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.

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.

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.

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.

Magpies [gazze ladre] in folklore are known to be attracted by shiny things. Rossini's opera La Gazza Ladra recounts the story of Ninetta, a servant girl. She is wrongly accused of stealing the silverware that the family magpie stole.

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

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

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.

Claudio Capotondi discusses his marble and travertine sculpture entitled PortaRoma, created in 2000.

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.

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.

Francesca and her travelling companion have just gotten a flat tire. Learn the steps for changing a tire along with Francesca.

"Innercore" is the title, inspired by an article in the New York Times, of Claudio Capotondi's masterpiece. He talks about the significance of the sculpture, and about the special kind of stone he used to make it.

Claudio Capotondo talks about the tools and techniques that enable him to transform a block of marble or porphyry (a kind of igneous rock) into a work of art.

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.