Romania is a land of a thousand faces.
The crossing point between the Occident and the Orient,
and a melting pot of different cultures.
It is also a country unlike any other in Europe.
With over 60 percent of the Carpathian Mountains weaving through it,
Romania is the custodian of Europe's last great wilderness area,
its largest remaining forest,
and two thirds of its surviving alpha predators.
As well as native Romanians,
it is home to a Saxon and Hungarian culture, Roma, Aroman, Lipovan,
and many more disparate peoples,
who have been united by the borders of a nation,
that stretches from the edge of Serbia,
Hungary and the Ukraine, to the very mouth of the Danube.
Here, Europe's largest wetland fans out into the Black Sea,
and provides the country with yet another vast, priceless and fragile ecosystem,
a haven for wild birds, interwoven with countless waterways,
reedbeds and lakes that meander for over 3,000 square kilometres.
Inland, Romania is rich with ancient villages, majestic national parks,
ruined castles, historic cities,
and a legacy that dates back thousands of years.
But increasingly this unique country's natural and cultural heritage
is under threat from reckless development…
and a race to modernize,
which is often destroying the very things that could ensure prosperity
and a sustainable livelihood for generations to come.
Over the next eight episodes
I will be embarking on a road trip through Romania's eight historic regions,
discovering fabulous treasures…
natural wonders…
medieval marvels…
mouthwatering dishes
and the people that make this one of the warmest
and most hospitable countries in the world.
En route I will be picking up some sensational recipes,
hearing songs and tunes that have almost been forgotten,
and meeting a handful of people that still remember and preserve them.
We will also be finding out how this hugely misunderstood country
is emerging from post-Communist chaos,
and identifying some of the challenges it faces,
and how tourism could provide one of its best hopes for the future.
So this is it, I can't put it off any longer.
It's been months of planning
and finally here we are ready to go.
I am a bit apprehensive, to be honest,
because we've decided to do this on a motorbike,
which is not the safest mode of transport, particularly in Romania,
so I will expect to be finding livestock on the road, we're expecting potholes,
maybe the odd horse and cart on a blind corner,
at night without reflectors,
which is a challenge, and also some crazy driving.
But I wanted to do it this way because when you travel by car,
you are looking at everything through a window,
effectively through a screen,
and so there is a distance between you and the landscape,
whereas when you are on a bike you are immersed in that landscape,
and for us this is the whole purpose of Flavours of Romania.
I've been coming here since 2011
and we've made a number of programmes about this country,
but for this we really wanted to go beneath the surface.
There is increased poverty in many places
and economic depression in many villages,
and with the right kind of tourism and sensitive development,
our argument is that perhaps this can revitalize parts of Romania,
that tourism could be one of the biggest source of revenue for the country.
I'm talking too much
because I'm actually trying to put off getting on that bike.
But this is it, we've got to go,
so thank you for joining us
on what will be the most extraordinary adventure and journey.
I don't know what we are going to find, we have a rough idea,
I don't know who we are going to meet and the stories will tell themselves,
so we may end up
with a very different show from the one we are planning,
but the only way to find out is to get going.
We begin our journey in Oltenia, once known as Wallachia minor,
and one of the least promoted regions in Romania.
Sandwiched between the Danube,
the Olt river to the East and the Southern Carpathians,
Oltenia is steeped in history,
and once constituted the front line
in Emperor Trajan's war against the Dacians.
My first stop is a former Neo Romanian style baths,
that has recently been reinvented as a aspirational eco-hotel.
Not only does it have a fine reputation for food,
but it also serves as a good base from which to explore Eastern Oltenia.
So this is Hanul Vatra.
I love the restoration of the old house and the new build.
After checking in I went to find owners Dan and Otilia.
You can't really reconstruct an old building
the way they used to build it,
so what you can do
is focus on the building materials that you are using.
Here my husband always told me that we have two kinds of materials,
we have ones that get old in a very nice fashion,
and become more beautiful through patina,
and you have concrete and industrial materials.
