Would you like to start out the week with beauty?
That's easy for Rai Italia viewers!
It's easy with Italian Beauty.
In the Middle Ages, the Bargello was a military captain
in charge of keeping order in Florence during times of civil unrest.
In Cosimo de Medici's Florence,
the Bargello was given lots of power and a prestigious headquarters,
which today is a palace that gathers the most beautiful art in the city.
A fascinating ancient route:
what does the most beautiful city in the world
look like from the Tiber River?
Let's find out together while crossing Rome aboard a boat.
In today's "I Had A Dream" segment
here's the story of a dream intertwined with an entrepreneurial family.
This is the story of a company born in the hinterlands of Bologna,
which started in a humble carpenter's shop.
But, first, let's go back to the Florence of the Medici,
a bustling and lively trade center.
According to Cosimo, in order to keep the peace,
it required a strong law enforcement and a large prison downtown.
"BARGELLO MUSEUM IN FLORENCE" BY DIEGO MAGINI
We're at the Bargello National Museum
in Florence, one of the most important
PROFESSOR HISTORY OF MODERN ART
in terms of sculptures in Italy.
Construction works started in 1255.
This is a public palace that served crucial governmental purposes.
It precedes Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall,
which is much more famous now.
This palace in Florence, which was already a free commune,
was the headquarters of the Captain of the People,
a new political office created to protect power and authority
from the influence of noble families.
In the mid-1300s, the palace housed the offices of the Podestà.
When the Medici hegemony was restored during the second half of the 1400s,
it became the original venue
for the Justice Council and Giudici di Ruota.
In 1574, under Duke Cosimo the First, it became
the headquarters for the Bargello,
who was the Captain of the Guard
in charge of arrests, interrogations, and death sentences.
The palace then became an actual prison,
and it took many centuries until its original splendor was restored.
This Gothic-style building
was erected according to Tuscan Gothic civic architecture
between the mid-1200s and the late 1300s.
It took 150 years to complete it.
However, throughout the centuries, it served other purposes,
that is, between the late 1500s and the early 1800s,
it was completely misused and defaced.
A room like this, with such magnificent volume,
with such high ceiling,
had been originally designed
for the Podestà to conduct his solemn legal duties.
It was later filled with cells when it became a prison.
Dividing walls had been installed.
Obviously, once it was no longer used as a prison
in the first half of the 19th century,
the building required much tender loving care
and philological restoration.
Philological criteria were followed, according to a local architect
by the name of Francesco Mazzei.
Before the end of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
under the House Lorraine in the late 1850s,
the intention was to use this building as a cultural venue.
In 1840,
PROFESSOR HISTORY OF MODERN ART
when inmates and guards were still present,
the old chapel used by the Podestà
housed some Giotto-style frescoes.
Later, the authorship was verified by Giotto's signature.
Among these frescoes, as the literature had foreseen,
a portrait of Dante Alighieri, Father of the Nation, was retrieved.
Such discovery, at the height of the Italian Unification,
at the apex of our patriotic culture,
led many intellectuals from that time
to advocate for the renovation of this building,
some sort of palingenesis or rebirth,
geared towards culture, instead of judicial matters.
We went from centuries of darkness
to centuries of cultural and intellectual splendor.
It all took place with the transfer of the capital
of the unified nation from Turin to Florence.
In 1865,
the Bargello Palace became a National Museum.
The two rooms on the ground floor, dedicated to weaponry,
feature objects from the Medici times,
the wardrobe from Palazzo Vecchio,
and sculptures from the 1400s-1500s.
On the 1st floor, there are sculptures transferred from
the 1500s Hall in Palazzo Vecchio.
The 2nd floor features marble and bronze sculptures from Uffizi Gallery,
as well as applied arts collections:
maiolica, wax, ambers, ivory, jewelry, porcelain enamel, and bronze statuettes.
Some items were moved to the then Argenti Museum in 1928.
Public and private loans and donations
complete the minor arts collection.
The 1966 floods hit the Palace hard,
requiring restoration interventions on the collections,
as well as new layout rearrangements.
We naturally did not have enough time to dedicate to the applied arts
and decoration within this space,
prioritizing great sculptural works,
most of whom come from the Grand Duchy's collection.
Thanks to the patronage and collection skills of the Grand Duchy,
especially that of the Medici in the 1400s.
We were yet to have a Medici as a Grand Duke,
and the family was, as one would say,
simply put,
merely common citizens.
However, they enjoyed remarkable political power
and were ready to occupy the Grand Duchy's Seat.
Then, in the 1500s,
once they were appointed as princes, they were surrounded by
personalities like Cellini, Vincenzo Danti,
and Giambologna, who were great sculptors
responsible for the most famous masterpieces of today.
