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 half the Carpathian mountain range weaving through it,
Romania is the custodian of Europe's greatest surviving mixed forest.
And two thirds of its apex predators.
As well as native Romanians, it is home to Hungarian,
Saxon,
Roma,
Serbian,
Greek and many more diverse peoples,
United by the borders of a nation
that stretches to the mouth of the Danube.
Here, Europe's largest wetland fans out into the Black Sea,
Creating its own vast priceless and fragile ecosystem.
In land, Romania is rich with historic cities and villages,
majestic national parks,
ruined castles,
medieval monasteries.
And a legacy that dates back thousands of years.
However, this unique country's natural and built heritage
is under threat from reckless development
and a race to modernise which often destroys
the very things that could ensure prosperity for generations to come.
In season two, the Flavours Of Romania,
we will again embark on a journey through Romania's nine historic regions,
Discovering magical landscapes,
mouthwatering recipes,
music,
crafts and local traditions,
and meeting the people that make this
one of the warmest and most hospitable countries in the world.
We will also find out how Romania has evolved in the last five years.
And identify some of the challenges it now faces.
And how tourism could still provide one of its best hopes for the future.
Welcome back to our gourmet gallivant
around Romania's nine historic regions.
Leaving Oltenia behind,
I'm on one of the most spectacular rides of my journey so far.
The road that takes you from Baia de Aramă,
across the mountains, through deep forests,
down hairpin bends,
and around rocky crags
as we descend into Banat and the Cernei Valley.
This is another remote part of the country
where isolated communities can only be reached by dirt roads.
Or, in the case of Ineleț, a wooden ladder that takes you up a cliff.
There are numerous hiking trails that dissect these hills,
including Via Transilvanica.
The Cerna River starts as a small stream high in the mountains
and cuts downwards, exploiting a faultline in the bedrock,
eroding a gorge so deep
that it connects with underground reservoirs of geothermal water
which bubble to the surface along its banks.
At the largest confluence of these lies Băile Herculane,
or the Baths of Hercules,
wedged between towering cliffs.
The historic Old town dates back to the Roman conquest
and used to be one of the top thermal spa resorts in the world
under the Austro Hungarians,
until, like Borsec, it fell into complete decay
at the end of the Communist era.
I have come back here to see if any progress has been made
since we visited in season one,
and what steps have been taken to save the illustrious Imperial Spa.
One of the most important historic buildings in Eastern Europe
and described in 1852 by Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph
as the most beautiful resort on the continent.
I am meeting Oana Chirilă, who heads up a group of young architects
that have taken on the Tantalean task
of trying to stop this priceless monument
from collapsing into a pile of rubble,
something it is likely to do at any minute.
- This is for you. - Thank you.
- I think we need one now, don't we? - Yeah. It's not safe, unfortunately.
So what have you done? Because we were here in 2017,
as people watching who follow our series will know.
So we started this also in 2017.
We were a group of young architecture students
and our plan was
to do safety works and conserve the building,
let's say, keep it from collapsing.
Everything that we have done so far was with the support of the civic society,
the state, the Romanian state, didn't helped us almost at all.
Okay, so what is the exact position right now with the building?
With the building, unfortunately, the building has some legal issues.
The building belongs to the state,
but the land underneath the building it's private
and it's seized by the National Anti-corruption Agency.
- Which also belongs to the state. - Yeah.
So one part of the state have seized it, which means they currently own it.
- In a way, yeah. - Yeah?
And the other part belongs to the state as well.
Yeah.
Can't they just communicate?
In a way they can, but I think they have to wait
until the trial it's over
to have, like, a definitive solution for the legal issue.
And how long is that going to take?
I think years and years, because only this summer the trial has started.
But this building doesn't have years.
- It has perhaps months. - It has months.
When I was here last, these walls were standing.
Yes. Unfortunately, it collapsed.
It was very degraded structurally,
and with the water infiltration...
How difficult has it been to raise the money to do this?
Because you've raised 60,000, haven't you?
Yeah, we raised in 2019, 60,000,
which was very helpful
because we could do some works here.
But for such a big building like square metres,
thousands of square metres, it wasn't enough.
- So we did what... yeah. - You need millions.
We need for restoration, between ten and 12 millions.
But we cannot access governmental money or European money
for the conservation of the building.
So just to keep it alive.
- That because it's in court? - Yeah.
When certain sites, heritage sites,
have legal issues, you cannot do permanent works.
Well, as in permanent works,
as in putting in the necessary things to stop it falling down.
Yeah. For example... yeah.
