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00:01This is Rome.
00:04Its secrets revealed from a startling new perspective.
00:09In this series, our aerial cameras soar high into the sky
00:14to reveal the secrets of the eternal city.
00:18From Rome's ancient engineering wonders
00:21to its baroque masterpieces,
00:25festivals that fill the region with color
00:27and startling surprises.
00:33In this episode,
00:35we meet the people who work to bring Rome and its history to light.
00:39From adventurers who explore its wonders.
00:42Rome is not just Colosseum and Vatican.
00:45There are so many things to see.
00:49To engineers who safeguard its future.
00:52I'm proud of working such a huge and important and significant
00:57to become the project.
00:59We explore what life was like outside the city.
01:05And we follow the people who work to preserve its greatest treasures.
01:17To make a city like nowhere else on earth.
01:35To make a city like nowhere else on earth.
01:37Rome sits halfway along the Italian peninsula.
01:42On the banks of the river Tiber.
01:46From humble beginnings two and a half thousand years ago.
01:51It became one of the world's most powerful city states.
01:55And the heart of a mighty empire.
02:02The Roman empire spanned three continents.
02:08Today, it's the capital of Italy.
02:11And one of the world's most visited historical cities.
02:18Flying high over Rome reveals incredible engineering wonders from the past.
02:25The Colosseum.
02:26Where vast crowds would gather to watch gladiators battle.
02:32Towering aqueducts that channeled fresh water into the city.
02:37And the unblinking eye of the pantheon.
02:40Perhaps the world's best preserved ancient building.
02:45In the 14th century.
02:48The catholic church settled here.
02:51And the popes ruled the city like kings.
02:55Rome grew rich from visiting pilgrims.
02:59Fine art and architecture flourished here.
03:05Each year, Rome's population swells with around 35 million visitors.
03:17The first challenge for anyone exploring Rome's wonders.
03:21Is how to plot a path through its streets.
03:24A closer look at the heart of the city.
03:29Reveals that Rome wasn't built for easy navigation.
03:34Today's city.
03:36Rose on the footprint of the ancient one.
03:39And it's filled with a jumble of twisting roads and cobbled alleyways.
03:49Bus tours are a popular way to explore the extraordinary sights.
03:54But some adventurers opt for more novel modes of transport.
04:07Perhaps nothing is more quintessentially Italian than a tour of the city in a fleet of Fiat 500s.
04:14These are no ordinary 500s.
04:18They're modified to run on electricity.
04:20As well as to provide seating for up to three sightseers per car.
04:26Nadia has been organizing explorations around Rome in these pocket sized motors for three years.
04:32The tour on the Fiat 500 is really an experience.
04:37You feel like a celebrity.
04:39Because everywhere you go there are people taking pictures, videos.
04:43It's something very Italian, you know.
04:55The tour on the Fiat 500.
04:56Today, Nadia and her colleagues Francesco and Claudio are navigating a new route.
05:02That begins at one of Rome's most popular meeting points.
05:07The Spanish Steps.
05:10It's Europe's longest and widest staircase.
05:14And it connects the Trinidad de Monte Church.
05:18The Piazza di España.
05:20The Spanish Square.
05:24The house at the foot of the steps was the home of the English poet John Keats.
05:29Who died here aged just 25.
05:35Next, the little cars skirt around the edges of the Piazza del Popolo.
05:41This was the starting point of Via Flaminia.
05:44The road to modern day Rimini.
05:48And for centuries, it was also a place of execution.
05:52The last of which took place in the 1800s.
05:56Three streets branch out into the city.
06:00Guarded by the twin churches of Santa Maria in Monte Santo.
06:04And the Santa Maria de Maracoli.
06:13The Cinquecento is an icon of Italian engineering.
06:18It emerged in the 1950s as a cheap and practical mode of transport.
06:23If you speak with Italians, they can tell you a lot of stories about them with their parents, with their
06:30relatives going everywhere in that tiny car.
06:35The cars push through the morning traffic and then cross the 18-meter-tall Cavour Bridge.
06:42In the winter, brave Romans jump into the water here to celebrate the new year.
06:49They drive along the banks of Rome's famous river, the Tiber.