For example, we have Giambologna's Mercury,
"Mercurio in volo" made in bronze.
Now we are at the Donatello Room,
which used to be the Office of Justice for the Podestà.
It's now dedicated to the biggest sculptor in Europe,
perhaps of the Western world in the 15th century.
He was one of the fathers, perhaps the epithet
of the Renaissance in Italy and Europe.
Here we have the David in marble
right behind me, as well as the David in bronze,
the Attis in bronze,
and the San Giovannino Martelli in marble.
They all represent the essential years
of Donatello's career, dead at 80
after 60 years of indefatigable work,
when he reinvented Western sculptures.
He added movement, dynamism, and liveliness
inspired by everyday life,
which had been lost in sculptures of the Middle Ages,
or in better times for sculptures, like Romanesque and Gothic periods.
He recovered classic shapes,
and even established a dialectic dialog
with classic sculptures.
Prior to Donatello's works, if we wish to select la crème de la crème,
we must not forget to mention
the two famous tiles depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac,
one by Filippo Brunelleschi and the other by Lorenzo Ghiberti.
They won a renowned contest
for the second doors of the Baptistery of St. John.
The contest took place here in Florence in the early 1400s,
and marks the symbolic beginning of the Renaissance period.
These are the only two tiles that remain from the contest,
in which sculptor Jacopo della Quercia also took part.
These tiles are in this room,
and they are a point of reference in the history of art.
On the one hand, they combine the superb metal art
of Lorenzo Ghiberti,
closing the Middle Ages with the late Gothic period.
On the other hand, they feature
the less elevated art of Brunelleschi, so to speak,
who nevertheless used perfect technique,
but not as perfect as that of Ghiberti's.
It's a testament to what the Renaissance would achieve in the coming centuries.
Going down to the ground floor, we're at a room
of about the same dimensions,
but with a lower ceiling
because it doesn't have the same slender vaults.
In this room, we feature the great sculptors
of Grand Dukes and Princes that I had mentioned:
Benvenuto Cellini, Vincenzo Danti, and Giambologna.
They were preceded by the greatest of all: Michelangelo.
He was the bond that brought together the Republic of Florence
and the Principality of Florence,
before and after the Medici took over the Grand Duchy.
We have four of Michelangelo's masterpieces.
Chronologically, they are: Bacchus...
Pitti Tondo...
Apollo, wrongly named "David-Apollo,"
it's simply "Apollo"...
and then Brutus.
These four masterpieces are representative
of an arc in the career of this master.
They show the transition from the early style
seen in Bacchus as prodigious and perfect,
for the sculpture is performed to perfection,
with utmost attention to detail.
These early sculptures gave young Michelangelo worldwide fame.
In contrast with Bacchus,
the other three works I mentioned
show a decline, so to speak,
of Michelangelo's control over marble,
despite it being his main medium.
We start to see unfinished works.
These are works he dreamed of finishing,
for his goal was to achieve
full completion of his sculptural pieces.
However, due to different life circumstances,
he was unable to complete,
as many of the masterpieces in his adult life and later years.
These unfinished works
are fully appreciated by contemporary standards,
but represent the tragedy of a man who perished at almost 90 years of age,
far from resting on his laurels, for he was still dissatisfied,
paradoxically lacking satisfaction.
The Tiber River flows through the heart of Rome.
The city was born by the bank of the river.
The river is the city's vital artery.
But what has become of the river today?
What does the surrounding lands look like now?
Let's find out together what the boats of today look like
and see if anything remains from the old Rome on Tiber.
I'm curious to find out what Rome looks like from the Tiber.
I want to understand what Romans truly think today
"TIBER: WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE"
of a river that continues to flow, throughout the centuries.
To learn what riverboats are made of,
I must climb onboard.
Leaving from the Pietro Nenni Bridge,
I meet an exceptional charon
with a good-natured air and a shelled look,
a long-time captain.
My name is Giulio Bendandi.
I'm one of the "newer" Tiber dwellers.
I've been here for over 40 years.
I live on the Tiber for safety reasons, because if the alarm goes off,
I'm already here at my post.
TIBER KEEPER
It's forbidden to live on the Tiber, but with my experience,
if the alarm goes off, I'm ready to help in rescue missions.
They leave me be, so to speak,
because I help those in a position of authority.
It takes a lot of love.
The river becomes very unstable when it gets angry.
You must be on high alert, you can't get distracted.
My father had bought an old, wonderful barge.
Its name was "Island of the Sun."
My father used to cook.
He was a big, thick Roman who enjoyed eating well.
He made soup, passatelli with broth, and other typical Roman dishes.
SCENES FROM THE TWO FIREFIGHTERS BY BRUNO CORBUCCI
Damn you! Always standing there!
My father was a big guy: about 6'5", almost 300 lbs.
