John McCarthy gets a flavour of rural Italy and its food in conversation with writer Tracey Lawson who investigated the surprising longevity of an Italian village's residents by going to live there and learning all about their diet; their great life expectancy is due in no small part to simple food freshly prepared and she shares some of the secrets with John. They are joined by author Julia Blackburn whose own experiences of living in an Italian village led her to collect the memories and stories of the older inhabitants. And the writer and columnist Vitali Vitaliev tells why, originally from the Ukraine, he loves Italy so much and how he ate a great many good Italian meals in the apparently futile search for a bad one.

Producer : Harry Parker.