[ Choir singing in Latin ] ♪ ♪ >> Italia, a land unlike any other... lost in time, shrouded in memory.

How can history ever fully recount all that has happened in this remarkable place?

[ Woman vocalizing ] ♪ The countless lives devoted to toil and sacrifice that have been spent in fields not just for centuries but for millennia... ♪ The hands, not only of great artists, but the hands that have cut stone away from the rock face, that have constructed walls and buildings... And the remarkable roadways that connected empires.

Che magnifica terra questa Italia?

"What extraordinary land is this?," home to so many diverse civilizations.

♪ And from where else in the world have so many civilizations reached out -- first throughout the Mediterranean, and then across great oceans, to leave their mark forever on the world's consciousness?

[ Helicopter whirring ] ♪ From the forested hills and carefully tended fields to the rugged coastline of Southern Italy is a journey of minutes and of eons.

The familiar boot-shaped peninsula was thrust up through the Mediterranean millions of years ago by violent forces deep below the Earth's surface -- forces that left the rugged coastline one of the most breathtaking in the world.

♪ ♪ ♪ Where nature has chosen to be kind, she offers a simple pleasure of a day at the seaside.

♪ ♪ Moving even slightly inland, we can begin to touch the earthly soul of Southern Italy.

♪ This is the land of the southern sun, of afternoon heat so harsh it gives the region its name, il Mezzogiorno, "the midday."

Before there was modern irrigation summer droughts made life so difficult many families were forced to leave their land They left Apulia and the Abruzzi, Campania and Calabria, most of them for America.

For many of them and their children, the Mezzogiorno has always remained the homeland.

In modern times, technology has helped to make the land far more manageable and productive.

♪ Since feudal times, farming families have clustered in hilltop villages, surrounded by their small, geometric fields.

♪ Naples -- Napoli -- Italy's great industrial center and international seaport was once called Neapolis, an ancient Greek colony centuries before the Roman empire.

Civilization is built upon civilization in this surprising place.

Like layers of time, here, history is always just below one's feet, and at the fingertips, time itself lingers on the warm sea breeze.

Artists and poets have fallen hopelessly under the spell of her horizon, the graceful stretch of shoreline, from charming Posillipo in the North to the foreboding yet majestic Vesuvius.

Neapolitans are known throughout Italy as people of excess and contradiction, by turns vivacious and melancholy, but always full of passion.

They love their dinners of fresh clams, their vongole, their spaghetti served al dente, of course.

They love their dolci, their babao rum with a glass of Lacrima Cristi, "Christ's tears."

And they especially love their city.

From the tiny Porto de Santa Lucia, which gave rise to the most famous Neapolitan street song, to the towering heights of the Spacca Napoli.

[ "Santa Lucia" plays ] Legend has it that the Roman poet Virgil hid an egg within the castle wall.

If the egg were destroyed, the castle and the city would be destroyed, as well.

But both are still standing.

French royalty once ruled over this part of Italy, which is why this cathedral is done not in the Italian, but in the classical French gothic style.

During the soccer season, the Napoli stadium echoes with the roar of rabid fans, who often leave disappointed when the team plays national rivals Roma and Milano Surrounded by deep moats, this fortress was built in 1282 to protect the harbor.

Built to rival the famed Galleria in Milano, this glass structure was a shopping mall a full century before the concept arrived in suburbia.

[ "Santa Lucia" continues ] Laid out in the center of old Naples, this noble square faces the church of St.

Francis of Paola, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome.

Commercial Naples resembles almost any other of the world's modern financial centers.

Fortunately, old Naples surrounds it with a character that was centuries in the making.

This immense monastery towers over the city, from a high spur in the elegant Vomero quarter.

The world-famous crescent-shaped shoreline caresses the famed Bay of Naples.

From here, ships depart for every port in the world.

One of the most impressive ports of call is a small island barely an hour away.

♪ ♪ Known to locals as Italy's emerald isle because of its lush year-round vegetation, Ischia is the jewel among all the islands in the Bay of Naples.

On a volcanic island not quite ten miles across, we discover astounding diversity.

Lush vacation homes and beach resorts share the island with small wine-growing villages that retain their centuries-old appearance.

♪ ♪ One of the modern world's great archaeological sites is the resort city of Pompeii, which was buried in 79 A.D.

in one of the most sudden and disastrous volcanic eruptions in history.

It is quite literally a Roman city trapped in time.

Pompeii was founded in the 5th-century B.C.

and came under the influence of greater Greece.

It later became a favorite vacation site of wealthy Romans, most notably emperors and senators.

Its population was more than 25,000 On the lower slopes of Vesuvius, ironically, volcanic matter has made the soil extremely fertile.

Fruit trees blossom here.

The grapes that become the famous Lacrima Cristi take their special flavor from the soil.

This is a land of great ironies.

The ground has often shifted and erupted without warning.

Such uncertainty has shaped the character of these Italians -- made them wary... but also made them wise and strong, and, most importantly, enduring.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ Birds squawking ] Called either the Sorrento or the Amalfi peninsula, depending on one's loyalties, the rugged mainland south of Naples juts out almost 30 miles into the sea.

