Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy is an American travel and food show that premiered on February 14, 2021, onCNN. The series follows American actorStanley Tucci, who travels aroundItaly visiting each region and exploring their cultures, cuisine, and history.^[1]

The series has received sevenPrimetime Emmy Award nominations, winning Emmys forOutstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series in 2021, 2022, and 2024.^[2] Its second season premiered on May 1, 2022.^[3]

CNN canceled the show in December 2022 as part of the network's revamp and cancellation of all original programming because ofWarner Bros. Discovery's cost cuts. Tucci expressed interest in continuing the show on another network.^[4][5] In 2024, Tucci filmed another 10 episodes exploring Italian cuisine for theNational Geographic network. The show will be namedTucci: The Heart of Italy.^[6][7]

In an interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, Tucci acknowledged the influence of another CNN original series,Anthony Bourdain'sParts Unknown. Tucci said: "The show that we are doing is distinctly different than his: I am not nearly as adventurous as Tony was, not nearly. Or as brave. But what he did is open the doors to all of us who were interested in food, and travel, to explore in our own ways. He was an extraordinary writer, a nice person, and a great explorer of the human condition through food."^[9] In a February 2022 interview withPeople magazine, Tucci said that he would "never try to take [Bourdain's] place".^[10]

Amy Entelis,CNN's executive vice president of talent and content development, said: "The Bourdain show was a big experiment at the time, but it quickly became clear that our audience was very interested in stories beyond breaking news, but that were interesting, substantive, thought-provoking stories about food and culture around the world". Entelis added, “There was never a question in our minds about whether we would return [to the genre], it was going to be, what is the right show, who is the right person, what is the right time in terms of launching something new. I think we feel really good right now about putting this show out in the world.”^[9]

Four of the episodes in the first season were filmed in the fall of 2019, while the episodes set inNaples andBologna were filmed in the summer of 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Italy.^[11]

The series was renewed for a second season on February 24, 2021.^[12]

On January 19, 2022, it was announced that the second season would premiere on March 13, 2022.^[13] However, on March 2, it was announced that the premiere had been postponed to an unspecified date later in the spring, due to CNN's continuing coverage of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[14] On April 12, 2022, it was announced that the premiere had been rescheduled for May 1, 2022.^[3] The second season's first four episodes aired in May (then on BBC Two in October), and its final four episodes aired beginning on October 9, 2022.^[15]

The show's premiere on February 14, 2021, had 1.52 million viewers, and its second episode, which aired on February 21, had 1.64 million viewers. The show's main viewing demographic consisted of adults between the ages of 25 and 54.^[12]

OnRotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 71% based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10.^[16] OnMetacritic, the series has an aggregated score of 71 out of 100 based on 8 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[17]

John Anderson ofThe Wall Street Journal, wrote that Stanley Tucci is "not a performer given to grand gestures. So when he tastes the yolk-fattened spaghetticarbonara in a Roman restaurant, closes both eyes and spontaneously hugs the chef, it is the equivalent of fireworks over the Tiber", adding that the series contains a number of such moments. He concluded: "It’s a marvelously well-written show, briskly paced, and makes the rest of the food-TV competition as appetizing as last night’s mozzarella sticks."^[18]Helen Rosner ofThe New Yorker described the series as "a good show, but not quite a great one. Its culinary discoveries [...] are not new, and its gloss on the less glamorous aspects of Italian culture and history are rarely more than decorative". She described Tucci in the series as "a figure out of time", and wrote: "Like Tucci,Anthony Bourdain was rich in charisma and possessed unlikely sex appeal. But Bourdain the travel-show host served as a spotlight, fondly illuminating the people and places around him. Tucci is an electromagnet. Even when he’s in a crowd, he seems like the only person on the screen", adding: "the show is at its best when it stops fighting the desire to focus entirely on him".^[19]

Sophie Gilbert, writing forThe Atlantic, said that the series "presents itself as escapism, even as it half-acknowledges the reality of the pandemic", and wrote: "Some travelogues, such as the late Anthony Bourdain’sParts Unknown, seek out underexplored destinations and culinary traditions.Searching for Italy takes its audience through the most obvious stops on the Italian itinerary (Rome! Milan! Tuscany!) while winking at the darker crevices of our imagination."^[20]Caroline Framke, writing forVariety, criticized the series for choosing to air an episode filmed during a brief period of respite from theCOVID-19 pandemic in Italy as the first episode. However, she praised Tucci for exploring Rome's less well-known locations and meals in the second episode, including "a fascinating detour into the inventive ways Italian chefs have transformedoffal, or all the organs and bits of gristly meat that poorer Italians learned to work into delicacies."^[11] Lucy Mangan ofThe Guardian gave the series 3/5 stars, writing: "Tucci is an utterly inoffensive guide throughout this sweet, light delizia of a documentary, but there is one moment with Coccia that nicely illustrates his one weakness – which is that he is slightly too muted, too self-effacing."^[21]

Benji Wilson ofThe Daily Telegraph gave the series 2/5 stars, writing: "Tucci is a wonderful actor but a less engaging tour guide, largely because he's as smooth and perfect as a gleaming burrata."^[22] John Doyle ofThe Globe and Mail wrote: "You want more information than comes in a tourism brochure. Sometimes what Tucci offers, in his beautifully modulated voice, is simply bad, simplified history and worse social science."^[23]

Raw Television repeated the format ofStanley Tucci: Searching for Italy with 2023'sEva Longoria: Searching for Mexico, presented by actorEva Longoria. Tucci is an executive producer.^[33][34]

• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy atBBC Online
• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy atIMDb
• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy atRotten Tomatoes

• 2020s American reality television series
• 2021 American television series debuts
• CNN original programming
• American English-language television shows
• Food travelogue television series
• Television series by All3Media

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