06:53Where the twins Romulus and Remus were said to have been washed up and suckled by a wolf.
07:00Romulus later went on to found the city on nearby Palatine Hill in the 8th century BC.
07:07They take a shortcut west through the winding streets of Trastevere.
07:13A Bohemian district filled with artisanal shops.
07:17In the days of the Roman Republic, it formed a sanctuary for immigrants.
07:23And it's famed for its relaxed, unconventional charm.
07:29The final leg of the journey is a climb up Janiculum Hill to one of the city's best panoramic views.
07:41At the peak stands a statue of General Garibaldi, one of the fathers of modern Italy.
07:50At the end of the 18th century, the Italian peninsula was split into many different states.
07:57Garibaldi led the charge to unite them all into a single kingdom called Italy, with Rome as its capital.
08:09The team park up and take a moment to enjoy the view.
08:16As Garibaldi looks out over 2,000 years of Roman history.
08:22Rome is not just Colosseum and Vatican.
08:27So in Rome there are so many things to see.
08:29Every narrow road has something to tell you, and there are a lot of hidden gems.
08:39The engineers of ancient Rome were famed for their skills of controlling and distributing water.
08:46They built towering aqueducts and tall arches.
08:51Like this one, the aqua claudia, that stretched for an incredible 69 kilometres from mountain springs to the heart of
08:59Rome.
09:02Although for most of its length, the water travelled underground.
09:10Rome historian Alexander Mariotti believes this water played a key role in Rome's development through the ages.
09:18When people walk by, they probably assume that this is a modern fountain, that it's the city water,
09:22when instead what we have here is one of the everlasting gifts of the ancient Romans.
09:26They're engineering. They built these aqueducts to last, and they have lasted.
09:31So what you're actually seeing is natural spring water being brought by a Roman system to a modern city
09:36to allow everybody from the locals to the tourists to the visitors to drink fresh spring water,
09:42exactly as the Romans intended thousands of years ago.
09:47When the Roman Empire fell in 476 AD, the city's buildings were left to decay.
09:55But its underground infrastructure survived.
09:58And in the Middle Ages, when Rome was reborn, new fountains were built on the footprint of the Roman ones.
10:07The most elaborate were constructed in the 17th century, when the popes commissioned them as a tool for propaganda.
10:16In the Renaissance, this was one of the great discoveries that the popes made.
10:20Fresh water, able to be brought to the city, not just to wash, but to drink from, and then eventually
10:26for recreational purposes.
10:28What's more wonderful than a hot summer's day in Rome, walking around, and a fresh water fountain like this one
10:33here?
10:37Fountains reinforced the church's role as both a spiritual leader and a benefactor.
10:43And the bigger and more elaborate the fountain was, the better and stronger the message it carried.
10:52One fountain attracts millions of visitors each year.
10:59Limestone mountains rise to the east of Rome.
11:02These porous rocks filter rainwater and create natural lakes and springs that the Romans channeled into the city.
11:12One spring, called the Aqua Vergina, rises eight miles to the east of Rome.
11:21And then travels underground inside an aqueduct built in 19 BC.
11:29The route has been altered through the years, but this tunnel still supplies Rome with spring water.
11:37And a closer look where it terminates.
11:43Reveals perhaps the world's most famous fountain.
11:55This is the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome's most popular landmarks.
12:03It measures an impressive 20 meters wide and 26 meters tall, making it the largest fountain in the city.
12:16But it's most famous as a place for people trying to change their fortunes.
12:23According to tradition, throwing one coin in the fountain guarantees a return to Rome.
12:30Two coins, and you'll fall in love with an Italian.
12:34And three coins, and you'll marry them.
12:40The tradition is so popular that twice a week in the early morning, a team of specialist cleaners shut the
12:48water off.
12:49Clear the tourists out of the way, and use specialized tools to scoop up all the coins.
12:57Today, they're led by Marco Tezzano.
13:00La Fontana dei Trevi è sicuramente la fontana più importante del mondo.
13:05E abbiamo il compito di preservare il monumento, quindi di mantenere pulito.
13:09E abbiamo anche il compito di raccogliere le monete per conto del comune.
13:16The workers use long-handled brushes to sweep the coins into a pile in the center of the fountain.
