Ulisse - Il piacere della scoperta - Season 3

The protagonist of this episode is water: through a story that will take us from the origins of life on Earth to biology, from engineering to molecules and art. With the help of graphics we will be able to simulate a journey inside a drop of water to discover its composition and microorganisms. We will then follow the long paths taken by water, through extraordinary images of glaciers, caves, oceans, atolls, icebergs, discovering how rivers are born, how raindrops are formed. We will also discover the effects that water produces in our body and how much we need for our survival. Alberto Angela will go to Villa d'Este in Tivoli to show us the works of artists and architects who over the past centuries have created an immense complex of water features and fountains on an entire hill; and again at Niagara Falls, where we will be able to admire one of the most magnificent spectacles that exist in nature.

In this episode, Ulisse will make an exciting journey among the very first civilizations that appeared in Central America, long before the arrival of Columbus, the Olmecs, the Maya, the Aztecs. The famous heads carved in rock have come down to us from the Olmec people and what amazes and still remains an unsolved mystery is how the Olmecs managed to create these amazing sculptures and, above all, to transport the colossal blocks of rock that they used; we will follow the experiment of an English team that attempted to transport a boulder weighing between 10 and 20 tons and create, using only archaic techniques, a copy of a gigantic head.

In this episode we will explore one of the most important but also one of the most enigmatic chapters of history: the fall of the Roman Empire. Why did Roman civilization in Europe become extinct after a thousand years of splendor, giving way to the Middle Ages? Was it just because of the barbarians or were there other reasons? It all happened within a very few generations and yet it influenced centuries of European history, up to the present day.

In this episode, Ulisse will explore places of extraordinary beauty, where absolute masterpieces created by the greatest artists of the past are kept: the Vatican Museums. With Alberto Angela we will have the opportunity to admire works of inestimable value collected by the Popes or directly commissioned by them; we will visit the splendid environments where popes, cardinals and ambassadors have followed one another for centuries and where we could have met artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci. It will also be an opportunity to talk about the lives of these artists and the historical events linked to the creation of their works.

Ulisse will dedicate this episode to Venice and in particular to a period of history in which the city was the first economic and military power in Europe, capable of reigning over the Mediterranean, of dominating maritime trade, especially with the East, and even to fight against the expansion of the powerful Ottoman Empire. Venice has its roots in the Middle Ages, in fact it was between 1200 and 1300 that it experienced its first great development, thanks also to the spirit of initiative of merchants, bankers, navigators and men of ingenuity. We will go to the Arsenale, that is, the place where the strength of Venice originated and where ships were designed and built; through exceptional graphic effects and filmed reconstructions we will discover the manufacturing techniques of the galleys, the activity of the workers inside the Arsenal, life on board.