For example, here, we will have to rebuild the walls
from scratch here and take down the roof and rebuild it.
So we can't do that because we have to do, like, reversible work.
So if there's a legal issue, you have to reverse it back to a room.
Yeah. For example, if the trial says
everything goes back to the private owner...
- Then you take all of this down. - Yeah.
- But then the building will fall down. - Yeah.
So will the private owner sue you
for taking it down because then the building collapses?
- No, but we wouldn't take it down. - No, but I mean, this is the point.
If it goes back to the private owner, then he can say...
- Take... - Take this all away.
...all your interventions away, I want to do something else here.
But I think the good part of this project and this situation
is that many, many people
have come together for Herculane to help us, like regular people.
But I still can't believe, I can't quite get my head around the fact
that this has been going on now since I first visited in 2011,
and still nothing has been done.
And the government could do that. They could expropriate the building,
take it out of legal contest by saying, "No, we're taking it."
And then a fair price can be paid subject to the outcome of the trial.
- We know. - And that's it.
And then permanent work can be undertaken immediately to save it.
If it's a five year trial, this won't be here in five years time.
Yeah, it's going to take months and it will be down for sure.
Every other country in Europe
can get there together to save buildings like this.
Why is it that Romania is incapable of saving such a priceless building?
Because of the indifference. That's...
all over the society in a way.
The Romanians, apart from a few, don't care.
They care, but they feel like it's not in their hands to do something.
- So with time, perhaps they... - They give up caring.
- Yeah, they give up. - It's easier not to care, isn't it?
Yeah, but many people helped us
and we wouldn't be here
without the support of thousands of people that helped us.
But we need like, millions.
The angle of the roof.
Yeah. You can see here the damage and...
We cannot support it anymore with reversible structures.
We have to take it down and rebuild the wall
and do consolidation, proper consolidation work.
We are thinking of doing it either way.
- Doing it anyway. - Yeah.
- Well, if you don't, it'll fall down. - Yeah.
If you do, someone will say, "Oh, what you've done is illegal."
But I dare any caring person in this country,
any judge, to prosecute you for saving a building.
I mean, if we've got to that state in Romania
where good people who are working to protect the patrimony
get sent to jail because they've done the only thing they can do
to save one of the most priceless buildings,
then this country is in real trouble.
- Yeah. - So, let's...
- We also feel that... - Let's hope that's not the case.
Let's hope that. But, yeah, we want to do the permanent works
and we are in discussion with a few construction firms
and perhaps we will start this winter, or before the winter starts.
I think it's urgent now, every day that you lose...
It's in a pre-collapse state.
So basically it can collapse now. Hopefully not, but it can.
I know. We're even taking a risk standing here, aren't we?
Yeah, it's very risky.
Well, I'm in huge admiration of what you're doing.
Thank you very much.
Congratulations, and thank you for doing this.
I think the whole of Romania should be thanking you for doing this.
The story of the Imperial Spa
is equally applicable to other parts of the Old Town.
At the end of Communism, there was an enormous land grab.
With rich, well connected private interest,
buying up many of Romania's important historic buildings
for rock bottom prices.
And then sitting on them like chickens on a dead egg.
Partly because of the renovation costs,
but often because they were waiting to knock them down
and build something new in their stead.
For this reason, much of the Old Town is still derelict,
but there are small glimmers of hope in amongst the dilapidated grandeur,
my hotel for the night being one of them.
Well, this building is far worse than it was
four years ago when I was last here.
But behind me is a new hotel, a complete restoration.
It's exciting. Maybe the first of many.
Let's go and have a look inside.
- Hello. - Hello.
Do you have a room?
- Yes. - Superb.
Thank you very much.
Yep, this is the sort of place that foreign tourists
will be very happy to stay in.
It's four star, it's not fussy, it's great.
And it's a really nice restoration of an old building.
There are dozens of other buildings like this
waiting to be restored in Băile Herculane,
and if they do succeed,
this could become a go to tourist destination
for probably Europe as well as just Romania.
Will that ever happen? Probably not, but we can hope.
Much of the town used to be run on geothermal water,
Which today is strictly and expensively rationed
by a private company acting for the state.
Even though there is plenty to spare,
they'd rather waste the excess and pump it back into the river,
rather than reduce the price
and make it more available to hotels and guest houses.
For this reason, there's a charge to access most of the thermal pools.
However, with a bit of local knowledge, you can circumnavigate this issue,
as I discovered a few hundred metres down the street.
If you don't want to go to any of the official spas,
you can always find some hot pools on the side of the river,
haiduk style.
For those of you not Romanian, that means kind of Robin Hood style.