-Which look ugly after 15 years. -Yes.
And it must be lovely for Eva growing up in such idyllic surrounding.
That was one of the reasons we decided to move to the countryside.
We wanted her to live in a clean environment,
with organic food as much as possible and enjoy nature.
A few miles away from Hanul Vatra is the Buila Vanturarita national park,
one of the smallest in Romania.
It is an ancient sedimentary landscape dissected by dramatic gorges
and heavily influenced by the action of rivers.
Another curious feature of this area are a strange alluvial rock formations,
known as Trovanti,
which have become a tourist attraction in their own right,
as local ranger Monica Popescu explained.
About seven million years ago here was a Delta,
and the rivers brought sand and balast,
and in special conditions of pressure and temperature the Trovanti resulted.
-So they form an agregate. -Yes it's an agregate.
People say that when it rains they grow
and in the night they speak, they whisper.
-They whisper to each other. -Yes and they move.
I guess they do move probably a little bit.
-Because it's all sand here, so… -Yes they move a little.
If they get eroded underneath they might roll over.
-I can see a few up there on the cliff. -They will fall.
That's the sediment from the riverbed, isn't it?
Yes.
They're gonna come down, so the park is going to grow.
Sheltering at the foot of these rugged hills
lie numerous monasteries and churches, like this one near Pietreni,
which potentially hides an intriguing secret.
What's interesting about this place,
it's called the Church of the 44 springs, that's not the interesting bit,
in fact the reason for that is pretty obvious if you look around.
No, what's weird is when I first came here I saw this overhanging roof,
and I thought,
well you'd only have a roof like that if you had painted murals on the walls,
because this is what they do in Bucovina,
you have these large roofs to protect the murals from the elements.
But of course it doesn't seem to be painted,
except when you come around this side.
If you look at the render that's been put on very recently,
it's covering these walls,
and beneath that where they've left it you see images like this.
Probably a couple of saints, an angel.
I don't know how much of this has been covered or how much has eroded,
because this is a very old church, it's three hundred years old,
so there might have been murals all the way around it.
Or maybe just what you see,
but the size of the roof which is unnecessarily wide,
you'd only really do that if you were trying to protect it from the elements.
While the Maramures in northern Romania is famed for its wooden churches,
this part of Oltenia also has its share,
mostly built from the 18th to 19th centuries,
although some, including this one at Gramesti
dates back even further.
In recent decades,
a large proportion of these churches have been abandoned
due to their limited space and lack of modern amenities.
Not only is this one of the oldest wooden churches in Romania,
let alone Oltenia, built in 1664, but hardly anybody knows it's here.
It's really off the tourist map.
And it just goes to show
that there are so many undiscovered places in this country.
You don't just go to the Maramures to find wooden structures like this,
they're everywhere, but they need promoting.
Many of these churches are now in a bad state of deterioration,
with some at risk of imminent collapse.
Fortunately they are also now on the World Monuments Fund watch list,
so at least a few, like this one,
will preside over this landscape for generations to come.
Just down the road is the town of Horezu which in 2012
made it on to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists
for its local tradition of Ceramic art.
This is Ceramica Horezu,
a family owned business run by potter Laurentiu Pietraru.
I've come here to get my hands dirty.
We have been crafting Horezu ceramics for hundreds of years,
because to the clay that can be found here.
I deal with pottery owing to my wife.
She comes from a family of potters, already the fifth generation,
as far as they know.
Tell me a little bit about the designs that go on the ceramics.
Our most iconic motif on the pots we paint is the rooster.
It's the symbol of Horezu potters.
Besides, we have the snake of the house, the oldest motif in Horezu,
the tree of life, fish motifs, the peacock tail, wheat ear,
stars, tulips, grapes.
There are around 40 potters that craft Horezu ceramics.
We hope this craft will linger on.
Would you like to give our craft a try, at least to have some fun?
Well, last time I did it didn't work out so well,
but let's see how not to do it, how about that.
