
12:43So this villa was built by Benjamin Piercy?
12:46Yes, it was built by Benjamin Piercy, but only the first floor.
12:50It was just a hunting lodge.
12:52And then his son, Harry Hangerton, built the houses we see today.
12:58Piercy's fame derived from his success building railways
13:02in the forbidding terrain of Wales,
13:05including the Tel Aviv cutting and the viaduct at Barmouth.
13:09He was recruited by the Royal Sardinian Railway Company
13:12to complete a challenging plan
13:14to drive lines through the mountainous heart of the island.
13:18It was known as the Baratelli Project.
13:24So it was appointed to improve the Baratelli Project
13:29and connect all the small villages in Sardinia
13:34with a great railway line from the south to the north of Sardinia.
13:38Perhaps from the Baratelli Project, he cut off 20 kilometres of the track.
13:44Ah, which made it...
13:46Of the original track.
13:47Which made it cheaper.
13:48Which made it cheaper.
13:49Yes.
13:49He was not only an engineer, he was also a businessman.
13:52And so he bought a lot of thousands of hectares of land.
13:59And he also created a farm, a modern farm.
14:04The most modern farm in the Mediterranean area.
14:07He had an innovative machine to sterilise milk.
14:14And he traded all these products in Cagliari,
14:16in a shop that he created to sell his products.
14:20And also export with the railway road in Italy
14:24and all over the Mediterranean area.
14:27So this is brilliant.
14:29He's able to export his dairy products using the railway that he's just built.
14:34That's very clever.
14:35And bought this land near the new railway.
14:39And bought the land.
14:40Because he built this land in 1879
14:43and he finished the railroad in 1880.
14:47So just one year after he had a lot of lands
14:54in the middle of the new line.
14:56Giving enormous value to his own land.
14:59He's not casual.
15:01So, I mean, he's such a versatile figure, isn't he?
15:03He was a good businessman.
15:05He was a good farmer.
15:06He was an innovator.
15:08Entrepreneur.
15:09And by the way, family man.
15:10He had a huge family as well.
15:12Yes.
15:12He had a big family.
15:13He had nine children.
15:15Six males and three females.
15:18You wonder how there was time.
15:21Villa Piercy became the Sardinian home of several generations of the Piercy family.
15:26As the president of the Benjamin Piercy Association, Mario Busa can show me.
15:49It's wonderful to be in this house.
15:52It seems that this is where the Piercy family had tea.
15:56Yes, exactly.
15:57Here, the Piercy family drank tea.
16:00And of course, after lunch, they read the books of the time.
16:05And they drank tea.
16:06This was the table for lunch.
16:08When there were many guests, they used it as a table for lunch.
16:13The tea is very important for British people.
16:17Of course.
16:19But this part of the house didn't exist in Benjamin Piercy's time.
16:23No.
16:24Here, where we are, he did not build Percy.
16:27Benjamin Piercy only made the semi-interrupt.
16:30Where I now bring you.
16:32Please.
16:32Go ahead.
16:41Ah, the library.
16:43La biblioteca.
16:44La biblioteca.
16:45What did Benjamin Piercy do for Sardinia?
16:48He did not so much.
16:51He did so much.
16:52He did so much because he built the ferrovia,
16:54he built the ferrovia, the Sassari-Cagliari,
16:57which is a very important thing,
16:58because before we went with the Asinello,
17:00we crossed the country with the Asinello,
17:02with the Cavallo or the Mulo.
17:04Now with the train,
17:05he, has given an economic impulse very strong
17:08to the progress of Sardinia.
17:11Benjamin Piercy,
17:12so that the community of Bolotana
17:14and Macomer
17:16have offered the cittadinality onerary.
17:18At least for me,
17:20he was a very important figure in Sardinia.
17:31Michael,
17:32this is Benjamin Piercy fan club.
17:35Nice to meet you, Michael.
17:38Piacere.
17:38And we know each other already.
17:43To Benjamin Piercy.
17:45To Benjamin Piercy.
17:46To Benjamin Piercy.
17:47To Benjamin Piercy.
17:48To Benjamin Piercy.
