The Hidden Worlds Underneath Venice | The Travel Edit

0:00 So, Gianluca, where are we?

0:01 This is the Bourbon tunnel.

0:02 Yeah.

0:03 Yeah.

0:04 So, this is the escape tunnel

0:06 Yeah.

0:06 for the king to go from the palace

0:09 Yeah.

0:09 in the Piazza del [music] Plebiscito

0:11 Yeah.

0:12 to the

0:13 barracks.

0:13 to the military barracks.

0:14 Wow.

0:16 [groaning]

0:16 The king was very worried, Ferdinand II, so he decided to dig a tunnel.

0:21 But this is a huge tunnel.

0:23 You don't Because it was a king.

0:27 It's so big because the Bourbon tunnel is joined together all

0:32 the tufo quarries under here that had helped to build [music] in Naples.

0:37 And its uses didn't end there.

0:39 After World War II, it was even a dump for abandoned vehicles.

0:48 As our scanning team begins the task of making sense of this labyrinth,

0:53 we're going to look at what went on down here during the Second World War.

1:01 Come with me.

1:02 I want to show you something from the World War II.

1:06 A bomb [music] shelter.

1:07 Naples was the most bombed Italian city in World War II.

1:12 It's estimated that Allied raids killed more than 20,000 people.

1:17 Look there.

1:19 We have found the beds, the original.

1:22 And the toys for children.

1:24 Oh.

1:24 Look.

1:25 Come in me.

1:27 You can read alarm 26 [music] April '43 and here Noi vivi.

1:36 We are still alive.

1:40 [music] Because it was better to stay than stay outside under the bombing.

1:44 [music] Nearly 200 km of tunnels

1:50 [music] were cleared and electricity cables laid

1:53 to cater for the hundreds of thousands

1:55 of Neapolitans forced to shelter from Allied bombing.

2:00 But life went on.

2:01 When we dig here we found this Oh.

2:07 green color, as you can see.

2:09 As you can You sure you want to be doing that?

2:13 [sighs] Try, please.

2:13 Don't be afraid.

2:17 Is that Is that hair lotion?

2:19 Yeah, a very old That's like like when you go to the old barber shop.

2:25 Exactly.

2:25 How Se- 70 years old.

2:28 70 years?

2:30 [music]

2:29 It works.

2:31 But it hasn't changed.

2:32 Yeah.

2:33 Do you Do you use it yourself occasionally when you're down here?

2:36 No, that's I prefer not.

2:39 [music]

2:40 Okay.

2:39 That is extraordinary.

2:40 Yes, very nice.

2:47 I love the fact that this tunnel was originally built to save one man, a king.

2:54 It never did, [music] but it actually it ended up saving

2:57 thousands of people as a bomb shelter during the Second World War.

3:05 [music] I've come to the heart of the Campi Flegrei,

3:10 to the Roman town of Baiae for my very own introduction to the underworld.

3:15 In ancient Roman times,

3:16 [music] this was known as the Agora or the workplace of Hephaestus or Vulcan,

3:22 the god who worked with fire and lava

3:24 to create the great weapons of the gods themselves.

3:26 [music] Hercules was supposed to have come here and defeated the Titans.

3:31 And you can imagine them seeing this all around them,

3:34 boiling lakes of mud at over 200° C, sulfuric streams spewing into the air.

3:41 This was where the Romans came to get just as close

3:45 as one [music] would ever want to do to the underworld.

3:49 I'm working with a team of speleologists.

3:51 [music] They're going to take me

3:53 into a man-made tunnel that when it was discovered

3:55 in the 1960s was thought to be

3:58 the mythical entrance leading [music] to the river Styx.

4:05 I'm quite looking forward to this [music] journey into the underworld.

4:08 In the ancient Greek and Roman myths and stories, it's only the mad,

4:12 the bad, and the utterly heroic that decide to make this journey.

4:23 [music] It's the fact that this is not only going into the earth,

4:29 into the hillside, but it's going down at the same time, isn't it?

4:32 You really do feel like you're traveling down into the center of the earth.

4:39 It does feel like being in somebody's armpit.

4:42 I'm now having to go definitely with my bended knee and my bended back.

4:48 This really does feel like it could go on forever.

4:53 And the temperature is definitely rising.

4:56 The geothermal energy of this incredible area

4:58 of the world is so seismically [music] active,

5:02 so on the edge of tectonic forces that have shaped this landscape.

5:10 We're going down at the same time, down, down, down.

5:14 But who knows who is waiting for us at the end.

5:20 You really want to let a sleeping giant lie.