You're doing all the work, I can see this,
I'm not really doing much here at all.
That's why is still looking good.
I think the secret is to get really messy.
The more clay and water you have in your hands the smoother the operation.
This is going to go really badly wrong in a minute.
I am left handed. I don't know how to translate that.
Look now that's beautiful.
If I move this is going to go… if I do that.
No?
You do this. Yeah.
Thank you very much.
My soup bowl for the trip.
Very muddy hand shake. Done it.
Back at Hanul Vatra it was time for lunch,
so I thought I'd see what Petre the Chef was up to in the kitchen.
Petre is going to be cooking a veal dish.
It's not that common on Romanian menus, beef or veal,
so it's quite exciting to see what he is coming up with.
How are you going to do this?
We cut onions for peasants' potatoes.
We grate potatoes, we fry them only a bit in a pan,
with pepper and salt, and sweet paprika.
A bit of homemade lard.
So that's the staple ingredient, lard,
which will give it lots of flavour and a few extra calories.
We've got medalions of local sourced veal.
Everything they cook here is from the surrounding area.
The reduced beef stock with the pure vegetable mix
goes in there and this forms, with the onions and the butter,
the base for the sauce that is going to go with the beef.
Lots of cream.
Green peppers.
The vital extra ingredient, the green peppers.
Let's set up the veal.
And as a side dish Petre rustled up a red pepper and wild mushroom salad.
Nice touch, chopped radish.
The red pepper in the middle, like a medieval crown.
And we are there.
So, we have our scallop of veal.
Oh, I'm sorry that is fabulous.
I just don't understand why beef, veal are not in the menu more in Romania.
This is something to celebrate.
Heading deeper into Oltenia we reach more remote areas,
where you only have to drive a short distance from the main road
to find ancient settlements,
that have almost been entirely lost beneath the sands of time.
One such is the village of Firijba,
where the youngest inhabitant is in their seventies.
I wanted to find out how these communities manage to survive
and if there is any hope for their future.
-Ilinescu, right? -Ilinescu, yes.
-Nice to meet you, Charlie. -Welcome here.
Have you lived here all your life?
Yes, since I was born, 1935, February 10th.
I've known this world since then.
In 1947 we had drought, all over the country,
lice, scabies, fleas, mosquitos.
We were so hungry that we ate thistles, with sick leaves, as we call them.
The cows used to scream as they were coming hungry from the grazing ground.
-Incredible. -In '47.
I've had a difficult life.
What do you do to fill your days now, after you've retired?
I deal with housework.
For the past three, almost four years, I bring bread to the whole village.
I bring it on a stick, from the bakery down there.
I bring it on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Dumitru kindly agreed to show me around
so we set off to explore the village and meet some of the locals.
Another resident who has lived here all her life is Aurelia Visan,
now in her eighties.
-Charlie, nice to meet you. -Be healthy! May God protect you.
This village is very old, dear, it is 500 years old.
My grandfather told me that three persons settled here. Three families.
-Three families? -Yes.
That's how this village grew.
There was no path, just a trail that could fit one horse.
Just that!
Do people come and help you with some of the work here?
There's no one. There's only one woman, up there, on the hill,
and she sometimes comes to help us.
She is very poor and we give her money, and she helps us with digging.
It's bad. Our kids can't come over,
the road was damaged, they can't get here by car.
They say the car might broke,
otherwise they can't come because it's too far.
That's our life, what can we do?
It would be great if someone could come and manage all this area,
lots of land around here, and no one to take care of it.
Some people could come and work here, with goats, cattle,
what can I say?
It is what it is. You can't get any help with land work.
We're all a bit old
and only a few,
just 16 families left.
Why do you think people live so long in this community,
it's amazing that people have such a long life here.
You know why, my son?
This is a quiet village, clean air,
and no one bothers you, you know, no loud noise,
nothing to bother you.
Besides, we grow our own food, we have very good vegetables,
onion, potatoes, we add no chemicals.
