Dream of Italy is made possible by: Parmigiano Reggiano is a distinctive flavor experience on its own or with your favorite dish, cheese crafted in the heart of Italy for over 1,000 years.

Authentic.

Local.

Traditional.

Parmigiano Reggiano.

Go Traveler.

Streaming TV travel app available on all smart TVs and app stores.

Don't go anywhere.

Just travel.

Miio your bridge to Italian craftsmanship: fashion, accessories, homeware and beauty.

Made in Italy only.

Jupiter, Florida and online.

Dalla Fonte bringing Italy to your doorstep.

A culinary adventure through Italy.

One plate at a time.

And also made possible by: ♪ Music ♪ I'm Kathy McCabe.

I'm Kathy McCabe.

In this series we█ll meet the authintic characters...

In this series will meet the aut characters, uncover the hidden t Uncover the hidden treasures, and discover what makes Italy the most fascinating country in the world.

Join me as we dream of Italy Join me as we Dream of Italy.

♪ Music ♪ Some 25 miles north of Naples, with Mount Vesu still visible in the background, there's a place that most travel miss - Caserta.

The countryside of Caserta, ench with a mix of age-old ruins, lush, verdant hills, and quite possibly the best pizza in the world.

The city of Caserta realizes the vision of a king who dreamt it, and an innovator who built it.

The heart of what was once known as Campania Felix is where the old is reborn and where modern and ancient meet.

Join me as we dream of Caserta.

♪ Music ♪ Archeological remains around Caserta have dated human settlements here to the Iron Age.

The first recorded city in Campania was founded in 600 B.C.

and is a quick 20 minute trip west to a town called Santa Maria Capua Vetere.

We have to know that our actual historic tradition, our civilization, is only the top of what was below.

Caserta native and local guide, Cecilia Scatola, gives me a tour of the ancient ruins.

The ancient Capua was a very important economical, political and social place.

Capua was called the altra Roma, that means the other Rome.

And it was a very important center, just like Rome.

Capua was very famous for of course, the agriculture, and perfumes too, wine.

Of course, this is a land of great production of wine, olive oil.

And so the most important things that were at that time considered the the diamonds into the local agriculture.

And Capua and Rome were two important centers for the gladiators.

♪ Music ♪ With room for 60,000 spectators, Capua█s amphitheater is second only in size to Rome's Colosseum.

In Capua there was the most important school for the gladiators.

And the gladiators were men of great importance during this period, they were considered just like gods.

And so they lived in Capua.

They used to practice this kind of activity and were imaginative, just like a divine figure.

Renowned gladiator Spartacus, who trained here, staged a famous uprising of the gladiators in Capua in 73 B.C.. Cecilia also takes me to a Mithraeum, a place of worship to the Persian God Mithra.

Mithra.

♪ Music ♪ This is one of the seven Mithraeum we have in all Italy.

And this represents a very important aspect of the society of Rome at that time.

during the first century, because at that time in Rome, I mean, in all the empire, it was possible to have any kind of religion.

♪ Music ♪ Built around the second century AD like all Mithraeums, this is a cozy cave like space that holds only a small number of worshipers and features a fresco of Mithra slaying a bull reflecting a key belief of this religion.

♪ Music ♪ Into the painting you can see that the the animal is bleeding, so it loses blood here.

And the blood fertilize and regenerate all the universe.

Something very close Jesus character because Mithra was born into the into the day that we celebrate Christmas on the 25 of December and he was born by a virgin.

I've heard this... just like Mary.

Because after the third century, Christianity became slowly the most important religion and so all these small cultures from Asia, from Persia, especially from the Mithrium experts slowly moved down and disappeared slowly.

As the Roman Empire was slowly conquered by invaders, much of Capua was destroyed and the city was abandoned.

However, excavations of the site in the late 1800s revealed an unusual piece of antiquity.

The only surviving lower limb prosthesis dating to 300 B.C.. ♪ Music ♪ Normans invaded the mountainous area near Caserta in the 11th and 12th century.

They built a noteworthy cathedral in the area now known as Casertavecchia.

Or old Caserta.

The modern city of Caserta was founded in the 18th century.

when the Bourbon King Charles, the third of Naples and Sicily became enamored with the area.