It's faintly peculiar that the local people here
have to pay for the geothermal water,
and yet there's enough of it
to fuel most, if not all of this community and provide
them with hot water for free out of the ground.
It's not as if someone's making it.
It's coming from deep underground.
So why are they getting charged? I don't know.
And actually, why should you pay when you've got springs like this?
As a tourist, you can come and enjoy these
without spending a penny. At least I hope not.
Another vital historic site in Băile Herculane
is the Roman spa itself,
which hides under thousands of tonnes of concrete that is Hotel Roman.
If you turn left at the main lobby,
you leave the Austin Powers decor behind
and enter a brick lined corridor
that catapults you back to the days of Emperor Trajan.
The most remarkable thing about this spa, despite its concealment
in a huge concrete Ceaușescuesque building,
is that this was built by Romans.
And I'm sitting in a pool that was once occupied by Centurions
and looking at it, very little has changed.
This structure remains intact.
It's maybe the only place at the moment in Romania
where you can enjoy a real Roman bath.
Moving on from Băile Herculane, as always, with mixed feelings,
awed by its beauty and potential, yet frustrated by its lack of progress,
we're back on the road, heading down towards the town of Orșova
on the shores of the Danube.
A busy riparian port in its heyday,
Orșova changed hands several times
between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires.
Today it's a quiet town with a sleepy feel,
but serves as the main point of departure
for boat trips through the majestic Iron Gates,
A series of cliffs that corral the river into a narrow channel
that carves out the watery border between Serbia and Romania.
We're on a road that runs parallel with the river and heads west,
dropping back to the water's edge
as you approach the enormous stonehead of Dacian King Decebal.
This is Romania's answer to Mount Rushmore
and constitutes the tallest sculpture of its kind in Europe.
The Danube is at one of its deepest points here
due to the construction of several massive hydroelectric dams,
the result of a collaboration
between the former Yugoslavia and Romania, back in 1964.
These caused the water level to rise by 35 metres,
enveloping Old Orșova, the Turkish inhabited island of Ada Kaleh,
and at least five other village
and requiring the relocation of 17,000 people.
Further down the road,
you can still see the remains of the submerged castle of Tricule,
five kilometres from Svinița village,
its lonely towers scowling from the river like broken teeth.
Our accommodation for the evening is the Panoramic Hotel La Pescador,
which looks out across the river
and affords an excellent place
from which to admire the breathtaking sunset.
With the morning light slanting over the water,
this stretch of the Danube seems more reminiscent of the Mediterranean
and completely unlike any other part of the country.
We are following its banks for a few more miles
before turning northwards through the forests towards Oravița.
This small town is rich in history and has the first railway line
as well as the first theatre established in present day Romania,
constructed as a miniature version of the Burg Theatre in Vienna.
However, there is more to Oravița than meets the eye.
We are here to delve beneath the surface of this nostalgic town.
And explore a network of tunnels built as a cutting edge sewage system
during the Habsburg Empire
and soon to be repaired and open to the public.
I'm meeting Liviu Romanescu of the Exploratory Paleological Association,
who has kindly agreed to show me the ropes.
It seems there are still a few people
who are using these tunnels for the purposes they were first designed for,
which may have to change
if they're going to open these up to the public. Who knows?
Great day for a swim, but not in this water.
It's clean.
Cleanish.
So and so.
No, because here it comes from the dam.
Further on it gets dirtier.
So, yeah,
We've...
We've gone through a bit of a halt.
The problem is there's a very deep plunge pool there
and it's going to be about this deep to get through it.
They've got waders on.
I think what we're going to do is
we're going to take another tunnel and have a look.
Maybe walk a bit more.
It's an extraordinary feat of engineering.
Yes, it's an impressive work.
Seriously.
And take into account that in 1719
they had the idea to build this sewerage system.
It was designed like this.
After the peace with the Turks,
the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought ten families from Austria.
Ten families?
Ten families.
There were gold mines, the area was very well developed.
And it was very beautiful. Forests, clean air...
Since 1719 engineers came here, studied and started to build dams,
there are two dams above and the sewerage system.
The work on the tunnel itself lasted 21 years.
Big pieces of stone, slabs... It is very beautiful.
I bet you pay a fortune in London to see the underground.
Exactly like the London sewage system.
Here it's still free. Still.
Of course. But it's now a historic monument, isn't it?
Yes, it's considered a historic monument.
Our association Exploratorii and Speo Caraş started to explore it
and we hope that, together with the City Hall,
when we'll finish the measurement of the tunnel
to register it with the Land Office
and be able to access European Funds in order to make the most out of it.