I guess that's the reason, I don't know.
Our grandparents lived a long life, too, they reached the age of 90 and even more.
Now three people died in our village.
One was 92,
a woman who was the same age as me, 85,
and another woman who was 92.
Now I'm the oldest woman.
-Good health. Thank you so much. -You're welcome, my son.
Well, that was beautiful and a bit heart breaking at the same time.
They're so brave these people that live here,
also cheerful despite the pain and the hardship they endure.
And I really want to do something, what can we do to bring tourists here,
to reinvigorate these communities before they literally die out.
There must be a way, through eco-tourism, bringing people to buy their products,
and encouraging the younger generations to move back and open guest houses here,
and help look after these wonderful people.
They are a generation that will be lost forever quite soon,
and they need more appreciation and celebration.
It is also worth mentioning that in many societies
old people are revered and looked after by the younger generations,
whereas increasingly here, in remote communities like this,
they are forgotten and have to fend for themselves
in an era when this is becoming harder and harder to do.
Heading east we reached Targu Jiu,
a place made famous by one of Romania's most celebrated artists,
the sculptor Brancusi.
To learn more about his life and works,
I met up with local historian Alina Tita,
at his birthplace, in the nearby village of Hobita.
-Hello. -Alina!
-Charlie, glad to meet you. -Glad to meet you.
So here we are, this is the house,
well not exactly the house Brancusi built, but the museum house.
His original house was placed here but it burned down.
So this is a replica, but is quite close to the original house.
Yes, because it was made by his father in 1850's,
and was bought by the Romanian state in 1970.
And they moved it here.
Yes, moved it here, right on the place where Brancusi was born,
and organised it as a museum.
What do you think it was like for him growing up in the village?
When he was here he learned to carve wood
and that's where his passion for art, for sculpture started.
Yes, and went from the traditional to the conceptual.
-Which was a massive leap. -Yes.
It was a too bigger leap for most people in Romania at that time, wasn't it?
Yes, it was.
When did he leave?
He left when he was 11 to Craiova, a city close to here,
where he graduated the school of arts, then went to Bucharest,
where he graduated the University of Fine Arts,
and then found out about Auguste Rodin
and wanted to go to Paris to meet him.
And when he was 27 he went by foot to Paris.
-He walked all the way to Paris. -Yes, he literally walked.
-From here? -Yes. It took him a year.
-It would do. -Yes.
I guess Rodin must have been impressed
that this guy had walked all the way, from Hobita to Paris,
to study under him, and that must have helped his case.
Yes, his passion.
You know cause you go to someone as famous as Rodin and you say:
"Can I be your student, please?"
And a lot of people say, look I'm terribly sorry, I am very busy.
This guy has walked there, so Rodin must have taken him seriously,
and said OK, you can work with me.
He saw his talent and accepted him as a trainee.
And what did people in Romania think about him as an artist at that time?
At that time he was not fully recognized because it was modern art,
which is abstract
and people did not understand the real meaning of his art.
I guess it's sad really that he wasn't appreciated to start with,
people didn't realized his value
and they didn't really came out with speed to it
during his lifetime, did they?
Yes, that's true.
At least now he is appreciated by everybody,
and celebrated as one of the greatest artists in Romania.
In Romania, yes.
Brancusi's most famous work can be found in Targu Jiu,
where his series of memorial sculptures still rise skywards,
from the city's ornamental parks.
Commissioned to commemorate the soldiers who died in World War I,
the street of heroes barely survived the communist regime,
which branded it bourgeois and earmarked it for demolition in the 50's.
It's fitting I'm standing here at sunset, 'cause this is the Table Of Silence,
and it represents the last meal the soldiers had with their families,
before going off to war.
And conversation of course would have not been the first thing on their minds.
Further down this path we have the Gate of Kiss,
where they kissed those relatives goodbye, their families for the last time,
and then in a straight line, a few hundred yards further,
we have the church where their families prayed for them,
while they were off fighting.
