Verdi's Rigoletto: intrigue, love, passion and cruelty. Brought to you by Anna and Marika.

Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto: more passion, intrigue, love, and cruelty at court. The curse is fulfilled!

Meet the characters from The Barber of Seville, an opera by Gioacchino Rossini that was first performed in 1816: brought to you by Anna and Marika.

Anna and Marika tell us the story of Rosina, who in the midst of deception and intrigue, ends up getting married. But to whom? The one she loves, or the one who wants her at all costs?

Magpies [gazze ladre] in folklore are known to be attracted by shiny things. Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra recounts the story of Ninetta, a servant girl. She is wrongly accused of stealing the silverware that the family magpie stole.

Ninetta is in prison, condemned to death, and things are looking very bleak, indeed. Don't worry though; in the end, love and justice win out, and everyone except the magistrate lives happily ever after.

Anna and Marika are having lunch in the Trastevere quarter of Rome. Join them as they order traditional Roman pasta dishes and talk about Italian eating habits.

Our Maratea friends sing two very famous songs, by two equally famous singers, which continue to be sung by successive generations. We're talking about "Azzurro" [Blue] by Adriano Celentano and "L'italiano" [The Italian] by Toto Cutugno. Have fun listening!

Adriano tells us about the famous southern Italian folk dance, la tarantella. He also tries dancing it himself.

Salvo Agria is a painter and according to him, art is the most liberating way of expressing oneself. He believes that a person doesn’t choose art, but that art chooses the person. He shows a painting that depicts three generations: a little girl, an adult woman, and an old woman.