Okay, and how difficult will that be?
There's a lot of restoration that needs to be done, isn't it?
It will be difficult because many parts of it are fallen,
many clogged entrances.
It's also dangerous because it can't be visited by anyone,
you don't know what happens. We don't know what to expect either.
And some parts by boat, right?
Yes, we can set that up beyond the four-meter waterfall.
We can do trips by boat, of course. Why not?
That's going to be amazing.
Yes, it should be very beautiful.
And there's a lot of history here.
So fingers crossed you get the European Fund to do this.
How long will it take?
- Well, we hope... - Two years, three years?
Two years, three years, four years... This is a time frame
because we will need to do a lot of work and there is a lot of...
You know what it's like. It's not easy,
but it's a start.
Back on the surface and an hour or so drive from Oravița
and you reach Valea Rudăriei.
I have come to the village of Eftimie Murgu,
famous for its 22 water mills,
many of which are still operational to this day.
Hello.
Pavel.
Nice to see you.
This mill is called "The Bullheaded Among Rivers".
It's called "The Bullheaded" because it spins counterclockwise.
This mill has an old legend.
It's a long one. I'll tell you a shorter version.
If you want to get younger, come to Îndărătnica
and grind flour only during the full moon nights.
Come inside the mill and I will explain you further.
For instance, this is the basket of the mill.
We put the grains here.
This is a hopper. The grains fall into the hopper.
From the hopper they fall into this bin.
This is called ciocot.
This one beats and regulates the rhythm of the seeds by vibration.
If a lot of water reaches the mill and it spins faster,
this makes the grains fall faster.
It regulates it.
If the water is flowing slowly, this makes the grain fall slowly.
From here, the grains fall into this bin, they fall on these stones.
The stones aren't straight, they are concave.
By spinning, they grind them and make flour
and throw it out there, on the edge.
And it comes out here.
We take it from here and sift it through the sieve.
Look how we sift it.
This flour also has bran in it, maize bran.
We give the bran to the animals.
- Animals? How much for a kilo? - Five lei for a kilo. Already sifted.
There are around 30 families for one mill. 28, 30, 32...
as people gathered, with their relatives, and built the mill.
Look, these are the owners of this mill.
Each one of them uses it one day and one night per month.
When the mill breaks, they all come and fix it.
OK, so they will chip in.
The mill is their property just as the house and the land,
this right it's passed on from father to son.
If you want to sell your turn at the mill,
you can sell it just as you sell your house and land.
Many of them are away in the cities
but they don't sell their turn at the mill.
Because once retired, they come back home,
they grow animals and have their turn at the mill.
They grind flour. They grow a pig, a cow, an animal, a sheep...
and they have their turn at the mill. They don't sell that right.
How many mills are there?
There were many in our village
but only around 23 are still working.
My mom put us to sleep in this mill, against the wall. We were four brothers.
We were carrying sacks on our shoulders. Mom couldn’t just leave us home alone.
We came here to make flour.
All the mills were working day and night.
That's why they were so many.
There were many animals. We didn't trade the flour.
We wanted to do it for our animals so we can earn our living.
Back then there weren't jobs in the village.
This is the turbine. This turbine shaft, this fork
moves the turbine, higher or lower. It lifts the stone.
Down on that fork there's a big stone
fixed very tight with reinforced steel
and on top of it there's a small stone.
They fit into each other and spin.
This is the gutter where water flows.
If there's a lot of water coming, it spins faster.
If there's less water, it spins slower.
That's brilliant.
The technology... of history at work.
This mill doesn't need gas, oil, or Diesel.
- Nothing. - Nothing. Not even electricity.
- Nothing. Water. - Water, for it to work.
- Gravity. - If there's water, there's more flour.
Superb. Thank you so much.
- I like it very much. - It's beautiful.
I love the beauty and the simplicity of these mills
and the way they work,
but also the fact that they're a focal point for an entire community.
People rally around them, they have shares in them.
They guard them fiercely and jealously from other people.
They don't want to sell those shares
because this is something that this town is really proud of.
And they don't necessarily even have all the animals they used to have.
They don't need to make so much flour.
They still maintain and preserve
and service these mills on a daily basis.
The next morning, we set off for Timișoara
driving through the hills of Caraș Severin.
This is one of the prettiest counties in Romania
and home to well groomed and scenic hamlets like Brebu Nou,
with its colourful houses,
Several of which have been converted into small restaurants and boutique pensions.
As we continue north, we pass through a sprawling expanse of thick forest.