And at the end of the line, quite literally,
we have the Column of the Infinite,
which alas represents for them at least the afterlife.
Oltenia is not just a place rich in crafts and culture,
it is also a region that is well known for its musical tradition.
A few miles outside Targu Jiu live a group of people,
who are custodians of some of Romania's oldest songs.
Hello.
I have come here to Balta with friend and musical historian Bogdan Simion
to meet Nicolae and Luminita Zbalteanu,
whose family have been poets and troubadours to the aristocracy
for hundreds of years.
Thank you so much. So what's the plan?
We are here to celebrate her birthday.
Happy Birthday!
Luminita Zbalteanu's birthday,
and the whole family of the musicians from the village are here.
They are a traditional musician family from this village Balta in Gorj.
-Come on in. -Okay, thank you.
Tell me about the traditions in music.
Well, about seven or eight decades ago,
the music from the Gorj region was very fashionable,
in the entire south of Romania.
Back then the gipsy lautari of this region
had very striking qualities to their music.
The male singers would sing with glottal attacks,
and they would have very slow songs called doinas,
which are related to very old Iranian and Arabic songs.
-Almost like a dirge. -Exactly.
The violins had very specific cat meows, glissandos,
descending glissandos, they sound exactly like cats,
you will hear that later on,
and the harmonies very basic, very charming,
and the overall melodies of the doinas and sarbas have very specific profiles,
which are unique in Eastern Europe.
The other reason why this region is important
is because this is the only region in Romania,
where there were also women lautari.
Their wives and their daughters were also lautari.
-And lautari means? -Professional Romany musicians.
The local noblemen held them as slaves up until the mid 19th century,
these are their grand grandfathers.
So the slavery was still carrying on here after the…
We had the longest period of slavery in Europe, for 500 years.
-When was it abolished? -1857.
That's less than ten years before the United States.
Exactly.
I guess this is not mentioned in the history classes in Romania.
Seldomly and only if you have a really nice history teacher that…
-That is interested in the truth. -Exactly.
I mean I know you are going around
and documenting and archiving these wonderful songs.
-For over 12 years. -For over 12 years now.
And you are kind of unique doing that, 'cause there're not many people doing it,
so what's going to happen, are they all going to be lost otherwise?
It is my theory that in 15 years time, more or less,
this music is going to completely disappear.
So really you are clutching the straws a little bit,
because there is such a huge wealth of cultural traditional music out there
you can probably only save 5% of it all or less.
Yes and the wealth is shrinking. It's becoming gradually smaller.
Couldn't we have an initiative by, you know, heaven forbid,
the Romanian Government that we have people going around,
and there's money made available to document these fantastic songs,
because they are a fundamental part of Romania's heritage.
I've lost all hope, this is why I am financing myself.
Well it's a really worthwhile mission.
It's amazing and meeting wonderful people.
Yes. Is this a locally made wine by any chance?
It's actually made by…
Is this wine produced by you, Nicu?
-It's made by them. -Thank you.
I must try it.
At this rate someone might have to drive my motorbike back to the hotel.
Anyone has a bike license?
Does anyone have an A license?
He says someone has to drive his motorbike to the hotel.
It's going to be a long afternoon in that case.
If he drinks more…
I might have to leave it here.
…someone must take it to the hotel.
-Cheers! -Cheers!
-Luminita can take it. -Luminita, OK, perfect.
As I said earlier,
Happy Birthday!
So this is a local song about a Gorj parlamentary from the 30's,
a local nobleman that had a few seats in the Romanian senate,
in the interwar period and they still sing about him today,
sometimes they sing good lyrics about him,
that he was an important man to the community,
and other times they satirise him for having too many mistresses.
It seems sad that people are so often disparaging of the Roma,
yet here is a family who are kind, decent and highly musically cultured,
preserving traditional Romanian songs that will probably be lost forever,
as fewer and fewer people express interest in learning them.
