Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy

TV’s Hotel Inspector serves up a big slice of la dolce vita
Ben-Felsenberg-176‘It’s no secret that Venice is popular.’ No, really, you don’t say? But still your sarcasm, however anodyne the scripted observations, for precisely because this scenic travelogue takes us so deep into the realm of the bleedin’ obvious, it proves to be formidably stress-tested proof that Italy is irresistibly entrancing (Alex Polizzi’s Secret Italy, Channel 5, Friday, 9pm).

Taking a vacation from fomenting terror in the hotel trade, Alex Polizzi is both congenial companion and bella ragazza as she tours the peninsula to which she owes her aristocratic family roots. So, yes, the cliches do roll off , and in the opening episode we’re given an inside peak at the Venice enjoyed by the rich and famous, including a fi ve-star hotel suite of the sort you’d guess the Clooney wedding party guests were treated to, fairly dripping with Murano glass and gold fittings. But Miss Polizzi keeps her eye out for diverting tales: that same suite is lavished with an abundance of beauty products, all made not far away inside a women’s prison. Cue a visit to a jailhouse that will have us all hoping to get nabbed by the carabinieri to do a stretch inside its elegant Renaissance walls.

Then it’s off to Milan, and never mind the fashion – Alex makes haste to worship at a gourmands’ cathedral, Caff e Cucchi, where the baker makes by general assent the finest panettone on the planet. The secret is to leave the cake to settle upside down, we learn in this delicious slice of la dolce vita.

NOT TO BE MISSED

TV-Oct24-NotToBeMissed-590

WALKING THROUGH HISTORY, Channel 4, Sat, 8pm
Tony Robinson guides us on a hearty hike into the past, starting with a search for the spirit of the Brontës on the West Yorkshire moors.

THE MISSŽING, BBC1, Tues, 9pm
A formidable thriller series that promises to be the new Broadchurch, with James Nesbitt as a father whose young son goes missing on a family holiday.

IMAGINE… The Art That Hitler Hated, BBC1, Tues, 10.35pm
The full, extraordinary story behind the secret hoard of art found inside a Munich flat last year is uncovered.