Fuji TV, one of the main sponsors of the Year of Italy in Japan festival currently under way, will continue its promotion of all things Italian with a "docu-drama" that begins Monday night at 11 and runs for four consecutive nights at the same time. Each 40-minute episode of the "Itaria-tsu (Italy Expert)" series will take place in a different Italian city.
The premise of the drama aspect of the series is the Italian honeymoon of Japanese newlyweds Takeshi (Shinichi Tsu- tsumi) and Naomi (Koyuki). Takeshi pretends to be an expert on Italian culture and means to impress his new bride with his knowledge, but when he comments in a Rome restaurant that the Caesar salad Naomi orders is so named because "it was Julius Caesar's favorite dish," the entire restaurant explodes in derisive laughter.
Takeshi is eventually saved by a mysterious Japanese stranger (Toru Emori), who accompanies the couple on their tour and tells them the inside stories of the cities they visit. He explains Rome in the context of how it was built with the rise of the Roman empire.