5:24 You don't want to be the one who wakes it up.

5:31 Well, here we are finally arriving at the river Styx.

5:36 I have a chance to put my hand in the waters.

5:38 I hope it isn't the fabled river forgetfulness of the underworld.

5:43 Ah.

5:45 Tepid here and you can see that the water stretches far back.

5:49 They dived this when they first discovered it in the '60s and found

5:53 the hot thermal springs that turned this water into a a very warm,

5:58 well, 60° back then, but nowadays it's more in the high 20s.

6:04 You can understand coming here why people would have thought in [music]

6:06 ancient times that this might be one of the routes into the underworld.

6:11 But in reality, I think there's a much more simple,

6:15 but also satisfying explanation.

6:20 [music]

6:24 The ancients thought it was easy to get into the underworld,

6:27 but much more tricky to get out.

6:29 So, I'm relieved to make it back to the surface.

6:31 This is going to be special.

6:33 I've never seen [music] the treasures I've been promised down here before.

6:39 This is Baiae's [music] lost harbor,

6:42 where the notorious Caligula is said to have reacted

6:45 to a prophecy that he would never be emperor until he rode

6:48 on horseback across [music] the water of the bay by tethering

6:51 4,000 ships together from this harbor wall and trotting [music] across.

7:03 That was my first sighting of the Portus Julius.

7:06 What's magic is that you can follow the grand monumentality of the lines,

7:10 the solid masonry that's still there,

7:13 straight out at sea and then across the bay.

7:16 You can imagine that those walls doing

7:17 a pretty good job at protecting the fleet.

7:23 Now I want to experience the posh villas,

7:26 and as these watery gems [music] have sunk even deeper beneath the waves,

7:30 I'll need to scuba dive for this.

7:35 This is absolutely incredible.

7:38 I could do with a little champagne, I think, at this moment in time.

7:44 So, we're in one of the rooms of one of those posh fancy villa owners.

7:50 And I am currently in the process of uncovering this gentleman's mosaic floor.

7:58 If only this mosaic could talk.

8:07 [music] The mosaic floor isn't the only treat.

8:09 The statues in this Roman villa are now faithful replicas so

8:13 that enthusiasts can still share the magic of this lost world.

8:20 There was a wonderful story that in this dining room there was a channel

8:25 of seawater that the plates of exotic food floated on around the diners.

8:33 It was the yo sushi moving belt of the ancient world.

8:39 So, there's a wonderful irony that now this is itself underwater.

8:45 And the fish that once graced the tables now rule supreme down here.

8:56 I absolutely love it.

8:58 This is the first time that I've been able to see this underwater world

9:06 [sighs and gasps] lost in time, wrapped in silence as the sea

9:10 levels have risen and the earth has fallen.

9:15 What a great place to explore.

9:17 a team of underwater archaeologists and restorers

9:20 who are repairing a section of canal wall.

9:25 The visibility is not currently fantastic.

9:30 It's uh incredibly disorientating.

9:35 [music] The team has timed my dive at the turning of the tide.

9:38 As the water starts to rush out of the lagoon,

9:40 it takes some of the silt with [music] it.

9:48 We're starting to get a little bit of clarity now down here,

9:52 which is really exciting.

9:54 So, I'm pressed up just against the canal wall,

9:58 the deep stone foundations under the building.

10:06 As the water clears,

10:08 it reveals the invisible foundations of the Venetians amphibious city.

10:13 What we're looking at here is it's an exposed tops of tree trunks.

10:19 These ones here are in fantastic condition.

10:24 It's hard to believe this is wood from that is hundreds of years old.

10:33 The early Venetians took massive wooden trunks between

10:39 1 and 1/2 to 2 to 3 m long and they pounded them into the mud along

10:45 the boundaries of the area they wanted to build on.

10:50 [sighs and gasps]

10:52 Now, that secured the mud and gave them the beginnings of a strong foundation.

10:58 [sighs] But, obviously, normally wood would not survive.

11:00 And yet, here's the miracle.

11:03 Thanks to the anaerobic conditions deep in the mud where there's no oxygen,

11:08 these tree trunks don't rot.

11:12 The exterior walls of Venice's streets and palazzos

11:15 are supported by thousands of tightly packed

11:18 wooden piles thrust into the mud of the lagoon

11:22 to shore up the city's precious land.

11:25 It's an ingenious piece of engineering that's kept

11:27 [music] the city afloat for hundreds of years.

11:31 Paolo Zanetti and his team are tasked

11:33 with ensuring it lasts into future centuries.

12:08 Now, the 30,000 boats rushing around Venice every day are exposing the piles.