The road winds up and down through gentle valleys
punctuated by farmland, lakes and sleepy villages.
With a few hours left to travel,
I stopped to refuel at a roadside inn in Văliug
that bore more than a passing resemblance to a classic English pub.
- Hello! - Hello.
- Tables? - Yes, of course.
Really nice design. Historic Vransdorf.
Yeah. It has German history, this city.
So it's a German community?
Yeah, a bit of Bavarian influences, but, yeah, mostly German.
Yeah, it feels a bit Bavarian. I love the patterns on the walls.
Yeah, it was the owner's idea to put them.
Super cool.
Raditzana.
Raditzana. One of my favourite soups.
It is totally delicious.
For those of you who are not Romanian
and haven't encountered it,
lots of garlic and chicken, tomatoes, onions.
- So one of those? - Yeah, sure.
This is just the sort of place that I hope to find when I'm driving all day.
A pit stop for lunch. It's cool, it's shabby chic.
There's even a natural fountain coming out of the rock,
that spring that's running down.
You can hear the trickle of the water in the background.
That was fast.
- Hello! - That was so fast!
Enjoy!
Thank you very much.
Really good one. Very tangy. Gorgeous.
So, after lunch, we're going to get back on the road
and head to Timișoara.
I hope we'll get there without rain.
I've been very lucky this morning,
driven through the clouds, through the mist, stopped for coffee.
There was a deluge, but I've avoided all the storms,
so we'll see if our luck holds.
After lunch, it was onwards through forested hills and small towns.
Until we descend into Reșița, capital of Caraș Severin,
and once among the most important industrial cities in Eastern Europe.
With an abundance of local coal and mineral wealth,
Reșița is home to Romania's oldest steel mill.
And is a long established metalworking centre,
producing, among other things, diesel engines for railway locomotives.
Closer to Timișoara, we reach the flat plains
that define the western borders of Romania.
This is a landscape devoted to arable farming
and increasingly viticulture and wine tourism.
Finally, after another marathon ride, we reach Timișoara,
Known as Little Vienna, or the City of Flowers,
famed for its 36 parks and stunning historic architecture.
In 2023, it was made European City of Culture,
thanks in part to its many restoration projects
and much celebrated ethnic diversity.
A city of contradictions, it is at the same time liberal,
conservative and forward thinking,
having reached back into its past to redefine a roadmap for the future.
With the light fading and the saddle chafing,
I went in search of a bed for the night,
settling rather comfortably on Hotel Atlas
at the edge of the Old Town.
Any question as to how it got that name
becomes redundant on entering the lobby.
Timișoara is situated on the River Bega,
which at one time was used as a transportation link
between the city and the river Danube.
Today, it serves a more recreational purpose.
One of the advantages that Timișoara has as a city is its waterfront,
where people can come and take a promenade, cycle, skateboard,
kayak, scull or take a boat trip and explore the city by water.
This was the first city in Europe
and the second in the world after New York
to use electricity to illuminate its streets.
But the contemporary urban landscape of the mid 18 hundreds
now constitutes its historic Old Town,
which contains four elegant squares,
Restored, re-pedestrianized
and presided over by regal houses dating back to the Habsburg era.
Perhaps the most beautiful of these is Unirii Square,
with its baroque expression
dominated by the Catholic and Serbian Orthodox cathedrals
facing off across the central lawn and fountain.
I have come here to meet chef and entrepreneur Dan Grosu,
whose bistro Pepper stands rump and fillet
above most of the other restaurants
that line these brightly painted streets.
Everything's looking very tidy around here.
It is. How many restaurants have you got now?
Well, we're running four places now.
A little function in the food factory, something like that.
What are you making in the factory?
Like, all ready to eat meat. Exactly like you have in UK.
Like very developed over there. Now here just started.
There she comes. Here we go.
This is our, like, a little selection. Of what we have.
Small selection of steaks?
- Yeah, like, oh, my God. - Cool.
- That's impressive. - Pork house steak, of course.
Then we have a prime rib eye, the fillet, which is fat less and...
Is not so much flavour, to be honest.
But this gorgeous one, this is the Japanese
is an A five plus marbling grade.
So basically A is the quality.
And from one to nine, this is a marbling grade.
So imagine that this is an A five plus. An A nine is less as white.
So it's about the best steak you get.
- This is the best steak you get. - I know how expensive that is.
Just a tiny taste.
We take this and then we make some sushi.
- Also coming with steak. - Perfect.
And then we get something like local side dish we do.
And like a big fat bread that we make together.
Sounds amazing.
- Okay, cool. - Thank you.
