and main news stories for ou at main news stories for you at the top of the hour after this programme. incredible food, fashion, ancient ruins, renaissance masters, and la dolce vita. this week, we are in italy. from its stunning towns, sitting between the coves and cliffs on the amalfi coast, to the ruggedness and tranquillity of sardinia, and the hectic life between the ancient ruins in rome, italy is truly a place like no other, where art, food, culture

and history all meet. though the history isn't consigned just to museums — sometimes, it feels like it's all around you. and we start this look back at our adventures to italy with the time that i was in a small town in the north of the country called ivrea, taking part in the annual bruising battle of the oranges. its origins are unknown, but the festival dates back to medieval times, as locals battle between the carted henchmen and the locals defending the town. i was lucky to join a team for some last—minute preparations before battle commenced. so, this is the first time i've been on this cart. this is going to be my carriage. this is where i will be the baddie. and i'll be going through town, throwing these things at other people. i'm an obvious target — that's the whole point. whoa! but first, a trial run.

what am i doing? right! you've asked for it! he laughs ow, it really whacks you! whoa! and that is just a soft trial. whoa. as i recover and psych myself up for the battle, my comrades prepare the cavalry. surprisingly, it's actually the presentation of your cart and horses that you're judged on during the battle, not your orange—throwing prowess. ok, so we've had the lunch. people have had some drinks and whatever to build up some sort of dutch courage. i've got now my armoury on, my insignia. my helmet is here. i've been given lots of advice.

can i be honest? i am really quite nervous now, because i've got a feeling this is going to be pretty painful. however, i do have a companion here with me. hi. hi, raphael. hi. you've done this a lot of times. how are you? yeah. what's your advice to me? oh, just to keep calm. just keep going, don't stop moving. don't stop moving, yeah. and...don't be afraid. it's just full pleasure. very easy to say this. it's100% pleasure. "it's100% pleasure." you will see. masochistic pleasure, i think! yeah. fanfare plays well, i'm on the cart, and we are nearing the city. and the tension is rising. this is not going to be fun, this is going to be...painful. hip—hip! hurrah!

all: hurrah! hip—hip! all: hurrah! we stop on the outskirts of the town for the horses to be checked over. as my fellow team members say goodbye to their loved ones, there's a definite feeling of heading off to war in the air. all: hurrah! yeah! this is it now. tell my family i love them.

it was all a blur. the citrus smell, the noise, the adrenaline. i have no idea how long i was being pelted at. wow, what was exhilarating! it was mad! it was like being in a weird dream. and all the advice that my compatriots on the cart gave me was brilliant. "breathe, keep throwing, keep throwing." and guess what? iwas 0k! fantastic, really good feeling! what an experience, to take part in the battle of the oranges — and all for the honour of the travel show. now the efforts to protect italy's history is a never—ending task for authorities. ade was recently in the eternal city of rome, where he joined the team dedicated to hunting down some of italy's most

precious stolen items. i'll let him take up the story of one of the country's most famous missing works of art. ade: so, this is how the story goes. the year is 1969. it's october 17th. we're in sicily. there's a huge rainstorm, and the skies are illuminated by lightning and the sounds of thunder. now, whilst all the locals are asleep, thieves are breaking into a church through a side window. they enter the church, and they steal one of italy's most famous paintings, caravaggio's nativity. now it's rumoured that they cut the painting out of its frame and roll it up into a carpet, and steal off into the darkness of the night. now, it was also rumoured that this painting was stolen by one of sicily�*s biggest mafia bosses. the painting was also said to have turned up somewhere in switzerland. but over 50 years later, and still nobody knows what has happened to ca ravaggio's nativity.

it's estimated that around $6 billion worth of plundered art is being traded on the global black market every year, so much so that a special branch of italy's military police — or carabinieri — is dedicated to tracking down these stolen treasures. over the years, they've retrieved millions of pieces. and now, for the first time, these recovered artefacts are on display in a brand—new museum. i mean, some of these pieces are amazing. soon, all these relics will be sent back to their original homes across italy, whilst the new haul comes in. so, how many antiquities do you have in the museum?

some of which have been trafficked thousands of miles right across the globe. so it's a business? you've got people in italy, people in switzerland, people in the united states all getting paid, and they're all part of this system?