12:14 The wash and the underwater waves

12:16 from propellers are destroying the canal walls.

12:53 [laughter] We need to go back to road boats and everything would be

12:57 grand staircase entrance in the Doge's Palace

13:01 and the smell of power is reeking in the air.

13:06 You've got the god of the sea, Poseidon,

13:09 greeting you on the right to the god of war, Ares, on the left.

13:14 And then above us, the winged lion of St.

13:17 Mark of Venice.

13:19 There's no way that you couldn't be impressed, overwhelmed by this place.

13:24 But, it's an odd one because it looks like a palace fit for a king.

13:28 And yet, the ruler of Venice, the Doge, was no king.

13:31 In fact, Venice had a very complex system

13:34 in which no one person was trusted with absolute power.

13:39 Indeed, despite being a powerful place that dominated the world,

13:44 it was terrified of giving power to any one person.

14:02 Our scans uncover the labyrinthine internal structure of the palace.

14:07 It reflects the Venetian Republic's complex

14:10 political structure that evolved over these centuries.

14:16 This is the room where the Venetian leaders gathered [music] to elect the Doge.

14:19 He would then hold the position for life.

14:25 Then there are grand halls for overlapping

14:27 and competing bureaucracies diluting his power.

14:32 There's the Senate, the College, the Council of 10.

14:37 The members of these bodies and the Doge himself

14:40 were all drawn from the most important assembly of all.

14:47 Welcome to the Chamber of the Great Council of the Venetian Republic.

14:53 53 m [music] long, 25 m wide.

14:57 It's the largest room in the palace.

14:59 Yet, more than that, it's the largest room in pretty

15:02 much any palace or headquarters of state [music] anywhere in Europe.

15:07 The Venetians knew how to build big and [music] build impressive.

15:11 But, what I love about this place is the the way it symbolizes both how

15:16 Venice saw itself and the complex checks

15:19 and balances [music] in how it ran itself.

15:22 So, along the tops of the walls here are portraits of the first 76 Doges,

15:28 the leaders of Venice, the chief magistrates of the Venetian Republic.

15:33 But, just in case anyone forgot that the Doge was not all powerful,

15:38 there is this, the black curtain covering the Doge who tried to go too far.

15:46 Not only was he executed,

15:48 but evermore given damnatio memoriae, banished from memory,

15:53 and yet kept in memory because the Doge was sitting right

15:59 there opposite with this constantly in view just to remind him.

16:05 And frankly, that was probably the last reminder he

16:07 needed because in this great hall is the Great Council,

16:11 the members of every patrician family in Venice, the male members.

16:16 So, something like 1,200 to 2,000 people who

16:20 saw themselves as the bedrock of the Venetian Republic,

16:24 the people who were there to keep guardianship of the laws,

16:27 to keep the Doge in his place,

16:29 and to make sure that the Venetian Republic continued on track.

16:34 isn't going to get me into [music] trouble at home.

16:36 So, this is one of the most famous of the casinos from the 18th century.

16:39 Casanova would have been here.

16:42 And what does one come to one of these little casinos to do?

16:46 [music] Uh gambling and sex.

16:48 Gambling and sex?

16:49 In equal measure or in the same place?

16:51 Gambling is the main thing.

16:52 The the rooms there were beautiful women came here, beautiful courtesans.

16:56 So, it was basically devoted to pleasures of every every every kind.

17:00 Uh as you can see, it's beautifully adorned.

17:03 By the 18th century,

17:05 uh the population of Venice was 100,000 people, men and women.

17:08 And there were 12,000 prostitutes.

17:10 Over 10%.

17:12 Over 10% of the population.

17:13 Now, the courtesans are the finest of the finest of the creme de la creme.

17:16 They're the ones who become extremely wealthy.

17:18 They're the most sought after.

17:20 They would go to extraordinary lengths to make themselves beautiful.

17:21 They would wash their hair in urine so it would have a sort of a Wow.

17:25 I mean, I'm used to it

17:26 from the the ancient Roman perspective that you literally you

17:28 use urine to wash your clothes in because

17:30 of the ammonia kind of cleans everything out.

17:32 But, washing your hair seems to be a whole different level.

17:34 It would actually give them a a sort

17:36 of a reddish golden tinge that was very fashionable.

17:38 So, it's dying then.

17:39 It's it's a it's a And the smell?

17:42 I think if you washed it out, it was all right.

17:44 But, but the main thing was the fashion.

17:45 These extraordinary outfits that they would wear,

17:47 these very low-cut bodices, these with veils.

17:50 Uh and also these shoes, these extraordinary platform shoes.

