A Fork in the Road

Have large families and Latin lovers become romantic memories? With the magnificent backdrop of Venice as his canvas, Pria Viswalingam explores the realities of Italy facing a falling population. With the country now relying on immigrants to bolster the workforce, the family structures that have stood for thousands of years are changing. Meet Danielle Baker, an Australian actress living near Venice. She's just had her baby along with her expatriate buddies from Kenya and Ukraine while her Italian friend is still concentrating on the career thing and the vogue home. Pria meets the old and the new as they come together to form what may be a very different Italy in the future.

They might be Spanish but they are firstly Catalans. The area around the city of Barcelona is almost a country within a country. They have their own language, their own culture and their own problems. Some of the famed eccentrics of the 20th century, like architect Gaudi and artist Dali, have called it home. General Franco attempted to integrate the region with the rest of Spain by force. Pria Viswalingam looks at their architecture, tastes their food and tries to gain some understanding of the psyche of the modern Catalan and discovers that some of the old prejudices die hard.

The French Riviera, playground of the rich and famous where one needs deep pockets and a fat wallet. Pria takes on the character of Templeton, a well-to-do businessman on his annual sybaritic leave in the little village of Ramatuelle, in the hills above St Tropez. Templeton indulges in the sights, the sounds and above all the tastes in this very different look at how the nouveau and not-so-nouveau rich entertain themselves.

Morocco, a surprising land of sun, surf, sand, and even snow is a moderate Islamic country caught between two worlds. It is trying to hold onto its past while trying to accommodate the winds of economic and social globalisation that are sweeping the world. And being just across the Mediterranean from France, Spain and Italy, means that Morocco cops the full force of the sirocco. In the ancient city of Fez, Pria Viswalingam meets a poor tanner trying to earn enough to feed his family by working in the old leather tannery using methods that have remained unchanged for centuries.

Kythera, the idyllic Greek island of Aphrodite, goddess of love is our destination. But what is the reality of living on such a small island? Pria meets both the locals who are scratching a living from the soil and the new arrivals who have come in search of a dream. But then the stuff of dreams is what supplies the people of Kythera with a future and a past. It's an island of legends and myths that fertilise the island's robust grapevine. Join Pria and Aphrodite as they wander the lanes and stir the senses of a relatively unspoilt Greek Isle.

Pria Viswalingam travels the ancient biblical highways to one of the world's oldest countries and yet one of its youngest, Israel. At the heart of Israeli culture is the kibbutz. "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." was their creed, a noble socialist sentiment, but how have they fared in today's world, a world of individualism and consumerism? From the delights of the Dead Sea to a decidedly non-kosher Tel Aviv, Pria delves into the reality behind the dream.

At the very entrance to the Mediterranean Sea stands 'the Rock'. Gibraltar has been a British possession for exactly 300 years. In that time it has formed its own culture from the myriad of peoples who have come to live here, a culture that is neither Spanish nor British but unique to the rock. What is it like to live in a country that is only six and a half square kilometres with nearly thirty thousand inhabitants? Where soggy fish and chips share the table with tantalising tapas. Where each family has five cars and thus, there are more vehicles than parking spaces. Where the airport is a five-minute walk from town. And where do you go to get away from it all? Well, across the border to Spain, of course.

Istanbul - just mention the name and a cornucopia of images flood the mind: images of histories, empires, of the east and the west. Of grand palaces and mosques, narrow souks and the Bosphorus. Pria soaks the senses in Turkish history, Ottoman cuisine and local wine before heading to the mountains to refresh and replenish the soul with the good folk of Aydar - a tiny alpine village that could be mistaken for chocolate-box Switzerland except for the huge mosque in the middle of it.