13:24They then use a vacuum connected to the fountain's modern pumps that sucks up the coins.
13:32The pipe that connects to the pump room is held in special frames to stop it rubbing on the fountain's
13:39precious marble.
14:00The Trevi fountain was constructed in the 18th century, close to the site of an old Roman fountain.
14:07To make use of the existing water supply.
14:12In a room hidden behind the fountain, the original Roman plumbing can still be found.
14:19Along with containers used for rationing water to wealthy families.
14:27Even in the Renaissance, this water was rationed.
14:30And a list of those allowed to take it still exists on the wall.
14:39As the vacuum fills up with coins, the workers have to periodically empty it into sacs.
14:47And it's not just coins that end up in the fountain.
15:04By 11 o'clock, the team have finished clearing out the coins.
15:10Today, they've collected around seven sacks.
15:14And across the course of a year, the sacks can add up to a million euros.
15:21Which are distributed to good causes across the city.
15:28The fountain is given a final clean.
15:32Before the water is turned back on.
15:36And the coin tossing starts again.
15:40As a Roman student, having seen this monument in the course of my life,
15:44several times, a monument, it's surely a pride to collaborate and preserve this monument.
15:52And maintaining the degradation construction on the fountain.
16:05an aerial trip along the Tiber reveals engineering wonders the church of San
16:13Bartholomeo on Tiber Island and the remains of Nero's bridge built in the
16:20first century AD but perhaps the strangest site is the eccentric-looking Castel Sant'Angelo
16:30from afar it looks like a chess piece but a bird's-eye view reveals a curious jumble of
16:38architectural styles that span millennia the battlements at the top of the building
16:44are relatively new they first appeared around the 14th century but the cylindrical base it sits
16:53on is much older and dates all the way back to the days of Imperial Rome what you're looking at
16:59is nothing less than a 2,000 year old mausoleum originally built by one of the great Emperor's
17:04Hadrian Hadrian's mausoleum was one of Imperial Rome's great treasures it was clad in expensive
17:13white marble and topped with a bronze statue of the Emperor but when Rome fell to an invading power
17:20called the Visigoths in the fifth century it was stripped of its treasures this is the Visigoths
17:28showing the Romans they've completely conquered them that even their sacred emperors are nothing
17:32but waste for them the ruined tomb then found an unlikely salvation in the Renaissance the Vatican
17:41sat close by so the Pope's added layers of defenses to the mausoleum and turned it into a castle with
17:48an
17:48800 meter long elevated passageway leading directly to St Peter's Basilica the Pope like every other
17:56political figure throughout history needed to hide himself when trouble came to Rome where better
18:01than a mausoleum built out of brick and concrete with a secret passage that led to his bedroom so in
18:07times like when Napoleon sieged Rome the Pope would walk a secret passage lock himself in there and be
18:12totally safe not far from Rome's unlikely stronghold the countryside too has its fair share of bizarre
18:22structures including a tiny city with an amazing secret the landscape to the north of Rome is punctuated by
18:33three curiously shaped lakes that the water filled remains of huge volcanoes that erupted over half a million
18:42years ago the largest called the falsini left a fragile landscape of compacted volcanic ash around it
18:56that quickly eroded to form steep valleys and dramatic peaks a closer look reveals an ancient hilltop town with a
19:10surprising secret
19:16this is
19:17this remarkable clifftop town was once much larger
19:27but hundreds of years of earthquakes and erosion have sent the edges of the town tumbling into the valley below
19:36reducing to Vita to a tiny footprint just 90 meters wide
19:42and giving it the nickname the dying city
19:51today the dying city has a permanent population of around a dozen people but the town has found a new
19:59lease of life as a tourist hotspot
20:04around a million visitors support Civitas hotels and restaurants each year
20:10like the one belonging to Stefano Rocchi
20:13the tourismo Civita importantissimo perché ha creato un giro di lavoro non indifferente
20:19la vita talmente calma non c'è caos non c'è casino telefonino prendono te rilassi totalmente
20:29the original routes into the city have crumbled away
20:36so the only way in or out is a 300 meter long pedestrian bridge
20:42this means that when it's time to restock the kitchens Stefano relies on a service that does things a little
20:49differently
