Our famous chef talks about the town where he spent much of his childhood, San Zenone al Po, where two rivers meet, and where flooding has always been part of life.

Marika names some of the delicious fruits available in Italy. In general the fruits themselves are feminine, while the plants on which they grow take the masculine form.

Marika takes us through the vegetables used in Italian cooking. Buon appetito!

Pasta alla carbonara is a characteristic dish from Lazio, and more specifically, from Rome. It's made with "humble" ingredients but that doesn't prevent it from being wonderfully tasty, and a favorite with pasta lovers everywhere. This is the Adriano's own version.

Marika shows us the various pots and pans, plates and silverware used every day in Italian kitchens, dining rooms and restaurants.

Adriano finishes showing us how to make "spaghetti alla carbonara." Ingredients for 4 servings: 500 grams of pasta, 300 grams of bacon cubes, 4 eggs, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.

Pizzeria Brandi is an historic pizzeria in Naples, dating back to the seventeen seventies. Pizza Margherita, named after the Savoy queen Margherita, was invented at the pizzeria in the eighteen eighties.

Gualtiero Marchesi recalls his childhood, living along the banks of the River Po. His memories are as diverse as milking cows and seeing German bombers taking out bridges.

Giovanna, a resident of Campania, explains how tomato puree is made, and then preserved in glass jars.

Gualtiero Marchesi recalls the early years of his friendship with Aldo Calvi, when the would hunt and fish together along the Po.

Pre-war and wartime cooking, when fuel for cooking was in short supply, made raw recipes come to the fore.

Water, earth, fish, animals, rice: these were the fundamental elements of Italian cuisine in the pre-war and war years, elements that profoundly influenced the culinary creations of one of the most famous chefs in Italy, Gualtiero Marchesi.

The video weaves together Marchesi recounting a story about his first love when he was twelve, and a critic discussing Artusi and Marchesi's debt to popular cuisine.

We learn how and when rice was introduced into Italy. It first appeared in the fourteen hundreds, brought to Lombardy from Spain; and to Sicily from the Arabic world.

One thing that has made Gualtiero Marchesi become such a great in modern Italian cuisine has been his ability to create new dishes by rearranging, in an innovative way, traditional dishes of every region of Italy, each different in taste and quality.

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.

Into the fifties, many Italians would stop at trucker restaurants, knowing they'd eat huge portions for little money. With prosperity, Italians began to search for authentic and higher quality foods. One of Marchesi's signature dishes is the open tortello, a deconstructed filled pasta.

Who doesn't love ice cream? Andromeda gives us her take on the history of gelato (ice cream), from Mount Etna in Sicily to Paris.

After the war, when eating had to do with survival, tastes started to change and to branch out towards different regions. Now, once again cucina tipica (traditional local cooking) or prodotti tipici (local products) have practically become magic words.

Andromeda talks about the various types of ice cream and how they are made.

"Starvation gastronomy " describes the humble origins of Italian cuisine. Inventing recipes based on whatever was available in the territory resulted in regional dishes that have become famous today.

Il pane (bread) is an important staple at the Italian table, no question about it. There is a great variety of kinds of bread, and in fact, every region has its own. Anna and Marika take you to discover some of their favorites.

Marika and Anna take you to a shop where they make and sell fresh pasta. Have fun!

Marika and Anna take us to a famous restaurant on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome. Tune in to discover what's so special about it. (It has to do with movies and movie stars.) And... maybe you can guess what pasta dish Anna is going to order!