and i couldn't resist one last question. nobody knows where the caravaggio is. i mean, do you know where it is? have you got it? no, no! erm... not here, not here. he laughs tracking down the movements of these stolen items isn't easy. but, not to be beaten, the carabinieri are adopting ever more sophisticated techniques, and a change in the law means they can punish criminals more severely. in this battle against these criminals, do

you think you're winning? 500km north—east of rome, we head to venice. there have been gondoliers working on the canals for centuries here — but now, there are only 400 of the famous venetians left. and so, those still working see themselves as custodians of the city. last year, carmen met some who swapped their boats for scuba gear to help clear up the city's canals. amazingly, from 13 of them, they've so far removed 8,000kg of rubbish, three mopeds, two air—conditioning units, one bicycle, 4,000 bottles, and an unbelievable 1,600 car tyres.

carmen: what gave you the idea to start cleaning the canals? about three years ago, when i was working in the gondola, the water not too much deeper, and i see many tyres, many tyres, and the rest. right. we start in february 2019, yeah? and, er, we bring about 2,000kg in the first time. dredging up tonnes of rubbish, ranging from shopping trolleys to car tyres, is a mammoth and potentially dangerous task. so, the men are given bespoke training. they dive using specialist equipment in order to operate safely. and, early on sunday morning, long before tourists arrive, i'm joining the guys for the real deal.

that's one hardcore scuba diving suit. there's not one bit of skin showing. now, i've dived before — i'm not sure i'd want to go into the canals of venice, as lovely as they are. i want to find out what the newly—trained canal cleaners have to contend with. stefa no. stefa no, stefa no, stefa no. stefa no! ok, so what is all this? these are the heart... the heart of the operation? the teams have to stay in constant communication — it's crucial to help the guys underwater cope with the difficult conditions. it must be very dark and gloomy. can you see? 10cm, 20. that's it? or maybe not. wow. touch, you know? 0h, 0k. you go by feel down there. so, stefano, how often do you do this, every sunday? not every sunday,

just in the winter. ah. because in the summer, i have traffic. right. much of today's catch is all too familiar. many bottles. lots of bottles. drinking, the guys, in the night—time... yeah! they walk, they — boof — jump, when the bottle's empty, in the canal. right. since the clean—up began, some 4,000 carelessly discarded bottles have been retrieved. but later, a baffling object rears its head and has everyone mystified. there's something really big on the line here. it looks really, really heavy. there's about three of them trying to pull it out. what is that? conversing in italian oh, my goodness.

0h! it's a trolley. it's probably somebody�*s luggage from about 20 years ago that went off into the canal. look, it's been down there for so long, it's covered in barnacles and slime, and sludge. is that coral? oh, it's a sponge. no, no, no, sponges. these are sponges. wow. they're sponges, and other... oh, there's a rope. yeah. what's it like down there? er...mud. mud. is it dangerous down there? the equipment they use is full protection against the pollution. because the problem is not really the water itself, but the mud. the mud is laying in the canals years after years, and is full of bacteriological and chemical pollution.

but what about the gondoliers when they are working? is it difficult if there's rubbish, you know...? yes, yes. when the tide is low, they feel something in the water that is not the real seafloor, you know? yeah. canals must be cleaned. to transfer this idea to the public is very important. and also, for the sensibility of people, people living in venice, and also tourists, that they don't have to throw things in the canals. once the rubbish has been retrieved, gondoliers hand it over to the local council to dispose of it correctly. rajan: incredible effort there, proving that they really see themselves as custodians of that great city. now, another famous city here, pompeii, was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago,

in 79 ad, when the nearby mount vesuvius erupted — and is now one of the most archaeologically significant sites in the world. back in 2021, lucy went to meet the new director who was trying to dramatically change the visitor experience, and introduce new technologies to preserve this invaluable record of roman life. lucy: walking through the streets of this ancient city, under the shadow of the active volcano that destroyed it is actually quite unsettling. pre—pandemic, almost 2 million people came here every year, which put a strain on the site, and led to it nearly losing its unesco heritage status in 2015. but it's come a long way since then, partly thanks to a new director who's made it his mission to protect the site, whilst also improving the visitor experience.

it has always been a site evolving with the times. and so, it has always been a site to experiment and to try out new approaches, both for the conservation and for the dialogue with the public. and how do you think this will change the perception of how pompeii used to be? it's really about the vision of the past. it's not only the big families, not only the senators and the ones who got the statues on the forum, er, and the local authorities. but it's also the slaves and women who often have — do not appear in the same way in the written and official sources, and children. and i mean, to see all this complexity of ancient society, that's really important. the challenge at pompeii is its exposure to the elements. and climate change means the site is subject to sudden