What do you think that restaurants and hospitality industry
in Romania needs to do better?
What is missing is the professionals a little bit, and basically the owners.
Some of the owners who don't allow professionals to do their job.
That's one of the problem that we have.
And second, I think the schools are missing.
So basically, we don't have a good infrastructure.
We don't have a base,
we don't have a base from the bottom where you have to learn everything.
You have to learn how to put a cutlery on the table.
You have to learn how to chop a vegetable.
You have to learn the basic sauce and stuff.
You have to learn how to smile at the customer as well.
- This is missing here. - Yeah, that was extremely fast.
Then I'll bring sushi and after that I'll bring the meat, OK?
Okay.
So that's hummus.
Yeah, a little bit of hummus guacamole.
And then yes, authentic zakuska making.
Like every week we make, like, zakuska rolling on. It's very good sell.
Tell me about the bread.
Well, the bread, as everybody's asking me what's inside,
and it's only darkness, actually.
It's just a turkey style bread.
So I took it from my roots. So basically I'm from Constanța.
There's so many Turkish in there and Tatar and stuff.
So basically it's like a durum bread or something like that.
Good.
This is like a plate of sushi
that I found it on Tsukjii Market in Tokyo.
I will join you for this one.
Gorgeous. Really, really good.
Here you go, Charlie. This is our steak that we picked before.
Okay, I will cook for you now. Okay. We'll do this steak.
Look at it.
So you've just singed the outside already
and then otherwise it's raw in the middle still.
I know.
Sounds like music to my ears,
but you don't want to leave that on for too long
because it's such a tender steak.
Just get the little caramelization because it's that fatness that is coming.
You know, basically, in Korea and Japan,
every single restaurant has an oven like this one.
So basically, you cook at your table your own dinner.
So people can cook it exactly the way they want it.
- Okay. - Here we go.
Thank you. And the sauce is a reduction.
Fifty hours, two days, ten liters of sauce, only bone.
- Not even one pinch of salt in it. - Red wine.
Red wine. And a bit of cèpes mushrooms in it.
Sort of melts in your mouth, doesn't it?
It's so tender.
Tell me, how has Timișoara changed?
Because this was an old car park, wasn't it? Was a disused car park.
It was a road around here. All the shops were, like, damaged.
But it got refurbished, like, eight years ago.
And the other square also got also refurbished
and get ready for people to come
and see exactly what we want to show.
And we're waiting and we're hoping
to get so many airlines to fly here because we have the airport next door.
So then we need more companies to come
and get people to visit Romania and see exactly
how Romania and what Timișoara can actually deliver.
Dan, thank you so much for having me for lunch.
It's very exciting what you're doing here.
Thank you for coming. It's an honour for me to have you here.
Have this lunch in, like, beautiful square in the middle of the old city town.
- Meanwhile, let's have lunch. - Let's enjoy the Wagyu Steak.
A five minute walk from Unirii across the tram lines,
through Liberty Square and you arrive at Victoria Square,
overlooked by the city's magnificent Opera House.
Completed in 1875, it was subsequently ravaged
by two major fires and only reopened by Royal Decree in 1946.
Behold the twin faces of comedy and tragedy,
of which this building has seen more than its fair share.
This is undoubtedly the only time in my life
I'll get to stand on a stage as grand as this.
Imagine watching the opera in such lavish settings.
Perhaps The Marriage of Figaro.
Figaro.
Yeah, maybe not time to give up the day job just yet.
Aside from its rich and varied performances,
another reason to visit the Opera House
is to witness the place which in 1989
became a national symbol and genesis for the liberation of Romania.
It was from this balcony that a group of young protesters
shouted to the streets, "Jos Ceaușescu",
which literally means, down with Ceaușescu.
It was the first time that anyone had spoken out against the regime in public
and it provided the spark which ignited the subsequent revolution.
You can spend days exploring all the many facets of this multicultural city.
From its German State Theatre next door,
to its grand Jewish synagogue,
or its art galleries,
its Village Museum and designer malls.
There is also an impressive bastion,
part of a three tiered fortress that once encompassed much of the old town.
For those who want to stay longer,
Timișoara is a good seat from which to explore the north of Banat.
Or pay a visit to one of Timiș County's many wineries,
like Recaș, which offers events and tastings.
Before heading for wilder parts. I've detoured to the village of Dumbrava,
where an enterprising restaurant
is reproducing Romania's very own variation of the pizza,
which evolved totally separately from the Italian version,
being more of a pizza aficionado than Donatello or Leonardo.
This was, for me, a mandatory pit stop.