20:58Civita native Bulla Renato uses a quad bike to make his rounds to the dying city's restaurants and cafes
21:08anything heavier would be too much for the structure of the delicate footbridge
21:13and anything wider would get stuck
21:17vengono utilizzati questi quod
21:20cioè sono classificati come trattori agricoli come macchie
21:23però è un quad specifico con le misure adatte per andare sul ponte
21:32once he's crossed the narrow bridge
21:34Bulla must navigate a series of hairpin bends
21:38they lead to the city's medieval gate the Porta di Santa Maria
21:50it may be small but the dying city boasts a maze of winding streets and alleyways
21:57these were designed for donkeys
21:59but Bulla expertly threads his delivery wagon through narrow passageways lined with steps
22:06well it's a question of habits
22:08in the primi tempi
22:09e' stata un po' difficoltosa
22:10ma adesso rientra nella routine quotidiana
22:13e vado senza problem
22:16the alleyways open into a piazza in the center of town
22:22it's dominated by the San Donato church
22:24which dates back to the 5th century
22:26and boasts an impressive bell tower
22:32finally he reaches the restaurant
22:34and it's just in time for Stefan to start preparing for the all important evening service
22:41where the dying city undergoes a surprising transformation
22:46the cobbled streets are bathed by a warm glow
22:52as colored lights illuminate the city's fragile volcanic patch
23:00and the city morphs into a brightly colored ship
23:04sailing in an ocean of darkness
23:06a flight over rome reveals many of the city's ancient buildings are incomplete
23:26due to their incredible age
23:28like the stadium of Domitian
23:31and the Colosseum
23:37yet one ancient structure bucks that trend
23:40it stands almost as it did over 1800 years ago
23:45and it's perhaps one of the empire's crowning engineering achievements
23:51the mighty Pantheon
23:55today the Pantheon is a Christian church
23:58but back in the days of ancient Rome
24:00it was built as the ultimate temple to their pagan gods
24:05the Romans being inspired by the Greeks
24:08of course had the Parthenon in Athens
24:10the temple of Athena
24:11and decided that they needed something similar
24:13but it had to be better
24:14so they built the Pantheon
24:16the house of all the gods
24:18from above
24:20the Pantheon's broad dome
24:22appears to stare out like an unblinking eye
24:26it remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world
24:33and a wonder of engineering
24:37thanks to a very clever trick the Romans employed using soil
24:43they built it like a cake in layers
24:45you can imagine they would fill the inside of this very rotunda with dirt
24:50and once the dirt was solid
24:52they built the mould
24:53they free poured the concrete
24:56they used a clever trick to mix the concrete too
25:00the lower parts of the building were mixed with heavy aggregates
25:05but the very top of the dome was mixed with pumice
25:08the lightest stone they could find
25:12once they finished the hole and the concrete was cured
25:14they dug from the hole down and out
25:16and from start to finish
25:18what's most incredible
25:19it's this structure
25:20took eight years to build
25:24this marvel of engineering
25:26is one of Rome's top attractions
25:29drawing around nine million visitors every year
25:36now in the shadow of the Pantheon
25:39modern day engineers are gearing up to complete an engineering miracle of their own
25:50Rome has a series of metro lines dug deep below it
25:54the A and B lines were built in the 1950s and 1970s
26:01the driverless C line was opened in 2014
26:09but it's due a much needed extension
26:13the three new stations will provide easy access to Rome's most popular historical sites
26:19including the Colosseum
26:23and the Palatine Hill
26:27but the scale of the engineering challenge is unlike anything Rome has seen before
26:37this is the construction site of the Venetia metro station
26:41a vast underground transport hub commissioned by Roma metropolitana
26:47that will become the final stop on the current sea line extension
26:52when complete
26:54this massive new station will sink an incredible 45 meters deep underground
27:00with six levels and three entrances
27:06the station's central position
27:09and the likely presence of Roman artifacts in the soil
27:12provides an incredible challenge for the engineers tasked with building it
27:17the new Piazza Venezia station is an important engineering challenge
27:23because it's a station located in the middle of town
27:27on a site that's full of monuments and in the heart of the architectural and monumental heritage of the city
27:36of Rome
27:40the overall project is so complex
27:42it's being tackled by a consortium led by two of Italy's largest engineering companies
27:49we build
27:51and Viannini lavori