Oltenia has many hidden gems,
that, if promoted properly, could start to offer foreign visitors
an alternative to more well-documented destinations.
But this also depends on providing the right infrastructure,
and a decent choice of activities.
It also means educating young people about the opportunities
offered by eco-tourism.
Two chaps that don't need any encouragement are Vlad and Alexandru,
who promote their area by running cycling tours around the village of Ponoarele.
-Hi, guys. -Hello!
-Hi. Charlie, nice to meet you. -Vlad. Nice to meet you.
-Alex. -Alex. Good English.
Thank you.
Looking forward to riding something a bit lighter.
-So we've got a good trail, have we? -Yes, we have found something amazing.
We are going to visit some well known spots in this area,
and maybe the cave.
Maybe the cave. Cycle past the cave or through the cave?
-Past it, not through it. -OK.
It's a beautiful view,
a bit of rain will make it more challenging with the bikes.
We should go.
I'm leading the path.
I do keep overtaking because I am about twice as heavy but there we are.
There are lots of ways to appreciate Romania's stunning landscapes
without relying on the internal combustion engine,
but surely this has to be one of the best.
Ponoarele is also home
to one of the strangest rock formations in the country,
and what is claimed to be the second largest natural bridge in Europe.
Apparently this is called God's bridge 'cause the devil messes with your breaks,
and God is there to soften the fall when you go careering off the edge,
or so the local legends say.
I gather it's a lot more impressive from below.
Well, I don't know about God or the Devil
but this is just the sort of place I imagine you might find a troll.
It was part of a cave system that ran 900 metres that way,
until the roof fell in and now you're left with this magnificent arch.
Another way rural villages like Ponoarele might ensure a sustainable income
is to preserve and promote traditional crafts,
as we have seen in Horezu,
with local people inviting tourists into their homes to bake bread
and buy hand made products.
I've come to Bratilov and the house of retired shepherd Ion Suciu,
and his wife Victorita,
to meet their family and close friend Delia Marinela Martinescu,
who has built a successful business making traditional Romanian shirts.
The colors are really vibrant, how do you create such amazing colors?
Now, we buy them in shops.
But long ago my grandma used to dye it at home.
She dyed it red with onion peels.
She boiled onion peels
and when water got red she took out the peels.
She put the threads in the red water and kept them there till they reddened.
She got orange threads by means of linden flowers.
What are your inspirations for the motifs?
My inspiration comes either from the old patterns,
sewn by my grandma and my gran-grandma, or from the flowers in the field.
How long would that take you to do?
I sewed this Romanian blouse in two and a half months.
Two and a half months? How can you bear to sell this pieces?
You must put so much of your heart into creating them.
It must be very difficult.
As I put a lot of my heart into it,
it's not so much effort, it's a pleasure to sew,
I wouldn't sell it.
-No? -No.
Outside, my hostess Victorita was busy rustling up a snack for lunch.
I snuck into her kitchen to see if I could glean some more culinary tips.
-What are you doing, auntie? -I'll make some pie.
We have the flour here, I'll put a grain of salt,
a bit of oil, eggs.
Now I'm kneading it, as we say here.
-What else? -Water, we add water.
This all looks sensational, but I can't help feeling
there is one usual ingredient that is missing from this dish.
So let me just check something.
Yes, this might not work.
Auntie, do you put pork?
No, just cheese. Cheese and eggs.
I'm 72 years old and I've eaten these all my life.
And I am healthy. I have never been sick or in hospital.
-How many pie servings? -Around seven or eight.
Now I add a bit of semolina
and corn flour.
Corn flour.
And some sugar.
OK. Sugar.
If you'd like to taste it.
-Yes, it's good. -It's good.
-It's pizza-like. -Yes, right. To make it thinner.
It's almost the same.
-Do you make pizza? -I have never made pizza.
I don't like pizza, I'd rather prefer some pie.
Yes, you don't like pizza, fine.
I put it here and after that the cheese. But it should be spread.
