Stanley Tucci is going on a new food odyssey for National Geographic.  Tucci in Italy, premiering May 18, sees the award-winning actor visit Tuscany, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Abruzzo, and Lazio. Tucci meets with locals, farmers and restaurateurs for a culinary experience that celebrates the history and traditions that shaped what goes on the plate and in the glass. 

For the Julie & Julia star, who wrote a series of cookbooks, the best way to understand what makes a country and its people unique is through their food.  The 64-year-old had a similar travel and food show Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. It ran two seasons on CNN and won two Emmys, before getting axed in a cost-cutting move.

Here Tucci, who also serves as an executive as part of his SALT Productions along with Lottie Birmingham, opens up about being able to continue his journey with the new 5-part series

Tucci in Italy was built off of your former CNN show. What did it mean to you to find a home for this concept and be able to continue to tell the stories you want to tell? 

Stanley Tucci: I was thrilled. I was very happy Nat Geo picked it up because I didn’t feel like I was finished telling the stories I wanted to tell. Telling the stories of Italy with food in this way. I was thrilled. 

What kind of approach did you take this time around compared to the past? 

You just want to make sure the stories are telling themselves. That we don’t impose anything upon those stories we find. Stories we think are interesting and then allow them to unfold. As much as they can unfold within an eight-minute window or a 42-minute window overall. It was wonderful. 

I love how you engage with everyone you meet. Among those who come to mind is during the episode centering on Lombardy. We meet the two fathers who talk about their struggles  trying to receive custody together of their child they adopted in Oregon. Would you say these instances demonstrate how the show transcends food?  

The whole point of the show to me is we show Italy and the specificity of regions through the prism of food. What’s happening politically, what has shaped Italy in the past and what has shaped it today and how we tell that story through food. That one came out of articles I’ve been reading about where Italy’s government was taking the stance on surrogacy, adoption, gay rights, marriage. I said I’d like to do a story on this because I think it’s really interesting. We found this couple and told their story through, again, the prism of food. Which is basically, “Hey, we’re having a family Sunday meal. Come over.” It’s just like all the other family Sunday meals, except it’s not a heterosexual couple. 

You also have some great outdoor adventures in Trentino-Alto Adige where you do some fly fishing. How do you look back on that experience and immerse yourself in the process? 

I loved it. I love that region. I think it’s beautiful. I had been skiing there prior to shooting, literally two weeks prior to shooting. I had never been up to that region before and absolutely loved it. I went back again this year and skied with my family again. I think it’s fascinating and one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The food is incredible. It was a great experience. 

Stanley discovers unexpected delights in this wildest of regions, Abruzzo, one he’s never visited before. He stops at an iconic BBQ joint called Ristoro Mucciante and meets food and motor journalist Cristina Bachetti, left and cooks with one of the owners, Rodolfo Mucciante. (credit: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak)

How is it for you to have an outlet through this show? When you’re doing a role, you’re in the game so to speak and on sets. This gets you truly out there to all these places. What an escape this must be for you. 

It helps. It’s an anecdote from shooting a film in a way. It doesn’t come without its own issues. It is very time consuming. It consumes so much of your energy, and you’re not pretending to be someone else. You are yourself. It’s a lot more spontaneous. The structure is whatever the structure is. You know you’re telling a story, but you don’t know what story is necessarily going to unfold that day. Whereas when you’re making a film you have your script, dedicated days of work, trailer, costume and a real structure to it. This is a nice antidote to that. At the same time, after doing this, I’d like to go back to the structure of filming. 

Stanley ventures beyond Rome to Lazio’s less visited countryside, to understand the relationship between ancient metropolis and rural heartland. (credit: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak)

What would you say were the biggest challenges you faced during the shoots? 

Getting from point A to point B in Italy, particularly the poor regions and the mountainous regions. You bring a crew with you. Not a huge crew, but you still have your equipment and that sort of stuff. It’s not like it is also the most enormous budget in the world. You have to figure out to make it work, the logistics of it are hard. You’re in hotels a lot, in cars a lot traveling hours and hours at a time. Those are the challenges. 

Anything surprised you from this experience that you didn’t expect or walked away with? 

It cemented the reality that Italy is incredibly diverse. It was something I set out to show originally when I had this idea. This made it very clear. It’s actually even more diverse than I thought it was. 

Do you have any inkling to venture out of Italy in future seasons? 

I don’t know yet. 

“What I Ate In One Year” was such a fun concept for your most recent book. Did you ever think about taking that idea into this sort of video diary?  

I sort of do that a little bit on Instagram. Sort of, but I’m not sure I would do that as a proper structured thing. Then it would be something that wouldn’t be spontaneous. 

What do you want to say to viewers before they ingest this? 

I want them to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. 

Working with so many actors and stars over the years. Are there any out there people would be surprised to know as a foodie? 

I know that Saoirse Ronan loves food. She is starting to really get into cooking. So, it’s our goal to cook together at some point. Also, I have to say my sister-in-law and brother-in-law Emily [Blunt]  and John [Krasinski] are very much into food. Emily, not unlike her sisters, is a really good cook. 

Tucci in Italy premiere, May 18, 8/7c, National Geographic (Next Day on Disney+ and Hulu)