Il formaggio (cheese) is rarely missing from an Italian kitchen. This video takes us to the mountains north of Bergamo where the Monaci family has kept the family cheese-making tradition going, beginning in the stable where the cows are taken care of during the colder months.

Lo stracchino is a soft, mild but flavorful cheese that's spreadable, and we find it in supermarkets all over Italy. But the kind Francesca's family produces in the mountains, with traditional tools, is on a whole other level. Why is this cheese called stracchino? There is a fascinating reason. Watch the video.

The fine white mold that forms on the cheese helps give it its characteristic flavor, but it is also painstakingly scraped off each round. Before the high-altitude pastures are ready for grazing, humans take advantage of the snow and the trails.

Here and there in the small villages of the valley, there are interesting frescos hearalding back to earlier times. Two local recipes are offered: stuffed curly cabbage leaves and Taragna polenta, a kind of cornmeal with the addition of buckwheat.

In the Brembana Valley, the river reigns supreme. In fact, there is still a functioning water mill for grinding corn, as well as people passionate about maintaining centuries-old traditions.

We meet some very charming donkeys and hear about how Francantonio and his sons developed a passion for them.

The ancient via Priula leads us to the mountains where we visit a herbal laboratory, in which flowers and plants are transformed into beauty products using historical recipes.

We move on to Valtorta a spot where cheese is king. Here, they produce a special little cylindrical cheese called an agrì, exclusive to this spot. In fact, Slow Food, an organization that's become international but which began in Italy, has it as one of its special products.

Ferrari fans won't want to miss a stop at the Ferrari museum in Modena. Hear all about it from Antonio Ghini, director of the museum, and get a glimpse of the museum itself.

An exclusive interview with the world-famous Italian film director and screenwriter, Federico Fellini.

Fellini, interviewed at the Trevi Fountain, during the filming of La Dolce Vita, discussed his relationships with producers.

Fellini describes his relationship to a producer who became so exasperated by the director, that he drank ink in mock suicide.

Crowds of Romans gather to watch the filming of Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain. Federico Fellini tells of his inspirations for the film La Dolce Vita.

Fellini tells how La Dolce Vita scenes were filmed both on the Via Veneto and on a set reconstructing the famous street in Cinecittà. The director also discusses his being a Capricorn.

Federico Fellini discusses Marcello Mastroianni's role as "everyman" in La Dolce Vita. He encourages viewers to see Mastroianni's "passions, hopes, fears and cowardice, and anguish and sleaziness" as similar to their own.