27:56the first stage of this multi-billion euro project is already underway
28:00building the outer walls of the underground structures
28:07instead of using conventional diggers
28:09engineers are using cutting-edge machines called hydro mills
28:15these specialist rigs of rotating cutters
28:18which excavate neat slots into the ground
28:21precisely 2.5 meters wide
28:27as they dig down
28:28the team fills the holes with a special clay slurry
28:32to stop them from collapsing
28:37each hole is dug to a depth of up to 85 meters
28:42it's then filled with steel mesh and concrete to form an underground pillar
28:46more pillars are dug next to it
28:50eventually forming the outer wall of the underground station
28:56once the outer wall is complete
29:00engineers will very carefully clear the inside space layer by layer
29:05this is to ensure any ancient artifacts that could lie up to 20 meters below the surface
29:10aren't damaged
29:12Rome is a city that has been built for successive stratifications
29:15so we have a unique characteristic in the world
29:18we have a city above and a city below
29:20the excavation of our stations
29:22connects these two cities
29:24but we have to work together with archaeologists
29:28to safeguard the archaeological heritage
29:30which is under the current level of the city
29:35artifacts discovered in the excavations
29:37will form a series of exhibits throughout the building
29:40making venezia part station
29:44and part museum
29:49as passengers leave the new station
29:52they'll be greeted by the site of one of Rome's most eye-catching monuments
29:59named in honor of king vittorio emmanuelle the second
30:05the vittoriano monument celebrates the movement to unify italy in the 19th century
30:13the middle terrace of the monument features a pair of eternal flames
30:17watched over by a military guard
30:22a statue of the goddess Roma stands over the tomb of the unknown soldier
30:28the monument is topped with figures on chariots
30:32one representing unity
30:33and the other liberty
30:37the vittoriano took 50 years to complete
30:41and was an engineering wonder of its time
30:43it's a fitting partner to the remarkable new subway
30:47that will soon bring visitors to gaze at it
30:52due to the challenges of the site
30:54due to the challenges of the site
30:55the venezia metro project isn't slated to be completed
30:58until the 2030s
31:01but for the people involved
31:02the weight is worth it
31:06to ensure rome's hidden treasures are kept safe
31:10for the centuries to come
31:13considering i was born in rome
31:15i'm proud of working such a huge and important and significant project in terms of development of our city
31:30if you scratch beneath the surface
31:33much of ancient rome lies hidden just a few meters below the modern day streets
31:40like here at the grotta pinta
31:42an ordinary looking back street with an extraordinary secret
31:47this is one of the great hidden treasures of rome
31:50look at the curvature of this building
31:52why would anyone build a building with this shape
31:54why would anyone build a piazza on an incline
31:56and the reason is they didn't
31:58this here is the same shape that it has been since 55 BC
32:03because right now beneath our feet is the ancient theater of pompey
32:09pompey's theater was rome's first stone theater
32:13a structure that had previously been banned
32:18pompey got around the restrictions by building a tall temple at the back of the seating
32:23and claiming the seats were a staircase up to it
32:28if you could lift five meters underneath the city
32:32what you'd find is that the top tier of the seating is still there today
32:36so you're actually looking at where the spectators would have sat
32:39and here's another fantastic point
32:41we are meters away from where the one of the most famous murders in history took place
32:46because it is the theater of pompey where caesar was murdered
32:49it is here that meters away from where we're standing the world changed
32:56remarkably
32:58some of the buildings in today's street
33:01have cellars that lead to the remains of the old theater
33:05just as it was at the time of caesar's infamous murder
33:10we're right now under the streets of Rome
33:12this is the original 55 BC brickwork
33:15what you see over here is a volcanic ash brick
33:19this is how old this structure is
33:21before the advent of using brick and concrete
33:23Romans use nature's concrete
33:26volcanic ash
33:28people talk about time machines
33:30this, this is a time machine
33:32if you think that the outside world has changed a million times
33:36this place has remained the exact same for 2,070 years
33:42Rome's ancient theaters
33:44tell us that for those who could afford it
33:47life was good
33:50but what was life like for Romans outside the big city?