♪ Music ♪ And in fact, Charles knew very well this territory because he was a hunter.

And so he came here frequently for his hunting meetings.

And this is the reason why he decided to build this new town here into this land.

♪ Music ♪ Far away from Naples because he was afraid of the volcano.

Vesuvius?

Yes, the Vesuvius.

I would be too.

LAUGHING Charles decided to make Caserta southern Italy's capital city, so he hired the father of neoclassical architecture Luigi Vanvitelli, to create a palace that would outshine all others.

Vanvitelli dreamed up something even beyond the king's request.

Not just only a palace, but an entire 300 acre compound, complete with hunting grounds, Italian and English gardens, a waterfall, a vineyard, a silk factory and a flour mill.

This is considered one of the biggest, maybe the biggest palace in Europe.

Quite in competition with versailles in France.

The works started about in 1752 there were about 9,000 people that work for the building of the palace.

And they worked here for 93 year to complete everything.

It█s a really big palace.

We have five floors of building and two underground floors.

1,200 rooms and 1,900 windows.

Mamma mia.

Because there should be not only the family to live in, there should be also the administration of this government.

And then how many people would work here each day when it was open.

At the time about 400 people generally working here.

So the town of Caserta was born with the palace.

Exactly.

People from Caserta love so much this place because they feel it as their house.

During World War Two, Reggia di Caserta was occupied by the U.S. military, and rumor has it a few G.I.█s even drove their jeeps up and down the palace█s famous grand staircase.

So they used to have baths into the, into the pools.

They used to dream and to sleep and then dream into the beds of the kings and the queens.

In recent years, Hollywood has also embraced the splendor of the palace with scenes for Star Wars Episode 1, the Phantom Menace, filmed on this captivating staircase.

The staircase of honor it was the main entrance to the apartment is very special because from that point the army of Star Wars used to walk and here they used to have some fightings during the the movie.

I think this is one of the most beautiful staircases in the world.

If you look over there that the space was used by the musicians.

And you can█t see them up there.

No, because it's too far and we are too low to see the musicians.

So it was a kind of ancient stereophonic music.

They were very inventive.

Yeah.

♪ Music ♪ Vanvitelli had a revolutionary vision for the palace's outdoor spaces, combining both natural woodlands with manicured gardens and importing rare plants from all over the world.

By aligning the pools along a two mile path from the palace to the waterfall he invented the telescope effect a visual trick to make the distance between two points appear shorter than it actually is.

Just behind the waterfall Vanvitelli even planted a small semi-circular vineyard called Vigna del Ventaglio, vineyard of the fan.

♪ Music ♪ The volcanic soil here is rich with minerals perfectly suited for growing the Pallegrello grape.

Long thought to be extinct, the vine was rediscovered in the 1990s growing in an abandoned nearby vineyard.

We start four years ago and now look at it.

You've planted all these, this whole vineyard.

Mariapina and her team were awarded the project to rebuild the forgotten vineyard at Reggia di Caserta to bring back to life the wine of kings.

A bottle of which sells for about $100.

So how much land is... It█s one hectare very very small And how many bottles do you make?

So the first of wine is... mille.

A thousand.

Yeah.

1,000 bottles of white, of white that's it.

That's not a lot.

So I need to try some.

Yeah.

♪ Music ♪ So fresh.

Yeah.

It█s perfect for summer.

That is the wine of the king.

But now we we are ready for the modern, yeah, the modern version.

They want to explain all the work that the this reality but this area not just the royalty, but the Caserta is is so incredible.

Yeah.

Vanvitelli knew the vineyard, gardens, pools, and waterfall, as well as the maintenance of the palace, would require an extraordinary amount of water for which there was no source nearby.

But Vanvitelli had a plan.

♪ Music ♪ The Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, also called the Carolino Aqueduct, was a hydraulic engineering marvel of its time.

Spanning 25 the pipeline starts at a mountain spring in the province of Benevento.

crossing the river Isclero and ends at Reggia di Caserta.

Local guide Leonardo Ancona tells me what made Vanvitelli's creation unique.

The architect engineered the waterway to traverse the terrain, using only the natural downward slope of the mountain.

