Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage — Season 1, Episode 5: Corfu and Greece
Documentary • 30 min • 1 season, 12 episodes
Episode synopsis
Architect and historian Francesco da Mosto embarks on a journey across the Mediterranean sea. As Francesco and the crew of the Black Swan enter Greek waters, the boat is making the fastest headway since leaving Venice on the long voyage to Istanbul. But disaster strikes as the mainsail rips and they limp into the next port, the island of Corfu. Corfu has more relics of British rule than Venetian, and Francesco is soon drawn into a game of cricket on the island's best cricket pitch. In the romantic setting of the British Garden Cemetery there are many reminders of British occupation. And Corfu is the island setting of the hugely popular novel, My Family and Other Animals. Author Gerald Durrell is long since dead, but his good friend David Bellamy is there to point Francesco in the direction of the island's animal life. While the Black Swan puts in for repairs Francesco takes the ferry to the Greek coast and heads inland. His first stop is the surprising town of Ioninna - a little bit of Turkey in the middle of Greece. Once it was the stronghold of the evil Ali Pasha whose cruelty was the talk of Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. But peace and hope is restored as Francesco ascends the incredible mountain realm of Meteora - a sacred kingdom in the clouds. Here ancient monasteries perch perilously on the mountaintops with, seemingly, no way to get up to them. Inside are some of the least seen but most brilliant frescoes of the medieval age.
About Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage
Venetian architect and historian Francesco da Mosto sets out from Venice to cross the Mediterranean - following in the wake of his ancestor, the explorer Alvise da Mosto - to discover the cities and islands where Western civilization was born. Sailing in a late nineteenth-century yawl, his journey starts in Venice and finishes in Istanbul. Along the way he takes in spectacular ruins, like the Acropolis in Athens and the Lycian Tombs in Turkey; sacred sites like the monasteries of Mount Athos and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul; and beautiful Dubrovnik (destroyed and rebuilt in the last decade). Ancient history and bygone legends intertwine as Francesco visits these wonderful ancient sites, bringing the past vividly to life, and taking viewers on a thrilling cultural odyssey.