In 1949 Giulio Castelli had a great idea: to bring into Italian homes objects that were useful, but also beautifully designed. The Kartell brand came onto the market.

When innovation and sustainability meet, creative projects emerge. International designers, carefully chosen materials, and strategies give life to quality products to show the whole world.

EMU specializes in furniture for the outdoors. But it got its start in post-war Italy by designing metal desks for schoolrooms.

Designers come from all over the world to maintain an international style. Production is carried out almost exclusively in the plant located in Umbria but most of what is produced will go to markets abroad.

Architect Enza Martellota explains the origins of the trullo and how it developed over time.

Apulia is famous for the characteristic trullo. But another typical building is the lamia, a rural building with a square base, sloping dry stone walls and a roof usually made with a lowered barrel vault or a dome. This characteristically simple construction consists of a single room, used as a temporary shelter for the farm's agricultural workers or storage. Today, many of these farms have been transformed into hotels.

Borgo Sansepolcro is an out-of-the-way Tuscan city. But, as this video sets out to explain, it boasts one of the most beautiful paintings in the world, so it is well worth the journey. The video begins with some passages from a 1925 essay by Aldous Huxley: “The Best Picture.” We have translated the Italian translation back into English, for learning purposes, but you can find the original English version here.

The host describes the fascinating story of a British army captain who, during World War II, happened to have read Aldous Huxley's words (quoted in the previous segment), and remembered them just in time.

Restoring the Resurrection was a lengthy and complex process, consisting of reinforcement, cleaning, and the retouching of the painting itself.

The restorers take us through the meticulous cleaning process involving Japanese rice paper, a gel made from marine algae, and a solvent.

Piero was not just a painter; he was a member of an important family in Borgo Sansepolcro. There is a fresco painting attributed to him that might have alluded to the family business, which was producing and selling leather goods.

It's rare for a work of art to become the symbol of a city and even be part of its coat of arms, but this did indeed happen in Borgo Sansepolcro. Piero's Resurrection may be thought of as a fresco, but it's much more complicated than that, as we learn in this segment.

For art historians, it is so interesting to try to figure out, with the materials at hand, what Piero wanted his work to finally look like, but it's a challenge, as the artist's initial sketches have been lost.

With techniques available today, it is possible to distinguish the various layers of plaster used on different days of work, to determine in what order the artists and their assistants applied the paint. And during the cleaning, details can come out that were previously not visible, including buildings and even letters of the alphabet.

Retouching the painting is a very delicate job, and is done in such a way as to be reversible, and respectful to the original.