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It’s late evening in Florence when I decide to wash down a spoonful of dolci patti with a sip of red wine – only to be stopped abruptly by Stanley Tucci. “Dinner wine, with that dessert?” he says. “Absolutely not.”
With a friendly nod to the server, Tucci arranges for a “proper dessert wine” to be placed next to my plate, and before I know it, I am sipping on a sweet and sharp Tuscan classic Vin Santo. Its nutty yet full-bodied white-grape nature complements the flavours of my cantucci-crumbled gelato. Perfetto.
I’ve travelled to Florence to spend time with Tucci while he films his new 10-part docuseries, Tucci in Italy, with National Geographic and BBC, which premieres on May 18. He has been filming for four months, with another three to go, but the show is already highly anticipated: two years prior to filming in 2024, CNN cancelled his two-season Emmy-winning show, Tucci: Searching For Italy, which had gained an avid following thanks to the actor’s charming deep dive into the culinary scene in Italy, his motherland. From chatting with the locals of Naples, the birthplace of pizza, to indulging in tastings of Minoro’s fresh limoncello – the world learned the potential of Tucci as a well-rounded, fun, and informative travel host.
This time around, Tucci says, he felt “more himself.” “As an actor, when storytelling, I was always playing a character,” he explains. “It didn’t feel so natural to present myself to the world, as myself.” Since Searching For Italy’s cancellation, though, he’s continued to find his footing as the ambassador of a certain brand of good living: He’s released a new book, What I Ate in One Year, and is growing his loyal base of followers thanks to his ongoing cooking and negroni making on Instagram.
For the National Geographic show, Tucci says viewers won't find him “climbing up anything” as some travel hosts on the channel do. Instead he will be doing what he does best: spending time with people and their stories in some of his favourite regions of Italy, whether that's one of the few remaining southern-Tuscan cattle herders or a relentless nonna who doesn’t trust even the butcher to cut the meat from her farm. Tucci, who researched and scouted chefs, tastemakers, locals, and foodies with the production team for months leading up to filming, says he wants the people they spotlight to “feel like they don’t have to perform” and for the show to “feel truly authentic.” There’s also a greater sense of history and connection between the episodes this time, says Tucci. In one, we see him return to Tuscany for the famous bareback horse race Palio di Siena, where he films in the kitchen with local Sienese chefs ahead of the Contrada dinner, a gigantic communal feast to celebrate the race and feeds each of the city’s 17 districts.
Over another meal in Florence we are seated next to each other at the charming Picteau Bistro at Hotel Lungarno, overlooking the medieval Ponte Vecchio on the murky Arno River. Tucci and his team have just spent the day visiting the marble quarries of Carrara in Colonnata, which can be traced back to a medieval Carrara family (who ruled first as feudal lords and managed both the extraction and transport of the precious material) in the Tuscan countryside of Padua. In episode one an awestruck Tucci visits the white-and-blue-gray caves for the first time, where he witnessed the region’s unique landscape and introduced new flavors to his palate. He tells me that he’s been eager to learn how the region cures lardo (regionally, Lardo di Colonnata), a tradition that has been maintained for 500 years. It’s cured among the region’s specific white marble, with salt and herbs, and sits inside the caves for six months to over one year. “This is what the stonecutters used to eat, what Michelangelo ate when he was in the quarries,” he says.
Learning about the tradition and processes behind Italy’s greatest foods is at the heart of the show. It’s a sentiment passed down to Tucci from his father, an artist, and his mother, “an amazing cook,” who raised him to admire the details of craft and learn the value of precision – and has shaped his view of what Italian cooking should be today. “The ingredients have to be right, the quality of the ingredients has to be right, and the specificity of how you treat those ingredients must be exact,” he asserts.
A prime example of this can be found at the Piazza Sant'Ambrogio streetcar Tripperia Pollini, recommended by Tucci for its lampredotto sandwiches—a simple roll served with a smear of tomato sauce and layers of tripe (the top dipped in the meat’s broth)—and which he discovered while exploring Florence with the production crew.
