LIFE & CULTURE

Stanley Tucci’s ‘Searching For Italy’ Is Showing Us La Bella Vita For A Second Season

A 'secondi' of a different kind.

After two years in a global pandemic, it’s a no-brainer that travelling has been sorely missed by the nomads among us. 

As Australians, jet-setting around the world to make lifelong memories is almost a rite of passage. So, when the ability to leave down under was off the menu, many of us were forced to find our fix elsewhere.

Enter: Stanley Tucci’s Searching For Italy.

The established actor—who deserved all the accolades from The Devil Wears Prada—is doing eager travellers a service, by transporting viewers to Italy, sans a passport, endless airport queues or missed flights. Instagram’s cocktail connoisseur took his audience on a trip of a lifetime as he rediscovered his culture through escapades down the Italian coastline. And now, he’s back for round due.  

Created with CNN, the docuseries sees Tucci turn his passion for culinary delights into a full-time gig, which he recently admitted was due to temporarily losing his taste from contracting COVID-19. Returning to our screens for a second season, his expedition across Italy will see him continue to hunt for delicious dishes from every region and convince tourists to search for the best feed, instead of falling into tourist traps.

Pronto? Below, we’ve rounded up everything we know about Stanley Tucci’s Searching For Italy season two—from what it’s about to where you can watch it.

Stanley Tucci
(Credit: CNN)

What will Stanley Tucci’s second season of Searching For Italy be about?

As we know already, Searching For Italy follows Tucci, a third-generation Italian-American, who is heading back to his ancestral country to explore six regions and the food that defines them.

Hoping to change the way the world—specifically, Americans—saw Italy, Tucci has previously spoken about his hopes for the show. 

“People imagine it’s always sunny and people are playing mandolins and eating pizza and chicken parmigiana—which isn’t even an Italian dish,” he told CNN. “Because my parents were so respectful of their heritage, that cultural identity was really important to me, and still is.”

“They [Americans] don’t get the extreme diversity of it […] I’d like people to see that incredible diversity, and how it came about—from geography, from invasions, from the influences of the Arab world, from the Spanish, the Normans, the Austrians. It’s an incredible culinary melting pot.”

In season one of the series, Tucci ate his way through Naples, the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Emilia-Romagna, Milan, Tuscany and Sicily. But for the show’s highly-anticipated second season, not many locations have been confirmed. However, many have spotted Tucci in certain regions in the country’s North, and quickly put two-and-two together.

Fans of the show noticed that he visited Venice—specifically Serenissima—which he skipped in the first season. After posting photos of Venice to his Facebook, he included a photo of himself with staff at the famous Trattoria alla Madonna. Along with Venice, Tucci was spotted in Turin, Piedmont to likely learn about the Slow Food movement and he even posted about being in Valle D’Aosta, the smallest region in the country, that’s known for hearty, comfort food. 

Additionally, he posted a series of images from the “second leg” of his trip, where he could be seen filming at vineyards in Umbria and is likely to sample the region’s superb produce. Now, we’ve got the first proper glimpse of where Tucci ended up with the release of the official trailer—watch it below. 

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How can you watch Stanley Tucci’s Searching For Italy in Australia?

For those interested in watching Tucci’s Searching For Italy in Australia, every episode is available to watch on YouTube with a subscription to YouTube Premium, with a VPN and an American payment method. Those outside of the US can also stream CNN via VPN and a subscription to an affiliated provider.

As for when season two of Searching For Italy will air, Tucci’s latest Instagram post revealed that new episodes will premiere on Sunday, May 1. Bring it on!

Will there be a season three of Searching For Italy?

At the moment, Italophiles and Tucci fans will have to wait a little longer for confirmation of a third season. But after the success of season one—and how quickly it was picked up for a second instalment—there’s plenty of hope that Tucci will be back for round three.

Stanley Tucci
(Credit: @stanleytucci)

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