♪ Sorrento is justly famous in story and song because its charm and tranquility are truly irresistible.

How can anyone even think of not returning to Sorrento?

♪ The journey southward requires drivers to take the famed -- and terrifying -- Amalfi drive, which at some points narrows to the same width it had 150 years ago.

Its virtue is that it is impossible to get lost, although on holiday weekends traffic jams often last half a day.

When traffic is moving, things can get even worse.

After all, Italian drivers have their reputation to uphold.

♪ Some of the most beautiful panoramas of the Mediterranean and southern coast are seen from these cliffside homes.

But from our vantage point, it is the houses themselves that take the breath away.

The Amalfi wends its way to the popular resort and fishing village of Positano, where white houses of Moorish influence amid lush gardens dot the dizzying slopes to the sea.

♪ And always, the ancient, winding road reminds us of the lives that have passed along it... albeit much more slowly.

♪ ♪ Amalfi, whose red-tile roofs blaze in the sun, appears to be a sprawling cliffside village, and it is -- now.

More than 1,000 years ago, it was a proud and powerful maritime republic, whose trade with the East made it a rich commercial and cultural port.

The road from Amalfi climbs in hairpin turns up the Valley of the Dragon to a magical site suspended between sea and sky.

This is the region of Campania at its sweetest.

What strikes a visitor about Ravello is its peacefulness.

Gone is the hurly-burly of the coastal towns.

The deepest pleasure is to wander its quiet medieval streets.

♪ ♪ For as far back as memory can reach, fishermen here have gone down to the sea in ships and managed to earn a living in these small coastal towns.

♪ ♪ Once a rival to Napoli, Salerno was one of the most renowned medieval cities in Southern Italy, nicknamed "City of Socrates" for the Greek influence in its schools of higher learning.

Now a modern industrial city and port, Salerno has special significance to Americans who recall the amphibious Allied landing in 1943 and the costly push inland, which helped change the course of World War II.

It's a recollection both painful and proud.

Beyond the fields south of Salerno, the ancient past beckons in a startling way.

Greek temples of yellow limestone in remarkably pure condition stand where 2,500 years ago Athena and Poseidon and Hera were worshiped by Greek colonists.

The same sweet odors of cypress and oleander float in the air today as they did when Greeks walked along the Decumanus Maximus, Paestum's main street.

This is indeed a land sanctified by time.

Paestum became Roman 200 years before the birth of Christ and declined along with the empire.

In this case, we know the reason -- an outbreak of malaria.

Old and new become almost irrelevant here as time loses its conventional dimensions.

♪ As the coastline takes us from the region of Campania through Basilicata and into Calabria, fishing villages mark the entire route.

Quaint as they may appear, pulling a living from the sea is a difficult, uncertain matter.

♪ One can only imagine, as we soar unencumbered, the human effort and toll, the remarkable ingenuity that made this coastal road possible.

♪ Of all the ancient roads in southern Italy, none was created with any greater sense of sacrifice and piety than the one leading to a 72-foot tall statue of an all-embracing Jesus.

♪ ♪ From Appenine hill town to the coast carries us not only over land, but through time, as well.

♪ The Italian desire to make everything beautiful remains a compelling constant -- as does the inspiration that comes from an expression of religious fervor.

♪ ♪ The world of commerce has an impressive presence along the coastline, but that is nothing new here.

Few places in the world have had a greater seagoing history than maritime Italia.

Picturesque Bagnara Calabra looks no different from other fishing towns in the region, but it happens to be the main port for swordfishing in Italy -- and that is indeed a different sort of fishing.

♪ ♪ In Homer's "Odyssey," the great rock of Scilla was actually depicted as a female monster who smashed ships and sailors to ruin at her whim.

These days a lighthouse offers a beacon to safety.

♪ Some of the country's finest autostradas are in the South.

Their architectural design, not surprisingly, is modeled on the aqueducts of ancient Rome.

The port of Reggio di Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot, was rebuilt after an earthquake a hundred years ago.

It is best appreciated when the sea breeze turns and the sweet odor of orange and lime trees, and especialiy the flowers used for making perfume, are wafted toward the city on the warm air.

Here Sicily is so close her coastline tempts us.

We could so easily soar across the Strait of Messina and continue our flight over mighty Aetna, and off toward Cefalu, Palermo, and Agrigento.

But Sicily is another culture entirely -- another world to visit -- one we must leave to tempt us again at another time.

♪ The sea surrounds this age-old land.

Ships have brought her tokens of so many rich and differant worlds and Italia has transformed them, made them her own.

From Brindisi and Bari on the Adriatic, as well as Naples, Salerno, and Reggio di Calabria, daring voyagers and merchant ships of every type have departed and returned to port.

But, finally, it is the timeless land itself and the people who have tamed it that gives a great civilization its place in world history.

There is always on this land the echo of history, the sound of footfalls, of hoofbeats and cartwheels, as they have moved ever northward.

[ Helicopter whirring ] ♪ Once again, antiquity meets the modern world in a city like Cosenza at the confluence of the Crati and Busento rivers.