17:49To Benjamin Piercy at the site of his hunting lodge.
17:52Cheers.
17:54Mmm.
17:56Now, having drunk a toast to the great man,
17:59might it be possible to hear a song?
18:02Yes, of course, sir.
18:04Maria Giovanna Kerchi is an acclaimed Sardinian folk singer.
18:07He has been singing in his line without a song.
18:13came up with me if I'd keep you up with a dove.
18:21He's a pretty old man.
18:23He's a very old man.
18:28He doesn't have to be a kid.
18:29He's a very old man.
18:31He has to be a place,
18:33He's a very old man.
18:34And we're very old man.
18:36He's a very old man.
18:37Ca' esa riqueza des historiÃ
18:41Da'es uem tu mi bares pintada
18:46Da'es usò le sardignas es asada
18:50Intundu da'es aserras asumare
18:54Isolagi deve solo amare
19:01Bravissima!
19:02Singing about Sardegna, your love of Sardegna.
19:06Thank you so very much.
19:09An ideal send-off as I continue my journey.
19:30I'm now leaving Makomer and heading northeast
19:33where standard and narrow-gauge rail lines snake across the land
19:37to the small town of Calangianus, my final destination in Sardegna.
19:49There's a lovely Italian custom that when you eat in public you tend to offer food to other people,
19:56for example, in your railway compartment.
19:58And so in that spirit, may I offer you a rice ball and arancino?
20:05Not all.
20:06Would you perhaps like a salami and cheese sandwich in a tortoiseshell bun?
20:11Oh, you've already eaten.
20:14Well, the thought was there.
20:38The countryside around the town is known for its forbidding granite cliffs and mountains.
20:48This is the time and place to talk about the Quercus suber,
20:53which is the Latin for the cork oak tree.
20:57And from that we get the word suberin, which is a complex chemical compound,
21:03which is hydrophobic, literally fearful of water.
21:07That is to say that it repels liquids.
21:11As you can see, I am gushing information today.
21:15Time to put a stopper in it.
21:22Cork oak trees grow all around the Mediterranean,
21:25but on this island they're a crucial crop.
21:29More than 80% of Italy's cork forests are found in northeastern Sardinia.
21:34A local cork factory harvests this forest.
21:39Andrea Martinez is its agronomist
21:42and can explain why cork oaks are so abundant here.
21:47Because here in Sardinia he finds the conditions perfect for its growth,
21:53which is a climate, let's talk about a granite substrate,
21:57a cold climate.
21:59Then other characteristics of this plant are, for example,
22:01that it is resistant to the acidity,
22:04it is also resistant to the fire attacks,
22:07and it is a plant that does not tolerate the gel.
22:10So these characteristics of the climate
22:12make it better for its growth in this context.
22:15How often, then, do you strip one of these trees?
22:19First of all, the first decortation of the debarking
22:23is when the plant has 25-30 years old
22:26or at least reaches a circumference of its trunk
22:30at a height of 1,30 m of at least 60 cm.
22:34And then the first decortation can occur.
22:37The product, which is called sugarone or sugaromaschio,
22:40then the virgin cork, is a product that is used mainly
22:45for the realization of panels for the bio-edilization,
22:49so for the isolation.
22:50Then, after this first decortation,
22:52they have to pass at least 10 years,
22:55generally 12, but at least 10 years,
22:57at least the next decortation of the next decortation.
22:59And here what happens?
23:00The virgin cork changes,
23:02so it changes,
23:03it becomes a sweet sugar,
23:05and, as I've said,
23:07it is extracted at least 10 years.
23:09And this is a sugar that is,
23:10in fact, adapted for the production
23:11of the tappies for the enology,
23:14the corkstoppers.
23:16The plant can then continue to produce
23:18until about 250 years.
23:28Trading for over 100 years,
23:32Sugerificio Molinas is Italy's largest producer
23:35of corkstoppers.
23:37They make 800 million of them every year
23:41at their factory where sales manager Paolo Molinas
23:45is my guide.
23:48Paolo, I'm quite surprised.
23:51to see how many of the operations
23:52apparently are still done by hand.