17:55 And I thought the Spice Girls had been through here.

17:57 I swear these had come from.

17:59 What shoe size are you?

18:00 You can try them on.

18:01 I'm an 11.

18:02 So, I don't know I don't think I I don't think I can fit into it.

18:05 I just want to see what they Let's go.

18:07 What's going on here?

18:09 You can do it.

18:10 All right.

18:10 My hand.

18:11 Why god, I mean, well, you can certainly see everyone in the crowd.

18:14 Like and I guess they can see you, right?

18:16 It's part of the It's part of the the purpose of the shoe.

18:19 Yeah.

18:20 You've got that lovely urine-stained hair and And they'd make

18:24 a bee line to your A bee line, yes, absolutely.

18:26 And then they'd come to about here and basically stare

18:28 at your boobs for the rest of the uh evening.

18:35 Casanova had over 100 casinos to choose from in the city,

18:39 but he would have to be on the guest list.

18:42 All right, Michael.

18:43 So, let me in.

18:44 Let me in.

18:45 So, Oh, you can.

18:48 Hello.

18:48 Hello.

18:49 So, as you can see, it was just like a speakeasy.

18:52 If there was a bang on the door,

18:53 you could come in and you'd look down and you could see who was there.

18:56 If it was someone if it was the someone you didn't want to see,

18:59 uh someone's husband, there was a secret exit out the back.

19:03 So, you could see who was down here and just

19:05 get out of there if you needed to avoid them.

19:08 I don't think we'll let this one in.

19:12 [music] [music] This has been called vaults of heaven.

19:29 And it really does feel not just so far away, but just so vast, so enormous.

19:33 It's the largest dome in bricks and masonry anywhere in the world.

19:39 The dome spans 45 m.

19:43 It makes you look up to heaven, but keeps your mind firmly on hell.

19:50 But, we're not here simply to stare at beautiful things.

19:53 We're here to get underneath their skin.

19:56 And to do that, we're going to have to go behind the scenes.

20:02 It's quite a climb.

20:08 Just as well I don't suffer from vertigo.

20:15 Florence's cathedral [music] was dreamt up in the 13th

20:18 century to show off the city's growing power.

20:22 But no one knew how to build a massive unsupported dome.

20:28 The knowledge had been lost with the Romans.

20:33 For 140 years, this balcony was the highest you could climb.

20:41 The end of the cathedral stood open to the elements.

20:45 Finally, a committee of the greats and the goods, including a Medici,

20:50 of course, held a competition to find someone who could solve the problem.

20:55 The man who stepped forward was Filippo Brunelleschi.

21:00 He offered a design that was a piece of sheer theater and magic.

21:05 And quite literally,

21:06 because Brunelleschi refused to share with the committee the exact

21:11 plan of how he was going to achieve this magic.

21:14 He asked them to trust him.

21:17 There is a wonderful story, and it revolves around the humble egg.

21:23 Brunelleschi said, "Okay, all the competitors,

21:27 can you can you make this egg stand up on a plate?

21:32 If you can, build the dome." None of them could.

21:36 Brunelleschi came along and quite simply cracked the egg on a plate.

21:43 Now, his competitors said, "Well,

21:44 if we knew you were going to do that, we could have done it,

21:47 too." Exactly the point Brunelleschi applied.

21:50 "I'm not going to share my magic with you.

21:53 You're going to have to trust me that I can do the impossible." So,

21:58 Brunelleschi, who never built anything before, got to build his dome.

22:04 But he still refused to reveal his plans and deliberately left no blueprints.

22:11 And no one could work out how he did it.

22:14 It's incredibly disorientating walking up.

22:16 Your body wants to compensate in that direction,

22:18 which means you're leaning onto the wall at the same

22:20 time as you're spiraling round in a circle and going upwards.

22:24 It's ah, it's good to see some daylight

22:27 and get your sense of direction and space again.

22:31 The tower is eight stories high with its famous lean just under 4° off center.

22:44 [music] Our 3D scans reveal a skeleton image of the tower,

22:47 and it can help us see how

22:48 the medieval builders tried to correct [music] the lean.

22:54 Things started to go wrong almost from the word [music] go.

22:59 After just three stories had been completed,

23:01 it became clear the tower was leaning.

23:04 Soft clay and sandy soil had destabilized the foundations.

23:13 [music] Work stopped for almost 100 years.

23:14 But then they tried a novel solution.

23:17 They made stories four, five, six,

23:20 and seven shorter on one side [music] to try to compensate for the lean.

23:27 It didn't help, of course.

23:32 Incredible.