Alaric, king of the Visigoths, after the sacking of Rome, died in Cosenza and is supposedly buried near the Busento with all his treasure.

♪ Of course, where nature reigns, change is barely noticeable, and human history retreats to insignificance.

This can be an unforgiving land, the Aspromonte Massif, these southern Apennines, and yet men and women have tamed them with their will and strength of heart.

♪ Old Caserta was known as the Versailles of Southern Italy, in part because of its grandiose castle, La Reggia, built for a Bourbon king -- but more specifically for its extraordinary formal gardens... the mile-long promenade with elegant pools... and not the least for its exquisite ornamental cascade.

♪ This land has known bitter conquest and glorious liberation.

No battle here was ever fiercer than the battle for this commanding abbey in World War II.

For seven months, Allied troops tried to dislodge the enemy from the summit stronghold.

Repeated attacks brought heavy losses and repeated failure, until the final, desperate attack, spearheaded by Polish troops, many of whom are buried in the abbey cemetery.

♪ ♪ The rustic and staid rural life of the countryside is lived in marked contrast to the speed and danger of a passing maneuver on the autostrada.

Almost everywhere in Italy, but particularly in the South, it is the quality of daily life that matters most -- its beauty, its simple pleasures, its small triumphs.

♪ The stately Alban Hills to the southeast are really Rome's distant suburbs.

It is to this area of the Castelli Romani -- the Roman castles -- that the pope retreats when the summer heat in the city becomes infernal.

♪ Many Romans go to the Tivoli Gardens, where the spray of fountain water creates a cool, bracing mist.

The emperor Hadrian in the first century A.D.

also needed a private summer retreat He had reproductions built of his favorite buildings from classical Greece and Egypt.

It was once a little truer than it is now that all roads lead to Rome.

No road was ever more important than the Appian Way -- Via Appia Antica -- which was paved all the way from Rome to Brindisi.

Roman law forbade anyone from being buried within the city walls, so wealthy Romans selected choice locations along the Appian Way for their mausoleums.

♪ These days, it is the autostradas that lead to modern Rome.

♪ The old walled city is a constant reminder of a legendary city, ever historical, yet ever emerging.

♪ Constantine, the first Christian emperor, built a basilica on the site where St.

Peter was buried.

Although the cathedral has gone through many transformations in 1,700 years, it remains the spiritual soul of the Roman Catholic church.

♪ And adjacent Vatican City, the smallest independent country in the world, with about 1,000 inhabitants on 109 acres, is the government of the Holy See.

You may agree to meet on the Spanish Steps -- you may be there on time and might actually get together, but either way, something interesting and unexpected is certain to happen.

After all, this is Roma.

This piazza, featuring a beautifully sculptured fountain by Bernini, is built on the site of Domitian's Stadium and retains its original oblong shape.

♪ ♪ The Via Flaminia, a road built in 220 B.C., which ran from Rome to the Adriatic coast, entered the city through this portal and piazza.

Meant to be a memorial to Victor Emmanuel II, during whose reign Italy was unified, this elaborate monument is sarcastically called the "Wedding Cake" by irreverent Romans.

The capital of Rome was the Campidoglio, whose paving stones and façades were designed by Michelangelo himself.

What remains of imperial Rome appears to be little more than meaningless ruin, but there is much more here than the distant reminder of Caesar and his legions.

In each stone, each brick, there is a life story.

In the partial walls and columns, the history of a great community.

We are gazing, in fact, at a great civilization that was as alive and vibrant in its time as we are in the present day.

These gigantic baths could accommodate 1600 bathers at any time in three vast pools of different temperatures -- cool, tepid, and hot.

Pantheon literally means "temple of all the gods," and it was precisely that in Roman times, although today it Is a Catholic church.

The painter Raphael is buried here.

Caius Cestius, a Roman magistrate, died in 12 B.C., and for reasons never fully understood this pyramid was built in his honor right in the Aurelian Wall.

Legend has it that Romulus and Remus, founders of ancient Rome, were brought to the Palatine hill by a nurturing she-wolf.

On this very site, archaeologists have found traces of 10th-century B.C.

dwellings, giving some credence to parts of the legend.

♪ Now open to the public, the park of the Villa Borghese was the first of its kind in Rome -- a formal garden and lake covered with shade trees.

It was a style imitated by other prominent Roman families.

The villa today houses a superb private art collection that includes works by Titian and Bernini.

Standing proudly on the Esquiline, the highest of Rome's famed seven hills, this double-cupolaed cathedral presents a most successful blend of diverse architectural styles.

By Roman standards, this fountain is not particularly old -- a mere 250 years.

But ever since the movie "Three Coins in a Fountain," none of Rome's other fountains has attracted as many tourists... or lovers.

[ Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" plays ] ♪ The Tiber River weaves itself through Rome like a timeless tale.

And like the history of this storied land, she is a stream in which past, present, and future blend into something that feels eternal -- eternal river... eternal city... eternal land.

[ "Nessun Dorma" continues ] ♪ ♪ [ Choir singing in Latin ]