Stanley Tucci’s Guide to Italy: The Best Cities, Foods and Hotels for First-Time Visitors
Stanley Tucci has become so synonymous with Italy that it’s hard to scroll through Instagram or flip through streaming menus without finding him eating his way through a Roman trattoria or hauling tomatoes home from a Milanese market. Between his cooking videos, his shows “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” and “Tucci in Italy,” and his memoir “Taste: My Life Through Food,” the actor has built a second career as one of the country’s most trusted unofficial guides.
That makes his advice especially valuable for anyone planning a first trip to Italy. Tucci has shared specific recommendations on cities to visit, hotels to book, dishes to order and mistakes to avoid — all rooted in deep family ties to the country.
Tucci’s love of Italy isn’t a celebrity affectation — it’s a family inheritance. Both of his parents are of Italian descent, with family lineages originating in the Calabria region of southern Italy. His paternal grandparents came from the village of Marzi, in the province of Cosenza, and his maternal family hails from Cittanova, in the province of Reggio Calabria.
His first direct exposure to the country came when he was 11 years old, when his family relocated to Florence for a year. Tucci has written extensively about his Italian heritage in cookbooks like “The Tucci Table” and his memoir “Taste: My Life Through Food,” both of which detail how the traditional cooking of his Calabrian mother and grandparents shaped his life.
Which Italian Cities Tucci Recommends for First-Time Visitors
For travelers hoping to get a true taste of Italian cuisine and culture, Tucci has a short list of cities he believes deliver the best mix of food, history and atmosphere. Each one, in his telling, offers a distinct window into the country — from the elegance of the north to the chaos of the south. His picks lean heavily into regional cooking, which he treats as inseparable from a place’s identity.
Tucci recommends Milan “for its progressiveness and elegance and proximity to the lakes and mountains, as well as its risotto, osso buco, polenta, and the like. Rome without question for its grandeur and for the four ubiquitous pastas — alla matriciana, cacio pepe, carbonara, and alla gricia — not to mention the artichokes,” he told Travel + Leisure in 2025.
He also suggested “Palermo and Naples for the madness of them both, the pizza, eggplant parmigiana, and the seafood. [And] Florence for the cultural richness of the city and the simplicity of the food, like the bistecca fiorentina and ribollita.”
Why Tucci Says to Visit Local Markets
If there’s one piece of advice Tucci returns to again and again, it’s to skip the tourist circuit and head straight to a local market. He sees markets as the fastest way to understand a place — what it grows, what it values and who actually lives there.
“A market tells you how important food is or isn’t to the people there. It exposes the soul of a place,” Tucci said in a 2025 interview with Travel + Leisure. “Farmers markets in particular are a way of understanding the people who live in any given place. Not only the produce or products that are sold, but how fresh are they, and where are those products from? Are the majority locally sourced or imported? What are the vendors like that are selling them? Who is shopping there?”
How to Get Around Italy, According to Tucci
Tucci’s transportation advice is less about rules and more about matching the mode to the destination. Cars work in some places and become a headache in others, while Italy’s train network can move travelers between major cities with minimal fuss. His guidance, shared with Fodor’s in 2022, gives first-timers a practical way to think through logistics before they book.
“Well, I think it’s up to you, the way people want to travel. Sometimes having a car is a great thing, except when you’re going to visit Florence, you don’t want to have a car. You can’t drive anywhere,” he told Fodor’s.
He sees real charm in road trips through the countryside. “But it’s really nice to be able to drive and just stop off at little towns or little rest stops along the way, or take a circuitous route somewhere, go to a little hilltop town, that’s great.”
Trains, though, are his other go-to. “But also equally, the trains are really wonderful because it’s very relaxing,” he told Fodor’s. “The countryside is gorgeous. And you take a train to Rome, you’re in Florence in no time and then from Florence to Milan, in no time and it’s easy. Grab a taxi and you’re in your hotel.”
Tucci’s Favorite Hotels in Italy
Tucci has stayed in enough Italian hotels to have strong opinions about which ones are worth the splurge. His recommendations skew toward properties known for service and design, with a few he says he genuinely doesn’t want to leave.
“I love the Mandarin hotels. I mean I love them. I stayed in the Mandarin in Milan, and it was gorgeous. And the Gritti [Palace] and the Danieli in Venice are really quite lovely,” he told Fodor’s. “Another hotel is the Ferragamo Hotel Lungarno in Florence. I dream about it all the time. I’ve stayed there a couple of times and I literally never wanted to leave. It’s just unbelievable and so tastefully done.”
What to Eat — and Where — Across Italy
Tucci treats Italian food as deeply regional, and his recommendations come with geography attached. Order the wrong dish in the wrong city and you’ve missed the point. His suggested pairings of dish and place act as a kind of starter menu for travelers trying to eat their way through the country.
“Dishes in Rome, carbonara without question. In Florence, Bistecca Fiorentina. In Bologna, lasagna Bolognese. In Milan, risotto and ossobuco Milanese. Down in Sicily, pasta a la Norma. And then in Naples in that area, Amalfi Coast, seafood, pasta with zucchini, stuff like that,” he told Fodor’s.
What Not to Do in Italy
Tucci’s list of don’ts is short, but he’s firm about it. The biggest offense, in his view, is adding cheese where it doesn’t belong — and not making any effort with the language.
“Don’t ask for cheese on your own spaghetti alle vongole. Let the cheese thing go. I think that’s key,” he told Fodor’s. “And I think, most Italians will speak English, but it’s always nice to make a vague attempt at least a few words of the language of the country that you’re in.”
He also urged travelers to pace themselves: “I think the one thing I’d say is don’t try to do too much in one trip.” And when possible, time the trip carefully. “Do your best to go off-season to avoid the crowds, especially in Venice, Florence, and Rome. And eat where the locals eat!” he told Travel + Leisure.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
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