Thinus Ferreira
In a world where everyone relentless quest for more, better and bigger seems endless, you'll benefit from standing still for a moment.
In fact, rather sit down and immerse yourself in Stanley Tucci's new food travelogue series, Tucci in Italy, on National Geographic (DStv 181) at 20:30 with episodes also available on Disney+. You owe it to yourself.
The star of films like The Hunger Games, The Devil Wears Prada and recently Conclave is once again travelling through Italy in a second travelogue series to explore the people, food, culture and the good life.
Stanley Tucci has already won three Emmy awards for his CNN lifestyle series, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.
But Tucci in Italy on National Geographic isn't an encore. It's a next adventure.
Like a warm Italian hug or a cup of steaming espresso, Tucci in Italy envelops viewers in rich colours and an explosive kaleidoscope of culture, breathtaking landscapes from green hills to houses, buildings, and cobblestone streets like something out of a fairy tale.
Here, food makers laugh loudly and animatedly reveal secrets of their dishes and their Italian heritage to Stanley Tucci, taking viewers along for a resplendent journey of the senses.
'I want to be able to just explore
these different stories,
whatever those stories are'
In Tucci in Italy, things are beautiful - painfully beautiful. And unpretentious.
From his surname, Tucci, you can of course correctly infer that Stanley is of Italian descent, although he grew up in New York.
With his Italian-American heritage, where the love for cooking and socialising is most magnificently ingrained, it's easy for him to explore Italy as both an outsider and in a sense, also the ultimate insider.
During the five episodes of Tucci in Italy, Stanley meets local chefs and other food makers, fishermen, artists, and even... cowboys... while savouring dishes and telling delightful stories.
He doesn't try to create a "perfect" TV show, although he's already proven with three Emmys that the right person in the right place in Italy, talking to the "right" people, can in fact, craft a miracle on screen.
"I'm not trying to top anything. I just want to be able to tell the stories truthfully," Stanley Tucci tells me when I ask him if he plans for Tucci in Italy to surpass what he accomplished with his CNN series.
"I think if you try to top something you did before, you're going to fail."
"I just want to be able to dig a little bit deeper. So it's actually the opposite. You don't try to top it. You just try to go deeper into it."
He explains that he "doesn't want to romanticise Italy".
"I think that's been done ad nauseum. I think it's not interesting and it's not truthful. I want to be able to just explore these different stories, whatever those stories are that paint a truthful picture of each region."
In the birthplace of the Renaissance, Tuscany, where he spent part of his youth, he tastes an unexpected breakfast dish. And then there are Tuscan cowboys and incredible outdoor festival food in Siena at the world-famous Palio.
In Lombardy, Italy's industrial heartland, there's food you wouldn't believe people make. And if you want to learn something about the world, discover how Italy's convenience stores and restaurants at fuel stations are like something out of an incredible dream.
Unlike in South Africa, the food places at filling stations in Italy are on a completely different level.
It simply doesn't work like here, and the difference started after World War II. It's about quality, and basically a surreal road trip experience - stopping for fuel and then walking into a quality spot for a gastronomic experience - something that's "standard" and taken for granted by Italians.
In Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy's northernmost region where people also speak German, there's soup, a skiing experience, polenta, and fishing in a mountain river. And in Abruzzo, one of the more untouched regions, there's Sunday lunch with an unexpected French influence.
In Lazio, on the other side of Rome, Stanley Tucci glides through the Italian countryside and indulges in Roman pizza, porchetta from Ariccia, fish soup, and "spring lamb" - food you have to see to believe.
'Tucci in Italy is an
invitation to the table'
What makes Tucci in Italy stand out from other food and travel series is Stanley's genuine curiosity and, of course, the fact that Italians trust him and open up, chatting like he's the neighbour.
Here's he not Hollywood star or American tourist - he's one of them.
"Italy is a feast for the senses, and Tucci in Italy is an invitation to the table," he says.
"It’s about more than just the food - it's about the people, the history, and the passion that makes Italy so special. I believe that eating well is inspiring, and I hope to inspire viewers to embrace the beauty and richness of Italian culture."
Tucci in Italy is on National Geographic (DStv 181) on Wednesdays at 20:30, and available on Disney+