- Ion. - Hello, Charlie.
- Hey. - Welcome.
- This is great. - Thank you.
How long have you been open?
We are now in our third season.
Is that a pottery workshop there?
Yeah, we started with the pottery,
and after that we arrived to this restaurant story.
- So the pottery came first? - Yeah.
OK. And now it's something for people to do if they want, when they come.
Yeah. Especially children.
They like to paint on our objects.
That makes a lot of sense.
So the adults can enjoy a quiet lunch while the children are put to work.
Yeah.
But also they are playing, they are running, they are enjoying the nature.
Yeah. That's a nice way to spend your Sunday, isn't it?
- Yes. - So we're ready to cook something.
We have a traditional recipe.
We name it Vătrar
from vatră. In Romania, it's the bottom of the oven.
So I imagine this is quite an old recipe.
Yeah, it's old. I don't know how old, at least 100 years.
But it's not derivative from the Italian pizza.
It's totally evolved independently.
- Independently in this area. - The base looks similar, though, right?
So you've got a dough base that's risen a bit with yeast.
Yeah, the dough, it's more similar with bread dough than the pizza dough.
And the main difference is we put sour cream
on the base, not tomato paste.
And the ingredients are totally different from the pizza.
I imagine there's more yeast.
- So that's going to rise up in the oven. - Yeah.
- Like a deep crust. - Yes.
- Slănină. - Yeah.
This is the traditional recipe with onion, slănină, tomatoes.
Slănina being lard, so you get a decent amount of pork fat,
which gives it flavour.
Mingles with the cream. This is a very low calorie dish, isn't it?
And the fat from the slănină goes into the dough.
I'm salivating now, so yeah, no more description.
To wait. That's it.
- This is it really, isn't it? - Yeah.
This is a traditional recipe and she will make another recipe
which is derived from the original.
This is with bacon and șuncă.
We called it ham, smoked ham.
I guess this is in the same way that pizza was
originally for the leftovers that you had.
It's whatever you had in the larder.
It's a kind of a thing that you adapt. You can use it...
The local people...
This is the product which you make when you make the bread.
That's a serious pair of gloves you've got.
Yeah.
There's absolutely no danger of burning yourself with those gloves?
With these gloves, no.
So how long are we going to leave the vatra?
Because they cook quite quickly, don't they?
Yeah, about 15 minutes.
It depends a little bit on the temperature in the oven.
If we have a high temperature, like 300 degrees Celsius...
And you have a temperature gauge, so you can no...
- I have in my eye. - You have years of experience.
Okay. Right.
You must get a lot of people coming here from Timișoara for the day.
Timișoara, Lugoj, Arad, the main cities around us.
So you're drawing people from all around the area to come to.
A ray of 100 kilometres.
They are coming to enjoy a meal, to enjoy nature.
That must be really good for the community here as well,
because presumably they're wandering around
and seeing the church and going to the local shops and stuff like that.
Yes.
And we try to get a lot of local ingredients.
We try to implicate our community.
The people who are working with us, they are from here,
so we give some jobs to...
So, I guess everyone must be pretty happy with you.
I hope so.
We try to not to make a simple restaurant to give people food and that's it.
We try to offer experience.
Yeah, that really does look very good.
- Let's have a taste. - You can feel the smell.
That's utterly delicious.
- Yeah. - And different, as you say.
Different... A lot of people are telling us
this is better than any pizza they tasted ever.
It's light. The dough is quite light because there's more yeast,
so you've got a lighter texture to it.
It's not stodgy.
Sometimes when you get this deep crusted dough is very stodgy and wet,
but it's nice because of the heat from the oven.
We tried in electric one. It's not the same.
So I know that you guys behind the camera,
that is, are as keen to eat this as I am.
So I think we're going to cut straight to the table and tuck in.
Thank you so much, Ion.
- You're welcome. - That was really quite enlightening.
And I'm going to try and work out the quantities when I get home,
see if I can replicate this in the privacy of my kitchen.
Honey been waiting.
- Enjoy! - Thank you.
This would actually be nice. Cold the next day as well.
Anything. And it's Romanian.
Well, Hungarian, Romanian half.
But... let's not get into politics.
We should find out more about that instrument.
Don't give up the day job.
That was like the most obvious link I've ever heard in my life.
Oh, which instrument? Oh, look, someone's playing a zither. Gosh.
Well linked. Nicely done.
Shall I go and ask.
Yeah. Flavours of Romania season three
brought to you by Charlie Ottley and Oana Mihai.
Okay, I'm now going to go and ask her about the zither.