He looked tough, so he always played the bad guy in movies.
ACTOR
He played the tough guy in the 1970s, the big, thick, dumb character.
They built this massive wall along the river.
They've isolated it a bit.
Still, the river is always meddling in Roman life.
This is by Kentridge, a South African artist.
He cleaned up the smog residue
to create these images.
Mastroianni at the Fountain...
Rome, Open City...
It's the history of Rome in 345 feet of wall,
depicted in these few snapshots.
It's a city within a city.
We're downtown Rome, but the traffic, the smog,
the mosquitoes, they're all above us.
We're surrounded by 36 feet of walls,
and we can sail in peace.
This is the only river in the world considered a sea, because in 1906
a law decree was enacted
and navigation requires lifesavers
and safety precautions, just like life in the sea.
The river looks better now, as far as pollution issues.
There is no longer waste dumping like before,
and purifying filters have been installed.
It's been "cleaned up," so to speak, even though it's always dirty.
Still, people will swim in it, even though it's forbidden.
After rowing competitions, when the Rowing Club Roma wins,
they always jump in to celebrate.
Here, in the morning,
Rome takes on a different color,
especially when it's raining.
This is the Sisto Bridge.
It connects Via Giulia and the Trastevere neighborhood.
That big eye is Rome's alert system.
If the water reaches the eye, Rome must watch out,
because it means that the river woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
There are gray herons, kingfishers,
turtles,
freshwater crayfish, which live in water that is clean enough to drink.
SCENES FROM POOR, BUT BEAUTIFUL BY DINO RISI
In the pantheon of tutelary deities of the Tiber,
we must mention Er Ciriola.
His vessel rests in the shade of Castel Sant'Angelo.
Er Ciriola, a captain standing at the command bridge
with his lovely wife by his side.
He seems to be boasting about the flow of his river,
which doesn't dry up, not even in August!
He was nicknamed "the Roman eel"
for his exceptional swimming skills.
He knew the river like the back of his hand
and claimed he had saved many lives.
I rescued the first person in Acqua Lancisiana.
HE STARTED SAVING LIVES AT THE AGE OF 12
A kid had fallen in,
and I was given a bronze medal.
That was the first medal I earned.
After that,
with all the suicide attempts we have seen, little by little
I have saved 152 people
and earned 67 medals.
At Via dei Portoghesi, close to the Tiber,
we'll find the historical shop of another river dweller.
My name is Dante Mortet,
ENGRAVER
and my family has always been connected to the Tiber.
In the early 1900s, my grandfather
who was a sculptor,
and the entire family followed suit.
We follow a tradition:
we work the river and we do engravings.
It's an ancient craft
and we've been working at the same downtown shop for 70 years.
We're like small-scale sculptors,
working with sacred art,
monuments, larger sculptures,
sports awards,
jewelry... We are passionate about this work.
When I was little and my father washed his hands before sitting at the table,
my mother would always say, "Your hands are filthy!"
That always made me laugh.
Now I understand those filthy hands put food on the table.
They weren't dirty; they were used for labor.
If you work here, you get your hands dirty.
We respect those who
make use of their hands to make an honest living.
That's why I felt the urge to sculpt my father's hands.
The idea then became a bigger project,
and we started sculpting hands
to honor manual work.
We've done Robert De Niro, Scorsese, Tarantino, Anjelica Huston...
A baker's hands are important, too.
Hands are a crucial element to transform matter,
to change our lives.
If we go back to working with our hands,
we'll be able to pass on our traditions, our dignity,
our humanity.
We can develop our brains if we keep our hands busy.
I'm the current president of the Roman Swimmers Association.
We're known around the river as the tough guys,
but above all we're boat people.
We're river dwellers in essence,
because we're free-spirited and we love the river.
ROMAN SWIMMERS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1889, it's the oldest swimmers association in Italy
and it was registered in Florence.
SCENES FROM THE INHERITANCE BY MAURO BOLOGNINI
After the unification, when people started coming to Rome,
we decided to create our first swimming school.
According to the songs and poetry of the time, Romans die in the river.
There was a great demand to teach Romans how to swim,
and people used to meet under Ponte Cavour,
where Porto di Ripetta was located.
There were no walls along the riverbanks back then.
That's where the swimming school was created.
They used to have this net in the water,
which worked like chicken wire,
thus creating a perimeter for Romans to learn how to swim.
Romans used to learn how to swim in the river following an empirical method:
keeping afloat.
Once the swimming school was created,
they would learn a style called "half arm."
The first swimming race took place in the river,
and consisted of crossing the river, one bank to the other.
They used the "half arm" technique to fight the current
and could not touch the central poles.
The Association offices are open between 11 am and 5 pm.
Our main event is the luncheon.
