Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), recognized by her crown of roses, is Palermo's patron saint. The video shows the July 14 parade in honor of the saint, and a young man who credits his cure from a grave illness to Saint Rosalia.

Pitrè's mission was to conserve and safeguard the traditions of his people, the Sicilians, and to keep the roots alive. Looking at religious traditions is one important way to do this.

This segment focuses on an actor who retells and acts out stories from Sicily's past, speaking in Sicilian dialect. He uses the Pitrè Museum as a source for material. The museum houses a manuscript with over 4,000 Sicilian proverbs, just one of the many volumes of Sicilian ethnographic material.

Pitrè's life was marked by a sort of travelling storyteller tradition in his family. In those days, a cuntastorie (storyteller) would go around to all the piazzas and tell stories, and people would pay to hear them.

In this segment, we see some swordfish harpoon fishing, and hear an old Sicilian legend about a boy named Nicola who could stay underwater for a very long time.

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.

We learn about Pitrè's life, and his relationship to the sea.

Giuseppe Pitrè was an ethnologist who collected documents pertaining to Sicily and its culture and traditions. His work is the basis for this documentary, which unites live footage, drawings, and archival documents.

Not only does the race go from Brescia to Rome, it goes back to Brescia, and the last part, uphill, is very tricky. This historical footage and commentary is priceless! Fasten your seat belt for the finish line.

This historical footage of the Mille Miglia [thousand miles] car race from Brescia to Rome and back includes a cameo appearance by Ingrid Bergman.

Documentary in three parts, of the famous Italian car race La Mille Miglia (the one thousand miles) with historical shots of some of the greatest drivers in the world and their cars. Fasten your seatbelts for the first part of three.

The Naples Christmas market from up close. It's a rowdy scene, and there's a lot going on all at once. The famous horn shaped talisman called the cornetto is taken quite seriously as well as other instruments for keeping away the malocchio (evil eye). For more information about the cornetto, and the three r's referred to in the video, see this article in Italian.

What did people eat in Ancient Rome? Paolo, the owner of the restaurant, tells us about the history of the place and talks about the most popular dishes on the menu based on actual recipes from Roman times.

Find out what's so special about the restaurant where Anna and Marika are about to have lunch.

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.

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

After the war, when eating had to do with survival, tastes started to change and to branch out towards different regions. Now, once again cucina tipica (traditional local cooking) or prodotti tipici (local products) have practically become magic words.

Into the fifties, many Italians would stop at trucker restaurants, knowing they'd eat huge portions for little money. With prosperity, Italians began to search for authentic and higher quality foods. One of Marchesi's signature dishes is the open tortello, a deconstructed filled pasta.

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.

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.