The newsreader travels around the country, immersing himself in Italian culture and sampling its renowned cuisine, beginning in the south-eastern region of Puglia. Clive discovers how the James Bond franchise helped turn an abandoned town into a world heritage site, finds out why Puglia is the gay holiday capital of Italy and learns to play in a traditional pizzica band.
Godfather fan Clive is in Sicily, where he visits the village that Francis Ford Coppola used to film a wedding in his classic movie The Godfather. He also joins geologists working on Mount Etna to predict its next eruption and heads to Modica to learn how to make a chocolate bar from an ancient recipe.
Clive travels to the heart of Sicily to cook lunch in a community kitchen set up by Jamie Oliver's former restaurant manager and spends the night in a 700-year-old mansion. He also meets people from around the world who have bought homes in the one Euro house hub of Mussomeli and discovers arguably Italy's best street food in the island's capital Palermo.
The newsreader explores the coastline around Mount Vesusius, famous for the ruins of Pompeii. He unearths why volcanic soil makes for the tastiest fruit and vegetables, learns to make Italian marmalade, uncovers the surprising royal tale behind Italy's first trainline and tries his hand at carving jewellery from coral found deep beneath the sea.
Clive visits his favourite tourist spot of the Amalfi Coast, going inland to a mozzarella factory, before hopping across to the island of Capri, where he makes his wife a pair of the local sandals made famous by Jackie Kennedy. He also spends the evening singing folk songs at a nightclub favoured by celebrities including Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Staying in what was one of Naples’ poorest neighbourhoods, in a hotel that’s also an art gallery, Clive discovers how this always colourful city is changing for the better. As a big fan of opera, Clive is also excited to join the cast of the Teatro San Carlo opera house in the run-up to their opening night, and while in the costume department, he can’t resist trying a few things on...
Clive heads north from Lazio’s capital, Rome, to the dramatic valleys of Italy’s badlands, out of which rises the fairy-tale citadel of Civita di Bagnoregio - Lazio’s ghost town. Meeting one of the 20 remaining residents, Clive finds out what it’s like to be outnumbered by a million annual visitors, and he explores the ancient tunnels beneath the town to discover why it’s slowly crumbling to dust
Clive has visited Rome before, but this time, he heads out of the centre and up one of the city’s seven hills to the rarely visited neighbourhood of Monteverde, where he talks football with a butcher and puts his Caribbean cooking knowledge to good use. He also comes to the surprising realisation that if he ever moves to Rome, he’ll probably take up cricket
As long as the water’s warm, Clive loves to swim, so he’s enthusiastic about taking a dip in the vast volcanic spring of Saturnia and discovering why Italians believe in the healing power of thermal water. Travelling on through Maremma - a big stretch of country running between Tuscany and Lazio - Clive stays in a treehouse at a lavender farm and learns how to extract oil from the plants.
Clive takes on the star goalscorer for ACF Fiorentina's women’s team in a penalty shoot-out. Back in the city, he indulges his passion for fashion - his mum Lynne was a seamstress for Burberry, and his first job was on Black Beauty and Hair magazine - by getting a masterclass in Italian menswear. Clive also discovers why italics are so Italian as he designs a wedding card for his niece Lucy.
Clive swerves Tuscany’s famous posh villas to head to the medieval town of Barga, where over half the locals have Scottish connections. Staying in a mansion that’s now a Glaswegian-run B&B, Clive finds out why Italians love a fish supper, finds himself cooking dinner for 14, and joins an expedition to discover the forgotten quartz quarry that helped make Tuscany’s capital, Florence, so beautiful
Italians are some of the happiest people in Europe, and Bologna, capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, is known as one of the happiest places in Italy. While the Pasta Sisters teach Clive how to make tortellini and reveal why even Italians think Bologna is the best place to eat, Clive dons his hard hat and scales some scaffolding to find out why this city is known as the medieval Manhattan.
Clive tries to make Tiramisu in the nearby town of Treviso, heads to the lakeside village of Limone to discover the secret to a long and healthy life, and finds out the story behind Europe’s most northerly lemons. He also finds out how the balcony inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet now inspires lovers from around the world.
Clive loves Venice, but on this trip, he wants to learn what it’s like to be a local, outnumbered by tourists by over 200 to one. He hitches a lift with a rare female gondolier and learns the tough craft of steering with one oar, gets a lesson in glass blowing from his new friend Count Gibi, and finds out why Italian vegetables taste so great as he picks peppers on a farm in the Venetian lagoon.
The UK drinks a third of Italy’s prosecco, but British visitors rarely make it to this corner of the Veneto region. After spending a night in a giant wine barrel, Clive learns why prosecco is just as good as champagne from one of the country’s few female winegrowers, before jumping into the navigator’s seat in a 70-year-old Maserati and hunting for antiques in the hilltop town of Asolo.