Okay. Shall I go now? Okay, I'll see you later.
Such a beautiful sound. How long have you been playing?
- I played țitera for seven years. - Seven years?
And it's a traditional folk instrument from Hungary?
In Hungary it's very common and everybody knows about it.
At our school we play a lot of kids play at țiteră.
How easy is it to play?
Well, Samsung can be very easy, but Samsung can be very difficult.
And so you'll show me, how do you play it exactly?
This is the basics.
This is what we use and this is for more special effects.
- This can be... - For example? Like what?
When you take two notes together,
It makes the songs more beautiful.
Yeah, and it echoes. It's very lovely, isn't it?
What inspired you to start playing this?
For me, it was my teacher.
He plays a lot of instruments.
And it fascinated me how he could play at this.
- Just on a table instead of... - Yes, and it was unique.
I never saw it in Romania.
Well, that was a mesmerizing sound.
I hope you never given up. Keep playing. And encore, please.
If you're a biker, there is a must see stretch of semi-vertical road
that affords some of the steepest bends in the country,
Namely the Transluncani, near the village of Luncanii De Jos.
On the way, it's worth investigating several stunning wooden churches
and eye catching monasteries.
Like Izvorul Miron Monastery.
At this time of year, snacks are also available on the side of the road,
Providing you don't mind a bit of foraging.
One of the things the Communists did do for Romania
is plant fruit and nut trees along the sides of the road
across the country from Dobrogea to Banat.
And this time of year, people go out with their plastic bags
and gather up the walnuts that are falling off the trees,
bursting out of their shells.
So in true tradition and style, and because
I know someone who's very keen on nuts,
let's see if we can get a few.
There are a number of ways to get the nuts out of the trees.
You can either wait for a thunderstorm,
but then everybody descends the next morning with plastic bags.
You can carry a long stick or you can do this.
I hope I don't get arrested for stealing nuts from the state,
but I have seen loads and loads of people doing this,
so I'm assuming it's allowed.
Important thing is not to damage the tree, just get the nuts down.
So if they don't want to come down, don't push your luck.
Think we've got a bag full.
I just have to go down and locate them.
Hopefully not the quick way.
The ones that are ripe, slightly split and the casing opens,
they're ready and they'll fall off.
The ones that aren't ripe,
they're quite bitter and they're hard to get out of the flesh.
Besides which, if they're ripe, take them.
If they're not ripe, leave them for somebody else.
So these ones are almost... well, they're ready.
That's why the casing has cracked and...
the iodine on the outside is kind of a bit mouldy,
but that's why it fell off, they're ready.
This used to be a luxury at Christmas time in England.
Here, you can have them. They've just ripened.
I try to roll them on my feet so you're not smashing the flesh inside.
And then you can pop them open.
And you can peel the outer layer of skin off,
which is a bit bitter some people say,
I don't mind it.
Full of fibre, but look at that.
There we go.
Fresh walnut straight from the tree.
And I don't have to wait till Christmas.
Delicious. Romania really is a land of plenty. Or it was.
We could only sustainably manage the resources,
there's so much abundance.
Abundance of food, abundance of forests, of wood,
sustainably managed,
abundance of mineral resources.
Romania could be one of the richest countries in Europe.
Instead, it languishes at the bottom of the pile
because there's no coordinated effort on the part of the authorities
and it seems to me everyone else
to, I don't know, to make it prosper like it should.
Gather some nuts. Let's keep going.
Driving into the hills, we pass more quaint villages
before the tarmac tilts upwards,
and we reach the start of the Transluncani.
Like a miniature version of Romania's famous Transfăgărășan,
this scenic drive loops and meanders into the hills,
that form a border between Timiș County and Hunedoara,
rising up through the forest,
and allowing snatched glimpses
of a green and burgeoning horizon that unfolds between the trees.
Well, that was one of the more extreme roads
that I've encountered so far in Romania.
The hairpin bends were intense and the drop off was huge,
but I'm glad we did it.
Now we're heading north up through Arad towards Oradea,
and it's going to get cold. I'm going to have to layer up.
I think we'll also see the autumn colours changing a little bit,
but the show must go on.
Join us again as the journey continues towards the historic region of Crișana,
where I'll be visiting Romania's very own Statue of Liberty,
delving into the secret life of the masons.
And staying in a traditional house with some high tech trimmings.
I'll be exploring the historic city of Oradea.
And unearthing a unique village
whose streets are home to a thousand cellars.
We'll also be walking in the footsteps of the Romans.
And trying out more mouthwatering dishes.
Only in Flavours Of Romania.