33:55new discoveries are revealing the surprising truth
34:03ancient Rome
34:04was once connected to nearby Capua
34:07by a road called the Via Latina
34:12in 2009
34:14archaeologists discovered a large settlement along this road
34:19called Aquino
34:23zooming in
34:26reveals what appears to be a giant fan
34:30sitting right next to the road
34:36these remarkable stones are the remains of a Roman theater
34:43it had a diameter of 90 meters
34:46making it one of the largest Roman theaters ever constructed in Italy
34:51and it could seat between six and seven thousand people
34:58it's just one of many structures here
35:01unearthed by professor Giuseppe Ceraldo
35:04and his team
35:06his work has revealed that Aquino
35:08was an extremely prosperous town
35:10with many of the creature comforts of Rome
35:13Aquino
35:14Aquino was a rich city
35:16one of the largest cities along the Via Latina
35:20between Rome and Capua
35:21and these are the buildings of the spectacle
35:24and public buildings that show this wealth
35:30of the theater
35:31a short distance to the east of the theater
35:33the team have uncovered more evidence of the lifestyles
35:36of the citizens of Aquino
35:40from above
35:41these huge sheds look like storage
35:45that fly underneath
35:47and they reveal a massive system of Roman baths
35:54Aquino gets its name from aqua
35:56the Latin for water
36:01dozens of natural springs fed these baths
36:05which were split into two
36:07for men and women
36:11stacks of clay tiles
36:12called hypercaust
36:14held up the stone floor
36:17beneath which was an ingenious form of underfloor heating
36:23corridors separated slaves from bathers
36:27and they led to furnaces
36:28once stoked by the slaves
36:30to heat the air flowing under the stone floor
36:33making the rooms luxuriously warm and steamy
36:39the archaeologists have uncovered beautiful mosaics too
36:45images of African rhinos
36:47and crocodiles from the Nile in Egypt
36:50and crocodiles from the Nile in Egypt
37:01Today, archaeologist Camila Keke is aiming to unearth more treasures using ground penetrating radar
37:12She's hoping to find evidence for housing close to the baths
37:18to bring the light
37:19not only to the material structures
37:21but that they should tell a story
37:23and try to approach the ancient world
37:31The instrument sends high frequency radio waves into the ground
37:38any hidden structures will produce an echo for the machine to capture
37:45allowing Camila to create a map for future digs
37:50In this area, especially in the Aquinome, we are very fortunate
37:53because the chemical and geological elements
37:56are really very clear images
38:01The data from surveys like Camila's today
38:05is converted into a plot of hidden structures
38:09Mapping the scan over aerial footage
38:12reveals the foundations of hidden buildings as bright patches
38:17They reveal more of the public baths
38:20and some buried houses
38:24After more than 2,000 years
38:26the incredible city of Aquinome
38:29is slowly giving up its secrets
38:33and giving historians priceless clues
38:36to life in provincial Rome
38:52Much of the theatrical beauty of Rome
38:54its fountains
38:57public art
38:58and great buildings
39:00like St. Peter's Basilica
39:02were crafted in the 17th and early 18th centuries
39:06in an era called the Baroque period
39:09Perhaps the greatest example of Baroque architecture
39:13is Rome's popular meeting place
39:15the Piazza Navona
39:18its shape hides a surprising secret
39:22I don't think there's a place in Rome that's more Roman than the Piazza Navona
39:26it's what we're sort of used to seeing in film and television
39:29it's got the great little restaurants and the bars and the cafes
39:32it's got the wonderful fountains
39:34but when you go up you realize that something is different about Piazza Navona
39:38and it's secret quite simply
39:39that if you look at the shape of it
39:40it's actually shaped like an ancient Roman stadium
39:43built in 86 AD
39:47and it's built by the family who built the Colosseum
39:49so once they finish the Colosseum
39:51you've got all these amazing workers
39:52what are you going to do?
