In early 1999 Australian television personality George Negus signed off from Australia to spend a 'working sabbatical' in Italy with his partner and two sons. Residing in a poky apartment in San Giovanni Valdarno, a Tuscan town south of Florence, Negus and his family absorbed themselves completely in the rhythms of Italian life. On one of their forays into the bustling daily market, they came across a T-shirt bearing the words: 'Football is life ? all the rest is mere detail'. Se began Negus's journey into the heart and soul of Italian life and the holy trinity of passions ? football, food and politics.