Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy

The actor, director and author of several successful cookbooks travels around Italy, meets with friends, enjoys Italian food and, with his enchanting voice, relays the history of individual regions and the local culture, cuisine and people. I would be perfectly satisfied with just watching the impeccably dressed Tucci as he speaks beautiful Italian in picturesque locations and nibbles on real Neapolitan pizza or first-class pancetta with a blissful smile, but the show is also educational. Tucci’s commentary goes into greater detail and offers more of a political and economic context than is common in gastronomic travelogues. He is not interested only in the production of buffalo-milk mozzarella or prosciutto, but also in their role in the history of Italy (did you know, for example, that pasta became a symbol of resistance against fascism in the 1930s?). In addition to that, the show is filmed not with stereotypes, but with interest in and respect for the places visited and their residents (for example, Scampia is not portrayed in relation to drugs and the mafia, as most of the world knows it from Gomorrah, but from the perspective of the local Romani community). Searching for Italy is a joy. (10.04.2021)