Italy is being pushed to its limits right now, but hope never dies. Even though people have to stay home, there is a feeling of solidarity and positivity. Marika describes some of the initiatives that have taken form.

Imagine being on vacation and having to fly home during the pandemic. That's what happened to Melania who got stuck in Madrid on her way home from Venezuela.

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

Giuliano talks about why this year he chose to go to a lake for his vacation.

The alternative tourism video starts by showing some of Rome's iconic sites, but will focus on less well-known quarters, such as the Salario-Trieste neighborhood in north Rome.

Rome's Coppedè Quarter is the focus of the segment. Its eclectic style is difficult to characterize, but the narrator talks of the liberty style, which stems from the Liberty department store in London. In English, we know this style by the French term, Art Nouveau.

The segment shows us some interiors in Coppedè's dream-inspired complex.

More dreamy interiors of the Coppedè complex and an introduction to the Keats–Shelley House in Piazza di Spagna.

The segment touches on Byron and Shelley, but is mostly about Keats and his time in Rome. It also includes part of a beautiful love letter to Fanny Brawne. The narrator speaks of Keats living on the second floor. The Italian way of counting stories is to call the first floor, the ground floor, and the numbering starts above.

The narrator reads some moving passages from the letters of John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Giacomo Leopardi, the Italian poet and near contemporary to Keats and Shelley, also lived in Piazza di Spagna.

We visit the cemetery where the English poets are buried, and learn about the relationship between the Tiber River and the city of Rome.

Rome's many bridges are the focus of this video, including the Ponte Rotto, which dates back to ancient Rome. Only part of the Ponte Rotto is still standing and this is why it is called rotto or broken. Rivers are masculine in Italian, and ancient Roman statues portray River Gods as recumbent elderly men with long beards.

The tour draws to a close in Rome's rougher neighborhoods, those that were particularly fascinating to poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Arianna takes us around Florence. In this part, we walk from the main train station to the famous San Lorenzo market, where it's time to find some lunch.

Arianna is still a bit hungry, so she looks around for something else to eat. After lunch, she takes us downstairs to the actual market.

Arianna shows us the outside market near San Lorenzo, and we discover where the train station got its long name Santa Maria Novella. Arianna also gives us some important information about how to get to and from the airports of Pisa and Florence.

Today Arianna takes us back to Florence. This time we go to a high point on the southern side of the Arno river where we get a view of the whole city in all its splendor.

Arianna takes us down to one of the most popular and busiest parts of the city. Many areas are primarily zone pedonali (pedestrian areas) but you still have to be very careful.

Gianni takes us up to an abandoned villa, and reflects on the tremendous challenges the builder faced.

Gianni explores the interior of the abandoned villa, imagining what it might have been like before.

Arianna shows us around the Cathedral Square, where the bell tower, better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is located.

This beautiful church is worth a stop on the way from Pisa to the seaside. Arianna shares her discovery of it. The ceramic bowls that decorate the church are technically known as “bacini ceramici” in Italian, which could be translated as “ceramic basins.” Art historians who write in English, however, also use the term “bacini” for these tin-glazed works.

Arianna takes us down to a beach near Pisa, and explains a bit about how beaches work in many parts of Italy.

Arianna visits Lucca for the first time, and gets some advice from a friend who lives there. Arianna and Eleonora look at the map together to get an idea of how the city is laid out. With its Roman origins, Lucca's urban space was designed with intersecting roads called 'cardos' and 'decumani'.