We put the filling and then we put it on top.
Now, enjoy it!
While the pies were cooking,
Victorita's husband Ion and their granddaughter, Adriana,
revealed another side to their thriving cottage industry.
Adriana, does your grandfather do this for a living or just as a hobby?
He does it because he needs it.
He is a shepherd so he goes with the sheep every year,
so he needs this ciumag, in Romanian, and he also carves lots of other things.
What do you think people can do to stop these traditions dying out?
In 100 years time will people still be carving shepherds crooks,
I'm not so sure they will.
I am trying to promote them as much as I can through new media,
that young people are using today,
putting the rural community in front of their own eyes.
Young people should stay in the communities where they are born.
But you can't tell them to stay,
because they know they can get more money in the towns,
they know there's maybe the chance of a better livelihood,
and seems they probably don't want to be shepherds anymore.
They have to value what they have from their ancestors.
So showing them, and educating them and trying to make it cool as well.
-Trying to make it cool. -Make it cool.
Exactly.
Carving beautiful shepherd crooks is cool.
I think this is the only solution for the traditions not to get lost,
and to be discovered.
It's done.
Fantastic. Come and sit down.
God bless us.
It's hot.
-Congratulations! -Thank you!
-Let's eat it. -Very good!
East of Bratilov and you start heading back up into the mountains.
This area sits on the fringes of Retezat and Cerna National parks.
Driving south along winding forest roads with spectacular views,
you drop down into the Cerna Valley,
which for a while provides the border between Oltenia and Banat.
Here, when the river is full,
people come from all over Europe to raft and kayak
through some of the most dramatic scenery in Romania.
Outdoor Experience.ro is one of the adventure companies
that provides visitors with a chance to take a ride down the Cerna River.
I managed to catch up with co-founder and guide Balazs as he came ashore.
Balazs how was that?
Well, it was just great, one of the best days that we had.
Perfect day. Sunshine, nice weather, clear river, is just perfect.
How often is the Cerna river kayakable?
So the best period would be April and then starting of May.
So you've really only got like a two months window
to come here and kayak this river.
Is this your favourite river in Romania?
Yes, because the whole region is just beautiful, just gorgeous.
And the river is one of the cleanest that we have.
This valley, the Cerna valley is perfect for all kind of adventure sports,
from mountain biking to hiking, to cannoning.
There are huge canyons, huge waterfalls, you have a lot of possibilities
doing rafting, doing kayaking, doing all kind of other adventure sports.
Thank you very much, great to see you,
I must let you guys go 'cause everyone is waiting.
-All the best man, cheers. -Thank you, good bye.
While many people in the UK still think Roma and Romania are almost synonymous,
the origins of this country date back to one of the largest empires
in the history of Europe.
On the orders of Emperor Trajan,
thousands of troops invaded this land around 100 AD,
swarming across the Danube
on a bridge designed by Appolodorus of Damascus.
The first thing they did
was to establish camps and towns along the borders,
in strategic locations, like this one at Drobeta Turnu Severin.
By the banks of the Danube
you can still find the remains of the ancient Roman settlement,
that is in the process of being exhumed
from beneath many layers of subsequent history,
as curator Paul Dinulescu explained.
This is the arena. It's size is 35/37 meters.
Its shape is oval.
We still have to establish how many people the arena could accommodate.
Probably around five thousands, according to some estimates.
Would there have been a stone floor on the bottom here?
No. Just sand and gravel,
to cover up the blood of the gladiators.
To cover up the blood of the gladiators.
So you've got the fort, you got the amphitheatre here,
what else have you managed to uncover?
The Roman Baths.
The Roman Baths, of course.
No settlement would be complete without one.
This is all original?
No.
There were restoration works, in early '70s.
Plus the present restoration works.
There are several stages of restoration.
It's a shame in some ways because you just don't know where the Roman bit ends
and where the restoration work begins.
Yes and no.
During the '70s, when the first bath restoration took place,
they didn't pay heed and didn't mark the area where they started to work.
