Schools in fascist Italy banned the study of dialects and moved to using standardized textbooks. The fascist hymn “Viva Adua nostra” refers to a battle won by the Kingdom of Italy in 1896 near Adwa, Ethiopia.

This segment opens with a sort of poem, demonstrating how kids growing up in fascist Italy were expected to behave. Minority groups had a pretty hard time, too.

Mussolini inveighs against the middle class, saying that it is the enemy of fascism. Much of the footage in this segment features EUR, the Rome district that was built in the 30s and 40s.

The segment looks at the Royal Academy of Italy's dictionary of Italian, which was filled with quotes from Mussolini. By the end of World War II, the dictionary had gotten to the letter “C.”

After the war came TV. It changed everything, and provided a new way to unify the Italian language and teach people reading and writing.

The narrator goes over the vanishingly small number of expressions coined during Mussolini's time that are still in use today. The song that gives the series its name is provided in full.

The story of Adriano Olivetti and his development of the family business, which expanded from typewriters to computers. This first segment shows CIA officers who consider Olivetti's electronic brain a great threat to American business. The segment also features a flashback to Adriano's childhood in Ivrea, when he was not too eager to learn the ropes.

We start discovering what kind of person Adriano Olivetti is.

Adriano has some unwelcome news from Paola, his wife. On a nighttime walk above Ivrea, Adriano is threatened by a woman brandishing a gun.

There is an injured person in the woods in need of aid and Adriano doesn't hesitate. A birthday party is going on in the villa.

Adriano is doing the right thing. But the Germans come looking for an American pilot and search the whole house.

The family has realized that staying is not a wise choice, so, reluctantly, everyone starts getting ready to leave their beautiful home.

Adriano's father has decided to leave him the factory, but Adriano is not so sure about that. Adriano is still very much in love with Paola after two years apart.

The war is over, and Adriano goes back to Ivrea. The company is barely surviving, and Adriano's siblings look to him for solutions.

The Olivetti siblings have to decide whether to sell a stake in the factory or not. During the discussion, Paola arrives with the children.