Season 18

From the Castrum of the ancient Romans to the castles of the 17th century. From the first forms of defense and fortification such as the famous walls of Jericho, Troy and Mycenae to the sumptuous Castles of Sissi and Ludwig in Bavaria. Few know that Italy has over 20,000 sites including fortifications, defensive walls and castles. Ulisse, the pleasure of discovery accompanies you on a unique journey to discover this artistic, architectural and historical heritage, told through the stories, legendary or true, of the rich inhabitants who lived there over the various centuries both in Italy and in Europe. King Arthur, Paolo and Francesca, the Baroness of Carini, Mary Stuart, the Borgias, Sissi and Ludwig and many others.

The most impressive military landing recorded in history: 160 thousand soldiers, 11 thousand planes and almost 7 thousand boats of all types. It's D-Day, the longest day. Thousands of young American, English and Canadian soldiers wrote one of the most important pages of the Second World War. While the pale light of dawn spread over the Channel, the largest amphibious invasion force ever assembled up to that moment lands on the coasts of Normandy: it is June 6, 1944. Alberto Angela from the places of the landing on the coasts of Normandy will reconstruct the crucial moments of the D-Day through exclusive testimonies of the last survivors.

The most impressive military landing recorded in history: 160 thousand soldiers, 11 thousand planes and almost 7 thousand boats of all types. It's D-Day, the longest day. Thousands of young American, English and Canadian soldiers wrote one of the most important pages of the Second World War. While the pale light of dawn spread over the Channel, the largest amphibious invasion force ever assembled up to that moment lands on the coasts of Normandy: it is June 6, 1944. Alberto Angela, from the places of the landing on the coasts of Normandy, will reconstruct the moments crucial through exclusive testimonies of the last survivors. Ulisse reached these ex-boyfriends in their homes: in France, in England, in the United States but also in Germany, where Alberto Angela met, among others, the young German sentry who on the night of the operation, on the famous Pegasus Bridge, spotted the first allied soldiers and fired the first flare into the air.

Alberto Angela takes us on a very special journey to discover the most famous monument of ancient Rome: the Colosseum. For almost two thousand years its mighty mass has stood out in the panorama of Rome, and even today this exceptional construction leaves millions of visitors amazed (over 6 million in 2016) from all over the world. For the preview with Ulisse we look out from the magnificent attic of the Amphitheater with its breathtaking view which will also be open to the public from early November. How was the Colosseo built and why? This is what we discover together with Alberto Angela who tells us the stories of the three great emperors who were decisive for the construction of this wonder of antiquity. Three names that still echo today in history books: Nerone, Vespasiano and Tito.

In a truly extraordinary journey, with Alberto Angela, "Ulisse" passes from one island to another: starting from the Isola Maggiore of Lake Trasimeno, the program tells the thousand stories of which the many islands on earth are the protagonists. born suddenly, disappeared slowly, changed over time due to natural events.

"I only followed orders", is the typical excuse advanced by Nazi criminals. And Hermann Göring and Adolf Eichmann, two figures of the Nazi regime responsible for crimes against humanity, also justified themselves with this sentence. Alberto Angela, with the help of two dramas, reconstructs the personalities and history of the two Nazi hierarchs also through the story of the trials in which they were accused and which finally brought justice to millions of victims.

A journey between the Renaissance, the 1600s, the 1700s and the entire 19th century. In this episode of Ulisse we will explore places such as Palazzo Farnese, Palazzo Barberini, Villa Medici, passing through Villa Torlonia, Villa Farnesina and finally the Casina del bel Breath in Villa Doria Pamphili. In each of these places you will find the wonders hidden in Raphael's frescoes, Bernini's staircases and Borromini's works. In fact, it is precisely through the explanation of these works that Alberto Angela will reveal to us the power games of papal Rome. Each noble family tried to extend its dominion over Rome through the election of one of its members to the office of pontiff. In fact, each pope then started works and commissions that brought masterpieces of all sorts to the capital.

A long journey back almost two centuries, a period in which the sea was still an unexplored world and was believed to be inhabited by extraordinary creatures and populated with myths and legends. Alberto Angela will accompany spectators to discover one of the masterpieces of world literature: Moby Dick. The novel written by Herman Melville in 1851 is one of the most famous and read books in the world. Little known, however, is the fact that, to write Moby Dick, Melville was inspired by a true story: the sinking of the US whaler Essex in the Pacific, due to the attack of an enormous sperm whale.

50 years after the event that marked the history of medicine, the program dedicates an episode to one of the most shocking medical achievements of the last century: that of allowing a person to live by removing their diseased heart and putting the heart of another in its place. Something that no one in the past could have even imagined and which was achieved in December 1967 by an unknown South African surgeon who later went down in history: his name was Christiaan Barnard. The program will tell his story, and above all the behind the scenes of the first heart transplant ever performed on a human being. We will follow the operation step by step thanks to a fascinating filmed reconstruction of Wall to Wall directed by Patrick Reams. we will also see original film documents, shot in Cape Town, with the protagonists of this great adventure: doctors and patients of the time.

We cannot remember the most intense period of our lives, that of the most surprising discoveries, of unstoppable progress, of dizzying goals. These are the first two years after birth, about 700 wonderful days that, even without remembering them, we sometimes partially relive as adults, observing a small human being growing up.