That is why now we can't tell precisely where the original Roman part is.
So people wouldn't know what they are looking at.
What I would like to see
reconstructed completely is the bridge across the Danube.
I know that would play havoc with the shipping,
but it would look amazing.
And we can still see a little bit of it down there, can't we?
Yes, we can still see the pillar.
Can we hop across the railway and go and have a look?
-Yes. -Yes!! OK. Good.
And here it is.
This is pretty much the last pillar.
There's one on the other side.
There's one more on the Serbian part.
Down on Danube's riverbed there are still some relics of the other pillars.
So it was clearly a very tall bridge.
Yes, the total height of the bridge, up to the wooden deck, was 18.60 meters.
What I'm finding the most amazing thing
is that the Romans then burned the bridge, didn't they?
Yes, they did.
They tried to prevent migrating peoples to enter the Empire.
Just to make sure they weren't chased home.
It would have been this blazing light across the Danube.
Right, as the superstructure was made of oak wood.
Still you will not try to reconstruct that any time soon, are you?
No. It would be impossible.
Forget about it.
It would mean to stop the Danube traffic.
I guess any reconstruction will take more than during the Roman Empire.
The last leg of my journey was down river via Craiova,
but en route I encountered a shocking, but sadly increasingly common phenomena.
I just had to make a quick stop because, while a lot of Oltenia is very beautiful,
driving south of Craiova, towards the Danube,
the landscape in many places has quite literally been trashed.
Look at this.
Well, at least I found one item that could potentially be salvaged.
That's going to be my cup.
Unfortunately this is not an isolated or localised problem.
It's tragic to see so much litter,
when you consider that Romania
has some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe.
Welcome to the border town of Bechet,
my last stop on our round trip of Oltenia.
I'm here to meet a woman who frequently travels the world,
and has become internationally renowned for her skill at embroidery
and traditional carpet making.
We'd arranged to meet at a house
she recently converted into a small textile museum.
It is a personal museum,
a room traditionally arranged,
having all the objects and accessories of a rural home.
Tell me about these beautiful rugs.
This is a 120-year old rug.
It was woven by my mother.
The dye used for these joyful colours
was based on plants and minerals.
In case of colours that we cannot get out of plants,
we use certain minerals extracted from rocks.
To see how the carpets are made, Antoneta took me to her workshop,
in the next-door street.
How long does it take to make a carpet?
It takes about one month and a half
for a six square meter carpet.
If the pattern is not so difficult, it can take less.
If it is more complicated,
it can take even ten months of work for one carpet.
The carpet is double-sided, identical on both sides,
and our weaving techniques are centuries-old,
the same that were used by our ancestors.
Naturally, we carry on those traditions.
Do young people want to acquire this craft?
I have undertaken this craft
precisely because it had been in danger.
I said to myself that if nobody had had the courage
to carry on with this tradition, it would die slowly.
I'll do my best to ensure proper conditions
so that one of my workers
helps her
so she can carry on with this craft.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you as well.
Let's eat turte.
This feast has been prepared for us by Antoneta,
this is turte, a traditional bread baked in the ovens outside, so…
Let's eat.
-Let's eat! -Cheers!
We tear them like this.
They are tastier like this.
Meeting Antoneta and her team was a wonderful experience,
and encouraging to see how a single artisan,
by maintaining one of Romania's most colourful crafts,
can provide employment for a whole team of friends and associates.
Join me again when we will be heading east to explore Muntenia,
or Greater Wallachia,
a historic region that incorporates central southern Romania,
from the banks of the Danube all the way to the Carpathian Mountain Peaks.
En route we will be learning more exclusive recipes,
visiting ancient cave churches,
vast salt mines and ruined citadels.
I will also be scaling the real castle of Vlad Dracul,
with a guy whose great uncle's novel
has been responsible for bringing millions of tourists to Romania,
but arguably for all the wrong reasons.
This and more, next time in Flavours of Romania.