23:34 Sense when you climb this building is one of both human fallibility.

23:39 They didn't realize that the foundations were on sinking ground,

23:44 but also perseverance.

23:46 For 200 years, the Pisans were trying to make this tower work,

23:51 building little by little until finally they got to the bell tower on the top.

24:03 [music] The Pisans never gave up trying.

24:05 In one last attempt,

24:06 the [music] top itself was added at a jaunty angle to the rest.

24:12 At least the Pisans [music] had completed their tower.

24:16 In 1372, Florence's cathedral had stood domeless for [music] 76 years.

24:22 How are you?

24:23 Monica Bietti is the director of Michelangelo's Chapel at San Lorenzo,

24:28 and her enthusiasm for the place is infectious.

24:32 So, this is the work of Michelangelo?

24:34 Yes, all the work of Michelangelo.

24:37 The architecture, the sculpture.

24:40 These are I mean, obviously very famous sculptures now of Michelangelo.

24:45 Can you tell me a little bit about them?

24:47 I explain to you.

24:48 This is the night.

24:50 The night look like the moonlight.

24:53 Yes.

24:54 Look the marble.

24:55 It's shining.

24:56 shining and it is so white.

25:00 Like the moonlight.

25:02 This is the day.

25:04 What I think is that this is the beginning

25:08 of the day when the shadow are not definitely.

25:14 I like it.

25:15 I love it.

25:15 I like it.

25:16 I like it a lot.

25:18 But this is very unusual for a sacristy.

25:21 These kinds of Yes.

25:23 personifications, night and day.

25:25 Are these representative of of Michelangelo's view of the world, of the cosmos?

25:31 Uh Michelangelo and also Medici.

25:37 Because this kind of chapel is like a symbol of the life that finish,

25:47 you know, but the art remain.

25:51 And the art of the Medici remain for all [music] the time.

25:57 Unlike the marble sculptures,

25:59 the relationship between the Medici and Michelangelo

26:03 didn't stand the test of time.

26:07 In 1527, the people of Florence rose up against the Medici,

26:11 and they were forced into exile.

26:14 Michelangelo refused to go with them.

26:18 The great artist stayed in Florence and joined the rebels.

26:23 So, Medici the commission Michelangelo to build this Yes.

26:27 and to sculpt these buildings.

26:27 Yes.

26:28 Then the Medici are expelled from the city.

26:31 Yes, right.

26:32 Michelangelo then takes the side of the city,

26:35 of the Republic of Florence, against the Medici.

26:38 [music] Against the Medici.

26:39 And then the Medici come back to take power, and now he's their enemy.

26:42 And so he was really afraid.

26:45 Michelangelo [music] remain in a secret space for 3 months.

26:52 But nobody knows where.

26:56 So, [music] do you want to see?

26:57 do.

26:58 I can show it to you.

26:59 Where do we go?

27:01 There.

27:06 Where are we going now?

27:08 Oh.

27:09 Down there.

27:11 Down?

27:11 This is a door.

27:12 Yes.

27:13 So, this is where Michelangelo was hiding.

27:15 Yes.

27:16 This is not somewhere the public can go.

27:18 Oh, no.

27:18 This is really [music] secret.

27:21 It remain open.

27:23 We won't get trapped.

27:24 Yes.

27:24 [music] Feels like we're underground.

27:26 Yes, but look on the left, there is a window.

27:32 This?

27:33 Yes.

27:34 Michelangelo wrote that he hid in a tiny cell,

27:37 entombed like the dead Medici above, though hiding from a live one.

27:43 "To forget my fears, I fill the walls with drawings." For over four centuries,

27:50 nobody was able to find [music] where this tiny cell was.

27:54 Then, in 1975, during some building work, this little room was discovered.

28:00 This is the way down.

28:01 The authenticity of the drawings has been debated, but many,

28:04 including Monica, are convinced they're the work of Michelangelo.

28:10 But this face, I recognize this face.

28:11 I know it as a classical art.

28:13 This is the Laocoön.

28:14 Yes, it is.

28:15 This is the sculpture that Michelangelo discovers in the ground

28:19 in Rome and Do you recognize this one?

28:22 What is?

28:25 That's the David.

28:25 The David.

28:26 Of Michelangelo's.

28:27 That's his foot.

28:28 Yes.

28:29 And that's the one that got hammered off.

28:31 In every part [music] you can recognize the thing that he did.

28:37 It's like an autobiography [music] through art of his life and career today.

28:42 When you are terrified for your life, hiding in an underground chamber, Yes.

28:50 it's incredible.

28:51 It's incredible.