When the bell rings, we all sit at the community table.
All members eat together.
We've been doing it this way since the 1920s or 1930s.
Between 1 and 5 pm, shops were closed back then,
and Romans who would hang out downtown
used to walk along the Tiber.
The river was the place to be if you wanted to have a good time.
The river people not only own boats with a Tier-3 license.
They're river buffs,
like this big-belly fellow diving, or this 80-year-old doctor
who swims every day, with his glasses still on,
giggling to himself about the whims of his rheumatic patients.
When people say, "Let's go do something by the river."
They mean they want to spend time doing nothing.
It's hard to do nothing nowadays.
The walls have kept the river and the city apart.
SCENES FROM THE INHERITANCE
The walls were necessary because the river flooded the city.
The King couldn't visit Rome during the unification because of a flood.
Rome was considered fascinating and beautiful because of the river.
Romans often took part in river activities.
Mr. Okay was a Belgian illustrator who visited Rome in the late 1950s.
He first went diving in France,
but the French didn't care much about it.
Children of the Revolution don't care if someone is diving into the Seine.
Then he came to Rome,
where people saw that act as something extraordinary.
He visited downtown shops,
he was very friendly.
We called him "Mr. Okay" because we have a thing for nicknames.
He couldn't answer all the questions Romans asked him:
"Where are you from?" "What do you do?" He'd answer "Okay!" to everything.
That's why we called him "Mr. Okay."
He went around shops downtown
looking for sponsorship for his diving acts.
During the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome,
he dove into the Tiber after throwing his top hat in.
The top hat is a symbol of the past,
and it was being thrown into the future.
This funny man would reach the future using that road, that path
represented by the Tiber river.
Rome only exists because of the Tiber.
So much so we don't call it "Tiber."
We just call it "the river."
For us Romans, there's only one river in the entire world.
He was also known as "Mister Okay" in Rome
because, after jumping in,
he wanted to reassure all spectators
and would raise his arm
and made the "okay" gesture to confirm everything went well.
That's why we'd call him "Mr. Okay."
With his Apache looks, Maurizio Palmulli
inherited from the original Mr. Okay
both the nickname and the irresistible urge
to welcome the new year by jumping in the Tiber
while the Janiculum cannons announce it's midday on New Year's Day.
"Righi" was short for Raimondo, or Raimond Desonei.
He was an illustrator and river buff.
Many people helped him because he was very exquisite.
His life was full of trials and hardships,
of ups and downs.
I was born on November 26, 1952.
This will be my 29th consecutive yearly jump
to keep this Roman tradition going,
which started with Mr. Okay.
It's been taken over by me, Maurizio Palmulli.
We have three young men on standby,
for when I step down,
which I believe will happen after my 30th jump.
I've been doing this since 1989.
I was practically born in water.
I used to spend time in the marshes of Ostia Antica.
Rome was surrounded by marshes and canals
used for irrigation
by farmers and agriculturists.
As a young boy, I used to skip school.
We would come here, to the sandbanks,
where people put up beach umbrellas to have lunch by the river.
We'd cross the river swimming when we were 11 or 12 years old.
We followed our instincts to be in the water.
I'm still a lifeguard and I train other lifeguards.
In sum, I've spent my life in the water.
I've done movies and TV,
working as a stuntman.
When it's required to jump from great heights,
it comes easy to me.
I may have problems doing some simple things,
LIFEGUARD TRAINER
but this is easy for me.
Rivers are dangerous.
I mean, for swimmers in the water.
Let's say it's January 1st, and water temperature is at 44-46 ℉.
It's like boiling water.
This is our Roman bridge: Ponte Cavour.
Or course, when I climb up, my knees start to shake.
Considering my age,
I'm 64 now, so I'm not a young man anymore.
You need to stay afloat, train, and prepare.
This dive is no piece of cake.
Before you jump,
a team of scuba divers use an echo sounder
to check the water volume and whether it's all clear.
I do the classic "Angel's chest,"
as river buffs call it.
I always keep my eyes open because,
even though it only takes a couple of seconds,
I need to keep thinking.
I need to analyze whether the descend is going well,
when I'm going to enter the water,
and check my own shadow.
I need to see my shadow when I'm about a yard away.
Then I know it's over and brace for impact.
After the impact, it all goes dark.
When I come back to the surface, I hear people applauding
and the rescue team is ready to fish me out.
Romans are a bit fanatic, you know?
We like being rebels.
We like making people happy.
We like to entertain people,
some people are so thrilled they even cry when I jump.
I never thought I'd be doing this for 30 years,
diving and wishing Rome
a happy, peaceful new year.
The adrenaline rush feels good, too.
For the rest of the week, I'm at peace with the world,
including you watching me over there.
Subtitles: Babel Subtitling - babelSUB.be