39:53well why don't we build an Olympic style stadium
39:55like the Greek Olympics
39:59the stadium that sits below the Piazza
40:02was built by the Emperor Domitian
40:03he wanted to bring ancient Greek sports to Rome
40:07and designed his stadium to host foot races
40:09and other athletic sports
40:13its seating could hold at least 30,000 spectators
40:18today the Piazza is famed for its Baroque fountains
40:23but a few hundred years ago
40:25the Piazza's water was put to another very surprising use
40:30at various stages water played its part in the spectacles of Rome
40:34underneath the Colosseum was an underground water system
40:37that was used to make an artificial lake by the Emperor Nero
40:40so the ability to draw the water up
40:42which was later used by the Emperors of the Flavian dynasty
40:45to bring water into the Colosseum
40:47flood it and have a mock naval battle
40:49and in the 1800s the same thing happened right here in Piazza Navona
40:52just like in ancient Rome
40:54and you can imagine in this wonderful Piazza
40:56little ships passing by
40:58and the spectators of course enjoying it
41:01in the late 1800s they built the cobblestones here
41:04so the only allusion to the water
41:06is in fact the fountains themselves that you still see
41:14for centuries the Roman people have used spectacle to entertain the locals
41:19and attract visitors too
41:23outside of Rome today
41:25there's a town that puts on a show like nowhere else
41:33Rome is surrounded by a landscape shaped by ancient volcanism
41:40the old town
41:4030 kilometres to the south
41:42a patchwork of fertile fields and forests
41:46nestle around ancient volcanic crater lakes
41:51flanked by medieval settlements
41:54like Genzano di Roma
41:58a closer look at the heart of the old town
42:04reveals a broad high street
42:06that's the setting for an extraordinary annual event
42:16in the time of the Roman Republic
42:19Genzano was known as a stop-off along the famous Appian Way
42:24in the middle ages
42:26Trappist monks turned the town into a fortress
42:31and it was rebuilt again in the 17th century
42:36today it's famous for a remarkable festival
42:44each year in late spring
42:46the townspeople gather to draw chalk outlines on the ground
42:52the outlines will be coloured
42:54not with paint
42:56but with half a million flower petals
42:58seeds
42:59and leaves
43:02the tradition
43:03known as Infurata
43:05commemorates the Catholic festival of Corpus Domini
43:09and it's been celebrated here in Genzano since 1778
43:16each image is created by a different person
43:20but the first in line is called the master flower artist
43:25this year that honor has been given to Francesca Lauti
43:30whose family have been taking part in the festival for a hundred years
43:35this year
43:35it's been a great emotion
43:38for me in particular
43:39just for this centenary
43:40but also for the fact that it's a jubilee
43:42so it's a lot more sense than usual
43:48Francesca's design this year
43:49is a representation of the biblical figure Simon of Cyrene
43:53who carried the cross of Jesus on the way to the crucifixion
44:02all the designs have to be ready for the festival to open the next morning
44:07so like Francesca
44:09the teams are going to be working through the night to complete their images
44:17each artist has to submit their design three months before the event
44:22and only the winning designs make it through to the final display
44:27the time it takes to complete each image
44:30depends on its complexity
44:32and the number of helpers each artist manages to secure
45:00as the sun rises the next morning
45:04Genzano's High Street is transformed
45:11the grey pavement
45:14turns into a riot of colour
45:22vibrant birds
45:26a floral headdress
45:30and stories from the life of Christ
45:33leap out from the pavement
45:35in a festival of bright colours and delicate floral scents
45:43and Francesca's image
45:46shines the brightest of all at the head of the display
45:51ieri sera è andata benissimo
45:52sono super soddisfatto della mia squadra
45:54abbiamo finito intorno alle due e mezza del mattino
46:00with the images complete
46:03the town starts to fill with visitors
46:06keen to witness this year's display
46:09which stretches around 2,000 square metres
46:14but they only have the daylight hours to enjoy the spectacle
46:20it will all be cleared away by this evening
46:23without a trace left behind
46:25and then the town can start planning for next year's display
46:39Rome's most famous site is the magnificent Colosseum
46:44this massive stadium
46:45this massive stadium was built almost 2,000 years ago
46:48to seat around 50,000 baying spectators
46:53they came to watch animal hunts
46:56mock naval battles
46:58and witness gladiators in hand-to-hand combat