temperature changes, from extreme drought all the way to heavy rain. today, new technologies are helping to preserve this invaluable record of roman life in the first century. drones are helping to map the site, robots are rebuilding frescoes, sensors are monitoring seismic activity, and thermal imaging cameras are helping keep a check on humidity, helping staff to act quickly if potential danger strikes. but the real star of the show is, without a doubt, this four—legged robot that bizarrely looks like a dog. she chuckles good dog. so, paolo, i've got to be honest, i am geeking out over this. this has got to be the coolest, most elaborate robot i think i've ever seen in my life. so, talk to me about what i'm staring at. there's a lot going on here. it's an incredible piece of technology. yeah! it's a machine that is able to move around autonomously, and is able to bring with it

some other technologies, other payloads. here now, you see a computing power where we can run our software, and the laser scanner that is a specialised scanner that is able to scan while the machine is moving, and the robot itself is able to avoid obstacles, to move autonomously in an environment like this one. and also, since you can upload artificial intelligence and machine—learning algorithms on it, you can bring ai wherever it is required, and it is needed. rajan: well, that's almost it for this week, but we couldn't leave italy without mentioning food — and one of its greatest exports to the rest of the world. yes, pizza. a few years ago, jo whalley had the tough task of visiting the nine—day

world pizza festival on the coast of naples, and was a judge in the prestigious pizza—making championships. it attracts chefs from around the world. we'll leave you with a reminder of howjoe and the rest of the judging team got on. jo: this is the big competition. who has the best margherita pizza? i've got my secret voting sheet here. it's all being taken very seriously. this is my voting form — from the name of the chef, my name, and the different categories of marks that i can give each pizza. 500 is the best, and ten is the worst. my fellowjudge, mario, shows me how to inspect all aspects of the slice — to check the crust is bouncy, and that i can taste all the distinct ingredients. there are nine categories of pizza tojudge, and it's a gruelling pace. ok, quickly, quickly. right. oh, gosh.

having to speed—eat because i'm being too slow with my markings. some of thejudges have been here tasting for hours. they're only swapped out when they're too full to continue. so, i'm on slice number seven. mario has had over a0 slices. this is 1a. still going strong. i've been here forjust over three hours, and there are so many people queued up outside, waiting to cook for us. when will it end? then we get word that the final pizza is being sliced.

number 52 — the last one. it's a really unusual flavour. sort of mustardy. quite like it, though. go out with a bang. while the votes are being counted, the award for pizza acrobatics isjudged. it's seriously skilful. the award ceremony goes on into the night, and there are winners from across the globe. the organisers here hope to take the napoli pizza village festival to cities like london and new york and spread the message around the world that neapolitan pizza isn't just food, it's a way of life.

hello. after what's been another fairly warm week for many of us, the weekend is set to bring something even warmer. in fact, i think the days at times will feel quite hot and the nights will be very warm and humid as well. but as we head into sunday, we are going to see a bit of a change. some thundery downpours swinging in from the west courtesy of a frontal system which is a long way away to the west of us right now, for the short term, high pressure is just about in charge. and around this area of high pressure, particularly as these weather fronts squeeze in, we've got a feed of humid air wafting its way across our shores. so quite a warm and humid start to saturday morning with a fair amount of cloud actually, and some mist and murk around some of the coasts and over some of the hills. a lot of the cloud will tend

to break through the day to give some spells of sunshine, a bit of rain moving across the far north west of scotland. there's a small chance for the odd shower in parts of northern england, down into the midlands, but wales in the south of england likely to see the lion's share of the sunshine. and wherever you are it is going to be a warm day. 2a degrees for belfast, 25 for aberdeen, 29, the expected high in london. and that warmth does not ebb away quickly as we head into the evening. in fact, temperatures holding up at around 23 degrees in london and in sheffield at 10:00 in the evening. so it could well be a little bit uncomfortable for sleeping. those temperatures falling a little bit further into the early hours of sunday. but with the humid air in place, sunday is going to turn into another very warm day. however, this frontal system pushing in from the west will bring a change for some of us with a band of heavy, thundery rain already in place across northern ireland. first thing that will push its way eastwards and ahead of it, some showers will pop up across parts of northern england, eastern scotland. these could be heavy and thundery in nature, but further south and particularly further southeast, it should stay largely dry

with lots of sunshine and that warmth being squashed into the southeast corner. so temperatures in london likely to get to 31 degrees, but just 19 for belfast, fresher in the west. and that fresher air will move across all parts of the country as we move into the start of the new week. there are, though, further frontal systems lying in wait, so we will see further outbreaks of rain at times and potentially some quite strong winds as well, particularly towards the north and the west of the uk. not as much rain further south and it is not going to be as warm as it has been.

live from washington, this is bbc news. tensions in russia after the kremlin accuses the wagner group the wagner group leader of calling leader of calling for an armed rebellion. for an armed rebellion. and — recovery efforts and — recovery efforts are under way as crews are under way as crews

work to raise the wreckage of the titan submersible.