Dropping a 10th of an inch every three feet in length.

The water takes four hours to travel the 25 miles.

Most of the water flows underground, but to span the Maddaloni Valley a bridge was constructed above ground.

The longest bridge in Europe at the time.

♪ Music ♪ Caserta█s larger neighbor Naples has long been known as the capital of pizza.

That is until local baker Franco Pepe showed up on the scene.

Now what many hail as the best pizza on the planet is made in the small town of Caiazzo, 20 miles north of the city of Caserta.

Franco skyrocketed to fame in 2014 when a review titled this might be the greatest pizza in the world, in Food and Wine, magazine, put him on the map.

Now pizza pilgrims from around the world wait months for reservations and a little while in line to have a taste.

For Franco it all comes back to family.

As the only world-famous pizzaiolo still making his dough by hand, Franco is a true alchemist when it comes to mixing the ingredients.

He uses the day's humidity and temperature as his guide, not a written recipe.

The flour is milled locally from a grain varietal that was almost extinct.

The dough rises in a wooden box overnight, giving the mixture an airiness both delicious and easily digestible.

Franco is a zealot about his ingredients, using only those produced here in an area called Alto Casertano.

He has longstanding relationships with all the locals who produce his ingredients, from tomatoes to buffalo mozzarella.

The buffalo... At Caseificio il Casolare Mimmo La Vecchia takes the milk from these buffalo to produce the area's incomparable buffalo mozzarella.

It takes so many people.

Bravissimo, Bravissimi.

The buffalo milk arrives at Mimmo's factory fresh within 16 hours of extraction.

♪ Music ♪ So they're siphoning off the water in here And here and only the mozzarella comes back in and he keeps mixing.

Yeah, it's like a dance.

Years of practice are required to learn how to melt, lift and stretch the cheese without breaking the curd.

Fresca.

Fresh.

The mozzarella is now added to cold salted water.

to firm and flavor the cheese.

Then it can be shaped into beads, knots or braids.

He knows how to do it.

Franco did it.

Well, you see, it's the thumbs.

Ahhh!

It█s this.

It█s this.

Ok. Good.

Not bad.

It█s my first time.

♪ Music ♪ Deeper in the Alto Casertano Hills.

Liliana Lombardi is another one of Franco's cheesemakers.

Producing Conciato Romano, the oldest cheese in the world.

At her beautiful Agriturismo Le Campestre.

Liliana uses the same techniques the Romans did thousands of years ago.

And what's the best way to taste it.

Each of Franco Pepe's pizzas is made with a spin on the traditional approach.

Like his favorite pizza margherita.

Franco█s huge passion comes out in his tiny kitchen.

Then he mix, mixes it together.

It's really everything by hand.

So they've prepared the ingredients that we will put on top.

And we've seen these today.

This is from Liliana.

Oh.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

Okay.

So he needs it on the wood.

I can't believe I'm watching Franco Pepe make pizza.

It's like watching Michelangelo at work, watching any of these great arti Because this is art.

Yeah Mm hmm.

It's a beautiful testimony to his to his love of this place Incredible.

Thank you.

And I plan to come back to Caserta again and again.

This is the real Italy, a place with a long and storied history where the locals live their passion every single day, and whose layers of beauty and innovation will amaze you at every turn.

In loving memory of Phineas Orazio McCabe Who is not just a terrier, but an Italian at heart Dream of Italy is made possible by: Parmigiano Reggiano is a distinctive flavor experience on its own or with your favorite dish, cheese crafted in the heart of Italy for over 1,000 years.

Authentic.

Local.

Traditional.

Parmigiano Reggiano.

Go Traveler.

Streaming TV travel app available on all smart TVs and app stores.

Don't go anywhere.

Just travel.

Miio your bridge to Italian craftsmanship: fashion, accessories, homeware and beauty.

Made in Italy only.

Jupiter, Florida and online.

Dalla Fonte bringing Italy to your doorstep.

A culinary adventure through Italy.

One plate at a time.

And also made possible by: For more about visiting Italy additional videos and a companion travel guide, visit DreamofItaly.com/tv Follow Dream of Italy on Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook