Italy, Peninsula Of Contrasts.

Shows the modern life of a Sicilian family and presents a background for the study of the Mediterranean and Sicily's important place in early history. The Casini family - pretty Tanna, age 16, and Rosario, 13 - live in Taormina overlooking the bay. Tanna is an operator in a beauty shop. Tanna's shopping trip shows the products and crafts of Sicily: ceramics, pottery, tile, carved wood, embroideries. Men at an iron shop skillfully twist the hot wrought iron. Rosario watches a caravan of Communist trucks - a reminder that his island has been steeped in political intrigue since Roman days. Tanna and Rosario explore Taormina's ancient Greek Amphitheatre, and ponder over the days when the theatre was used for Greek dramas, the persecution of Christians, and by gladiators. A map shows Sicily's strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean - next to Gibraltar the nearest point to North Africa. In the ice age the two continents were connected by Sicily.