“Every story has its own beauty,” Stanley Tucci told us over Negroni cocktails in the magical city of Florence, when TV Guide Magazine tagged along as the actor and foodie shot the first episode of his latest culinary journey through Italy. (Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy ran for two seasons on CNN.) On Sunday, May 18, National Geographic’s Tucci in Italy kicks off with back-to-back episodes in Tuscany and Lombardy. For the remaining three, he ventures to Trentino-Alto Adige, Abruzzo, and Lazio.
The Conclave actor has a strong connection to the Tuscan capital, having spent a memorable childhood year in Florence with his artist father and “amazing cook” mother.
“I came here when I was 12 years old,” he reveals. “We went around Florence and we traveled a little bit through Italy. We were able to go to museums and churches. You were always taught to look at all the things that most people would not normally look at.”
The day we met him, Tucci had breakfasted on the popular Florentine dish lampredotto (seen above), made from a cow’s fourth stomach. At lunch, we tried the vegetarian trippa finta — a dough of breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and eggs, topped with sauce — one of the old peasant recipes revived at modern trattoria Dalla Lola. How the seemingly yucky dish of tripe reached status as one of the city’s beloved signatures is a perfect example of the stories the series tells.
“The good parts of the meat were kept for the royalty, aristocrats or clergy,” Tucci explains. “[Florentines] were able to create things that nobody else would with very few ingredients.”
Florence is a wealthy city now, but that ingenuity hasn’t died. It’s thriving all over the boot-shaped nation, where Tucci samples hay soup and Roman pizza, interviews farmers and locals, even tries skiing — all for a deeper understanding of why Italians eat what they do. And he does it all with dry humor.
“It may be National Geographic, but you’re not going to find me climbing anything,” Tucci promises. “You’ll find me climbing into bed at night.”
Tucci in Italy, Series Premiere, Sunday, May 18, 8/7c, National Geographic