"Food is culture." What do we mean by this? Cultural historian, Massimo Montanari, and world-famous chef, Gualtiero Marchesi share their views.

Back in the days when people traveled on horseback, Al Biondo Tevere was a convenient rest stop just outside the walls of the city. People would feed and water their horses, and trade what was in their bundles of food with their fellow travelers. Later, it became a proper restaurant and many famous people became regulars, including filmmakers, Pasolini and Bertolucci. Signora Giuseppina shares the story.

Don't miss the last part of Marika and Anna's encounter with Signora Giuseppina of the Trattoria al Biondo Tevere. You'll hear about a 56 year-old fridge, five weddings in one day, and sheep who do gardening.

As a fitting end to this journey into Italian gastronomy, Gualtiero Marchesi shares with us the recipe for one of his most special risottos, using his own innovative techniques while keeping with tradition.

When does an artist become an artist? Join Gualtiero Marchesi in his musings on art and the art of cooking in this new chapter.

In this segment, cooking is seen as an art form, starting with a white plate as the artist's canvas...

Antonio introduces us to the authentic Neapolitan pizza. He's right there in a famous pizzeria called Escopocodisera [Esco poco di sera] (I rarely go out at night), where Peppe, the pizzaiolo (pizza maker), demonstrates his art, step by step. Buon appetito!

Some artists, including Gualtiero Marchesi, talk about the past: horse-drawn carts for delivering produce, artists exchanging news from abroad before the widespread use of telephones, tripe for breakfast, still-life paintings reflecting the food of the times and its preparation. There's even talk of the desire to eat paintings! Buon appetito!

Gualtiero Marchesi talks about the chef as an artist, and how different chefs can be recognized by their distinctive artistic styles. In defending the choice of simple, genuine food, he goes on to talk about the art of slicing, and how it used to be "performed" right in the dining room.

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? That's what they say--but to Gualtiero Marchesi, that's not necessarily so. Sometimes beautiful is beautiful, period. As we've seen in other segments, cooking as an art form is a topic that's close to this chef's heart.

Art critic Gillo Dorfles talks about Milan in the fifties, sixties and seventies, and how, thanks to the war and to fascism, it developed as it did. Gualtiero Marchesi talks about the high standards of his cuisine, and some of the personalities who frequented his restaurant.

Antonio's description of Maratea, with its restaurants offering fresh local fish, fresh mozzarella, local meat, along one of the most beautiful coastlines in Italy, will surely make it high on the list of places to visit on your next trip to Italy.

Eugenio Medagliani, expert on the world of Italian cuisine, talks about the days when Gualtiero Marchesi wasn't yet very well known, but refused to make pasta dishes. He describes a trip they made together through the desert from L.A. to Las Vegas where Gualtiero started getting inspired about pasta.

Anna and Marika sit on a park bench musing about how much they like real fruits and vegetables, and then they actually go to the market where a farmer tells them about typically Roman produce.

Anna and Marika are planning a dinner, and start out by making a shopping list. They have some major decisions to make about the antipasti (appetizers)!

Giovanni Ballarini talks about Paris being the capital of haute cuisine, and about the birth of bourgeois cuisine at the time of the French Revolution. Chef Mariasole Capodanno talks about her experiences, as a young girl, with real French cuisine and how even the presentation was so amazing. Neapolitan and Sicilian cooking came out of the work of chefs who had been employed during the reign of the Bourbons, especially in Naples and Sicily, where the chefs were called Monsù, or Monzù a corruption of the French, Monsieur.

Gualtiero Marchesi talks about his experiences in Paris, learning from the chefs there. Actually, he already knew much of what was taught to him, because he'd had chefs in his family who were well-versed in both every day and fancy fare. He, on the other hand, was looking for something new and different.

Anna and Marika get to the shop (see part 1) and talk with Chiara who works there. She kindly explains a little bit about how mozzarella is made, and how it should be kept. You may be in for some surprises!

Who doesn't like pizza? Anna and Marika talk about Rome's take on pizza—a rectangular kind of takeout pizza you can order by the slice, and white pizza. Anna talks about focaccia from Apulia. Buon appetito!

Anna and Marika take you right into the pizzetteria where Flavio explains how pizza is made.

Alberto Capatti shares his memories of the grand restaurants of Paris in the sixties. Velvet curtains, low lighting, fires in the fireplaces, ten kinds of cheese — a far cry from what would become known as "nouvelle cuisine."

Get the scoop, along with Marika and Anna, on what types of mozzarella there are, and what they go well with on the dinner table.

Alberto Capatti talks about his first culinary experiences as an Italian in France, not knowing how to choose wine, etc. Gualtiero Marchesi talks about how he sought to take the elements he admired in French cuisine and apply them to his own style of cooking in Italy.

Gualtiero Marchesi had the opportunity to witness the beginnings of "nouvelle cuisine" in France before it arrived in Italy. The Troisgros family, with whom he worked, were famed for their innovative cooking. Their restaurant was in an area with no gastronomic legacy, and they had to rely on their skill, rather than on characteristic local ingredients.