47:02there's an ancient structure
47:04a little off the beaten track
47:06that held huge significance to these legendary entertainers
47:11this is the temple of Hercules
47:14Rome's oldest surviving marble structure
47:19and it's a place that was sacred to the gladiators
47:24Hercules is the superhero of the gladiators
47:27the superman of the gladiators
47:29the god, the demigod that they worship
47:30when a gladiator was successful
47:32he would exit the Colosseum, exit the amphitheater
47:35come here and lay a rudis, a wooden sword
47:38as a votive offering to Hercules
47:44this small temple wasn't just a spiritual home to the gladiators
47:49it was also the birthplace of their sport
47:53it's right here that the gladiator was gifted as an idea
47:57from the Etruscans and the Greeks to the Romans
48:00because it's in this area that in 264 BC
48:03a family called the Brutus Peri
48:05gave the first example of two men fighting at a funeral
48:10this clearly enraptured the crowd
48:13at that time funerals were given
48:15in a way that there was a festivity
48:16there was a feast, there was a show
48:18and it was all for the honor of the person who had died
48:21to be remembered
48:23organized fighting was a traditional feature of Etruscan funerals
48:28and it caught on in Rome
48:30eventually leading to gladiator sports
48:36further secrets of the Etruscans lie on the outskirts of Rome
48:44over 3000 years ago
48:48an Iron Age civilization called the Etruscans
48:52rose up between the Tiber and Arno rivers
48:58their culture thrived and spread across the Italian peninsula
49:05until it was overtaken by the rise of Rome
49:11a closer look to the north
49:16reveals an unassuming town called Bomatsa
49:19where traces of the Etruscans lie waiting to be found
49:27the land of the Etruscans spread from the Mediterranean coast
49:31through to forested volcanic highlands like these
49:35sculpted into peaks by wind and water erosion
49:41here their civilization could harvest timber for building
49:45and find animals to hunt
49:48and traces of their civilization still exist here today
49:55this ancient stone channel matches a known type of Etruscan road
50:00called a Via Cava
50:03cut from the soft volcanic rock by ancient hands
50:07it leads to one of the most enigmatic sites around Rome
50:11the pyramid of Bomatsa
50:16the pyramid too is thought to be Etruscan
50:18over two and a half thousand years old
50:22and built at a time when the seeds of democracy
50:25were yet to take root in ancient Greece
50:35the pyramid was discovered in 1911
50:38and then largely forgotten
50:41until local historian Salvatore Foschi rediscovered it in 2008
50:49the site was almost invisible
50:52choked by trees and vegetation
50:54so Salvatore took on the monumental task of clearing away the undergrowth
51:00the pyramid is hewn from a single boulder of the local Peperino stone
51:22it's thought to be an Etruscan altar
51:26facing north towards where they believed their gods, the Diimferi lived
51:34this is where Etruscan soothsayers may have sacrificed animals
51:38and predicted the future by reading their entrails
51:42a practice inherited by the Romans
51:48the Etruscan culture influenced Roman culture in many ways
51:53not only in the development of gladiator sports
51:56but also in engineering
51:59with the use of arches and vaults
52:02and the principles of water management and irrigation
52:05we have a lot of aqueducts
52:09or systems to bring water
52:12or systems of construction
52:15which makes us understand that this Etruscan world
52:17has brought us to an important evolution
52:19then the Etruscan were an advanced people
52:24of knowledge
52:26Rome itself is thought to have been founded and administered by the Etruscan
52:33and several early Roman kings were themselves Etruscan
52:45the Via Cava also leads to a mysterious site filled with cave dwellings
52:51carved into enormous boulders
52:56and the necropolis of Santa Cecilia
52:59which is filled with Christian graves
53:01but the site itself may too date back to Etruscan times
53:07Salvatore lives locally
53:09and returns here from time to time to ensure that the forest hasn't swallowed these precious remains
53:15When I started to break the pyramid
53:18I felt in the past
53:21those 2,500 years of history
53:22I felt it when I removed that vegetation from her
53:27Thanks to his efforts
53:29this remarkable structure in these historic woods
53:34will stand proud for the years to come
53:36To have the any of the most a few blocks that can do
53:40I had a beautiful line for people to come
53:40to see if you can even share the images like this
53:40and see if you can find it, or find it, or find it
53:42But remember what, that's happened
53:43It's a sense that we all may be
53:44You can find it