Our narrator describes what it was like working on the set of La porta del cielo (the Gates of Heaven): the extras, the dangers, the boredom, and the strategies for keeping the cast and crew safe. He also explains how they reconstructed the railway carriages that are featured so prominently in the film.

Marika provides more useful expressions involving the head, many of which are also common in English.

Eda discovered Margherita Hack on a TV show hosted by Piero Angela. This changed Eda's life. Margherita as a young scientist had a rough time in a profession where men were the important ones and had little regard for women.

Vittorio De Sica, along with other filmmakers and actors, does not want to be transferred to Venice, as has been mandated by the State. There, he would have to shoot propaganda movies for the Fascists. Luckily a Catholic film company wants to make a movie about a train of sick and deformed people on their way to seek miracles at the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto, a popular pilgrimage destination in the Marches region. The kind of train that carries pilgrims is called un treno bianco (a white train).

A car problem allows us to meet Eda Gjergo, a young astrophysicist, who will in turn lead us to meet Margherita Hack, the subject of this episode about women luminaries. Hack was a famous scientist, communicator, and activist.

When the Americans bombed Rome in 1943, Maria was shooting a film in the San Lorenzo area, right where the freight yards were, the target of the bombing. Vittorio, on the other side of town, rushed to the site. Life would soon become extremely complicated and dangerous for those in the film industry.

There are various ways to talk about being obsessed, distracted, or crazy... Marika has some great examples from our favorite TV series.

The documentary concludes with some valuable advice from Rita Levi-Montalcini about how to live one's life. People who knew her offer some adjectives to describe who she was.

Vittorio De Sica did different kinds of movies, both as an actor, and a director, and had great success, although critics appreciated his comedies more than his serious movies. Whatever kind of film he was directing, he laughed and cried along with the actors. They loved him.

In her final years, Rita Levi-Montalci was very, very frail, but she never lost her combative spirit. Romano Prodi recalls the last time he saw her.

This documentary about the life of Vittorio De Sica, Italian actor and film director, is narrated by Marco Paolini. We begin during the occupation by the Nazis. Vittorio is in Rome shooting a film.

Marika's explanations together with examples from video clips make it easy and fun to learn new expressions using la testa (the head).

Not only did she win a Nobel prize; in her own country, she was appointed as a Senator for life, a great honor. But she took that job seriously and participated actively and with integrity. Not everyone appreciated that.

Fulvio tells us plenty of interesting things about the history of one of the symbols of Rome, the Colosseum. To begin with, it wasn't always called the "Colosseum."

After talking about the past, Vera and Giuliano talk about what they'd like to do in the future: There are places to visit and revisit.