23:54The cutting of the cork,
23:56and here the extrication of the stopper from the cork.
23:59Yeah, of course.
24:00You're right, Michael.
24:01The operator has to be very expert
24:04to find the right spot to make or downmake the cork.
24:09The cork is very important to the bottle.
24:12I mean, you might be providing a cork
24:14for a bottle of wine that costs
24:16hundreds or thousands of euros,
24:19and the cork could destroy it.
24:22Yeah, yeah.
24:23We have the potential to ruin months of work
24:26from our winemakers just with this small piece of cork.
24:31So our clients trust us a lot.
24:35We are kind of working together
24:37to make the bottle be the best possible bottle ever.
24:42When something goes wrong with the cork,
24:45when the wine doesn't smell good,
24:48when it is what we call in English corked,
24:51what has gone wrong?
24:52What has been the problem?
24:53Yeah, usually, when corks smell badly,
24:58they contain a molecule that's called TCA.
25:02So it's like a fungus that develops in the cork bark
25:08when the bark is still attached to the plant.
25:12So our main goal is to find out barks
25:17which has, unfortunately, this substance
25:19and eliminate from the production.
25:21And how do you do that?
25:23Do you have some chemical process
25:24that can detect the fungus?
25:27Well, actually, we do that mainly in two ways.
25:31With some machines that can scan the stopper
25:35and find if there is TCA,
25:38but also we make it with human noses.
25:42Human noses?
25:43Human noses, of course.
25:46The factory has a sensory panel
25:48of specially trained sniffers.
25:51Someone with a nose for a bad cork
25:53is Mariangela Ciaffia.
25:56Buongiorno, panel sensoriale.
25:58Buongiorno, piacere mio.
26:01Buongiorno.
26:02Mariangela.
26:03Buongiorno.
26:05Allora, molto interessante,
26:07very interesting what happens in here.
26:10So these ladies have the expertise
26:11to tell if a cork is bad.
26:15E non tutti lo abbiamo.
26:16No, esatto.
26:17Non tutti hanno questa predisposizione appunto naturale.
26:21Quindi prima viene valutato a questo
26:23e poi possono fare l'addestramento di 240 ore
26:27per poi poi essere inseriti in questo panel.
26:30Posso avere io anche?
26:32Could I possibly have the natural ability to do this?
26:35Puoi averla, Mari?
26:36Non lo sai.
26:38Puoi avere una predisposizione naturale
26:40oppure non avere questa predisposizione,
26:43soffrire di quello che si dice, di anosmia
26:45e non sentire gli odori.
26:47I'll try and take the test.
26:51The bad corks are in the red bucket.
26:55Pronti?
27:11Bravo!
27:13Assunto!
27:15Bravo!
27:17Grazie.
27:19I'm clearly a natural
27:21at sniffing out anything
27:23that threatens the sanctity
27:24of fine wine.
27:33I raised a glass
27:34to Benjamin Peercy
27:35with feeling
27:36because without
27:37the bold railways
27:38that he built
27:39it would have been impossible
27:41for me to reach
27:42the parts of Sardinia
27:43that I have
27:44on this railway journey.
27:46I never expected
27:48to discover anything
27:49as mysterious
27:50and earthy
27:51as the Mammoth Onis
27:53and I will long remember
27:55what I saw.
27:56To appreciate this island
27:58you need to get beneath its skin
27:59like peeling back
28:01the bark
28:02on a tree.
28:09Next time...
28:10As we analysed
28:11this bronze
28:12we realised
28:13that actually
28:13the statue
28:14has a wrong head.
28:16So this is
28:17the genuine bronze head.
28:18Remarkable.
28:19This lovely tradition
28:20of polyphony
28:21does it mean something special
28:22to you as a Corsican?
28:23Yes, it's our identity.
28:26Help me to understand
28:26the size of the problem.
28:29How many forest fires
28:30might you have?
28:31On a good year
28:32we can have 200, 300 fires.
28:34In a bad year
28:35it can be catastrophic.
28:36No more.
28:38Yes, it is.
29:06Thank you very much.
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