Francesco DVD Collection

Contains the following DVDs: Francesco's Venice, Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe and Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage.

Francesco's Venice
A breathtaking journey through the ages, telling the story of one of the world's most famous and beautiful cities. This lavish, landmark series explores how a place with no firm ground, no crops, no indigenous riches and no land army came to snatch success from the jaws of failure time and time again - right up to the present day. Step back in time to early Venice, recreated by the magic of CGI. See wooden houses on stilts replaced by the daring rebuild in stone and brick.

Witness the sacking of Constantinople and the Venice of Casanova, Napoleon, Byron and Mussolini. The stunning recreations and dramatisations in each episode are enriched by insights from charismatic aristocrat, architect and historian Francesco da Mosto. His family has lived in Venice for over a thousand years and, far from having that sinking feeling, he believes passionately in the future of this miraculous city...

Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe
Following his sumptuous series on Venice, Francesco da Mosto celebrates the art and beauty of Italy - its cathedrals, churches, palaces, opera houses, paintings, sculpture and music. It is a story of the Italy we all know and love, enhanced by a look at the secret side of the country that only an insider can show us. Da Mosta reveals the full glories of Renaissance Italy and the country's astonishing cultural diversity, which was only recently unified under one flag. Born into a distinguished family, with a Venetian father and a Sicilian mother, what better guide could there be than one who knows and loves this magnificent country?

Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage
Venetian architect and historian Francesco da Mosto sets out from Venice to cross the Mediterranean sea - 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 schooner, he starts his journey in Venice and finishes in Istanbul. Along the way he takes in spectacular ruins like the Acropolis in Athens and the Roman city of Ephesus 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.