The day after our dinner, I grab a lampredotto for myself and head off in search of another Tucci recommendation near Mercato di Sant’Ambrogio, a neighbourhood market featured in his Tuscany episode. At the bakery Leonardo, I bite into a silky chocolate and orange-flavoured biscotto and watch the two women bakers – dressed in light blue retro-style uniforms – work together to seamlessly curate one of the best afternoon delights of my life.
The show offers a tried-and-true itinerary that will help travellers still get under the skin of one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. I visit another fixture of the Tuscany episode, the corner trattoria Dalla Lola, which serves elevated takes on Tuscan classics. (“You must dabble in the cheesecake,” Tucci tells me.) To get there I trek through the packed streets of Centro Storico – past diamond-dealer shops, old-school sidewalk photo booths, and the Uffizi. The space was opened by fourth-generation chef Matilde Pettini, who is also the daughter of the owner of the restaurant where we had eaten the night before, Trattoria Cammillo. Tucci was filming at Dalla Lola two days earlier and says he was impressed by the chef’s curation of “a restaurant so totally fresh and casually exquisite” in the city’s more traditional food scene, where, in his opinion, it takes a true chef to be bold and take risks: “Florence essentially lives by culinary rules that are 700 years old,” he says.
When I tell Pettini that Tucci sent me, she greets me with a warm hug. I savour each dish she brings me (a highlight: fresh lemon and pepper orecchiette) and wash them down with sips of their Bianco Toscano IGT, a dry white wine picked out for lunch. The cheesecake, made by Pettini, who is also the chief baker, is breathtaking, with a velvety texture that melts in my mouth and has a crispy, sugary crust.
Tucci is full of made-for-TV quips – negronis are like “summer in your stomach,” he likes to say – but when it comes to why he’s making this show, he’s serious about his choice to highlight chefs like Pettini: “It’s only those who truly value intention and authenticity that craft the dishes worth trying around the world.” He also never hesitates to offer advice for how to live like an Italian: Biscotti is the Florentine way to end every meal; the local food market is the window to a city's heart; never skip the art of “fare la scarpetta,” the Italian phrase for mopping off leftover sauce with bread.
I run into Tucci one last time as I finish lunch outside Café Cibrèo – a meal of seared veal tongue and anchovies with a fresh parsley sauce that is surprisingly light. Above us, small balconies painted forest green are draped with drying laundry and geraniums. True to form, he urges me to indulge in an afternoon espresso. A low, steady beat of music drifting from an apartment mingles with the murmur of diners and the clink of glasses – the rhythm of local life pulses quietly. Tucci grins and nods: “This place has heart, huh?”
Visit the Tucci in Italy locations
Trentino Alto Adige
Tucci says he didn't want to leave the northeastern region of Trentino Alto Adige in the Dolomites, to which he dedicated an entire episode. Do as Tucci did and ski down to one of the Dolomites’ beloved and humble-looking slopeside huts, Baita Sanon, home to hearty dishes like beef goulash, sauerkraut, and polenta – influenced by the Dolomites complex history as a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Abruzzo
For the new show Tucci finally got to visit Abruzzo for the first time. “There aren't that many people there, but it's absolutely beautiful, and the food is great,” he says. While exploring, he visited Ristoro Mucciante, which he describes as “the place to experience Abruzzo’s culinary rite of passage.” One example of that legacy is arrosticini, or grilled meat skewers, typically made with mutton or lamb – a popular street food cooked over charcoal, often on a special grill called a fornacella.
Maremma
A different kind of artistry in the southernmost corner of Tuscany can be found in the Maremma region, which spills into northern Lazio. Here, what Tucci calls “Italy’s Wild West,” he met the cowboys behind Tenuta di Alberese, a 900-year-old ranch known for its traditional Maremma cattle herding. Visitors can accompany the butter – the ranches unconventional cattle herders. Per Tucci, don't leave without sampling the steak, which is dry-aged to make it as tender as possible.
National Geographic’s Tucci in Italy premieres on May 18, 2025, and streams the next day on Disney+.