Alberto Angela takes us on a grandiose journey into one of the most crucial periods in the history of Rome: the birth of the Empire. Through the images of the film "Il Destino di Roma", we get to know the protagonists of those years more closely. From Bruto and Cassio to Antonio and Cleopatra. It is a historical reconstruction, if you want a film, with real actors, but with places reconstructed on the computer.

Paris, its secrets and its wonders. The Bridges of Paris and the Seine have been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. Alberto Angela, aboard a vintage boat, travels along the Seine, using the river as a journey through time. He explores Paris in various stages: from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, to the Eiffel Tower, to the towers of the spectacular Nôtre Dame Cathedral. The appointment with the Eiffel Tower is unmissable, as told by Alberto Angela in all its details, and the surprising transformations of Paris at the end of the nineteenth century: from the birth of the department stores to the many attractions of Montmartre, to the cafés of the Latin Quarter. And then the changes that occurred in the twentieth century: from Beaubourg to Défense.

Renzo, Lucia and Alberto Angela: "Ulisse, il piacere della scoperta" travels through the pages of I promessi sposi, Alessandro Manzoni's masterpiece. It is not a school reading, but the fresco of an entire era: the seventeenth century. Alberto Angela demonstrates how the author used very accurate documentation concerning first of all the habits and customs of the time and the great historical events: the famine, the plague, the Thirty Years' War, the spinning mills, the duels. All these aspects are also explored in depth with the help of the Rai drama directed by Salvatore Nocita in 1989. Even more surprising is the correspondence of some characters in the novel with real-life figures: Don Rodrigo and the Unnamed are not only the fruit of Manzoni's imagination, but they are present - albeit with other names - in the "black" chronicles of the seventeenth century.

In this episode of "Ulisse, il piacere della scoperta", Alberto Angela takes us on a journey to the limits of what the human body can do. Let's try to understand if there are, and where they are, the limits of our organism. We meet extraordinary people, capable of incredible feats, and the researchers who study to understand how they do it. But we also meet those who experience the challenge of overcoming a limitation of the body every day, and we discover some of the technological solutions being worked on to allow the body to recover lost functions. This journey, however, has a peculiarity: Alberto Angela takes us by the hand towards the goals that human beings can achieve today, also keeping an eye on what our species has always dreamed of doing and which it thought was only possible for superior creatures, like gods and heroes of antiquity.

We follow Alberto Angela into the depths of the abyss. The world of the deep sea is still little known and full of surprises. We know the surface of the Moon in more detail than the depths of our seas. In this episode we discover the stories and adventures of the pioneers who led humanity to discover the oceans and their underwater world. "Challenge to the abyss" takes us on board one of the most advanced submarines of the Italian Navy, the Todaro, to discover what happens on board a modern submarine and how its crew lives.

"I know I have a fragile and delicate woman's body, but I have the stomach and heart of a king, of a king of England." These are the words of Elizabeth I, the virgin queen, protagonist of this episode of "Ulisse - Il piacere della scoperta". With the help of a drama, Alberto Angela reconstructs the life of Queen Elizabeth I Tudor from her difficult childhood to the last days of her long reign. A life lived like a Shakespearean tragedy, made up of deception, revenge in the name of religion, bloody deaths.

Alberto Angela dedicates the first of the two episodes to the beauties of Rome. But this time we will talk about a "hidden" eternal city that centuries and centuries of construction have buried. Rome under Rome. The hidden secrets of the city. They will be told through little-known locations, never-discovered treasures, secret doors and unexplored dungeons. One for all, the Baths of Trajan in the park of Colle Oppio, where the largest Roman wall mosaic ever discovered was found: 300 square meters discovered, but a part is still buried and to be brought to light. The Basilica of Porta Maggiore, discovered by chance during work on the railway viaduct leading to Termini Station. In the Appio Latino neighborhood, under a manhole, is a hypogeum hidden with magnificent frescoes, where Christian and pagan symbols mix? This too was discovered by chance, while laying the foundations of a building. Alberto Angela will make us relive the activity that he carried out in these spaces.

Second appointment with the two-episode journey of "Ulisse: il piacere della scoperta" with Alberto Angela among the secrets of underground Rome. A city that never ceases to amaze us, which reveals new aspects among more recent neighborhoods with new buildings, the accumulation of debris, the raising of the walking surface which have made buildings which once constituted authentic wonders disappear underground and which sometimes they randomly re-emerge in all their splendor. This is the case of the Basilica of Porta Maggiore, discovered by chance during work on the railway viaduct leading to Termini Station. Or the hypogeum with magnificent frescoes, where Christian and pagan symbols mix, hidden under a manhole in the Appio Latino neighborhood. Or, again, of the astonishing maze of tunnels and service areas that hides underground of the grandiose Baths of Caracalla, and the small lake with pure water that was formed under ancient ruins on the Celian Hill.

An extraordinary journey by Alberto Angela to the continent furthest from us and perhaps the least known: Australia. Why was it discovered just 250 years ago? Why are there animals very different from other continents? What is Ayers Rock, the enormous rock block located in the center of the continent, and why is it considered a sacred place by Aboriginal people? Is it true that Giuseppe Garibaldi was in Australia? These are some of the many curiosities that the episode answers. Just two and a half centuries ago, until James Cook's expedition, Australia was not even suspected of existence; and even today its interior - the so-called outback - behind the large coastal cities remains almost completely uninhabited and largely unexplored. There are many wonders and surprises that Ulysses reserves for us on this journey to discover the lesser-known aspects of Australia.