Original subtitles

[TUCCI] I have driven in Italy quite a bit.

But I did say to one guy when I was doing a movie,

I said, "It's very interesting,

people don'’t really stop at stop lights that much."

And he goes, "No, no, no.

The stop light is just a suggestion."

There's nowhere on Earth quite like Tuscany.

The land is idyllic,

the art is divine

and the food is out of this world.

[TUCCI] Oh my god.

It just melts in your mouth.

[LAUGHS]

I'm Stanley Tucci,

I'm fascinated by my Italian heritage.

So, I'm traveling across Italy

to discover how the food,

in each of this country's twenty regions,

is as unique as the people and their past.

The creations of famous Tuscans are known the world over.

Michelangelo, I think if he were to come back today, he'd be able

to walk around Florence. It hasn'’t changed.

But it's the hands of the ordinary people...

[Chef] We fold it like this.

...that have crafted the incredible food here.

It's like a Christmas in your mouth, yeah.

This is a place built on human ingenuity,

mind-boggling riches and an insane amount of bread.

I really don'’t know how they eat this much bread.

It's delicious but so hot.

All great love affairs start somewhere.

And for me...

my love of Italy started right here, in Florence,

when I was just 12 years old.

That's delicious.

You have to taste that.

Like this tartlet filled with rice pudding, I mean, come on.

There'’s always something wonderful

to discover in Florence.

The city is the capital of Tuscany.

500 years ago, it was the playground

of some of the richest families on Earth.

In the countryside,

they used their land to cultivate

the finest produce and cattle

And in the city they bankrolled

the incredible explosion of art,

science and architecture known as the Renaissance.

I love that just about everywhere you turn

there'’s something incredible to see.

The chance to actually live among these treasures,

even just for a year,

lured a young family from suburban New York to Florence

nearly 50 years ago.

It seems that no matter where you are,

you can always see that Duomo.

My family.

Meet Joan and Stan Tucci.

[STAN] I have a photograph of this, do you remember?

Back in 1972 we moved here

because my dad was a high school art teacher

taking a year off to follow his dream.

-[STAN] Oh my Lord. -[TUCCI] That's unbelievable.

-[STAN] All that foreshortening. -[TUCCI] I know.

-[STAN] How incredible is that? -That's incredible.

My Dad came to study figure drawing and sculpture here.

[TUCCI] Look at it, when you really look

and you see that perspective,

-I can't see that far. -It's staggering.

-It hurts my neck. -Does it?

-Yeah. -Lay down.

[LAUGHS]

At nearly 400 feet,

the Duomo is still the tallest structure in Florence.

It took 16 years to build,

and to hurry things along,

the genius architect, Brunelleschi,

came up with a way to slash lunch breaks.

The workmen, when they were building this,

guys had to come down and make their lunch,

they would lose all this time.

So he found out what they were cooking

and he put ovens up there

and he would just cook up there, make their lunch up there.

-That doesn'’t sound... Really? -Supposedly.

Money was tight on our year abroad,

so our family lived in slightly less grandeur than this...

This is a lot cleaner than it used to be.

It'’s very clean.

...just north of the city center, in this building.

Not the whole thing, you understand.

[TUCCI] So our apartment was those four windows?

One, two, three, four? That was us

-on the end there, right? -Yeah.

[JOAN] It was nice.

-[TUCCI] You'd never traveled. -[JOAN] No.

My parents, you know, mom and pop, said,

"Why are you going?" You know.

Your parents, who came from Italy?

Who came from Italy

-It was Florence, not Colobraro. -Didn'’t want you to go to Italy.

But it worked out.

It was fun. -I think everybody ended up

getting a great deal out of it.

I came for sculpture, certainly Joan,

with all the food, cooking...

-It changed everything. -It changed everything.

-It changed everything for me, certainly.

While my father was studying art,

my mom was studying something just as beautiful,

the local cuisine.

One of these because it'’s so big?

No, a little more.

Little more.

It didn'’t know how to cook when we got married.

Didn't even know how to boil water.

While she was here,

my mother was also inspired by the spirit of the Renaissance

and set out to discover the art of Italian cooking.

When we lived in Florence when everyone was in school,

I would learn to make different recipes. I loved it.

My mother soon found the key

that unlocks so much of Italian cooking.

A simple combination of carrots, celery, and onions.

Fried up together, it'’s called the soffritto.

[JOAN] Looking good, what do you think, Stan?

[TUCCI] Yeah, it's good.

[JOAN] Throw the tomato in?

It'’s the base of countless Italian dishes,

including today'’s offering.

A Tucci family favorite called Salsa Maria Rosa.

[TUCCI] Now, put some water in it.

[JOAN] Put some water in it, yeah.

It'’s a delicious vegetable sauce

and we named it after a beloved neighbor

here in Florence,

who showed mom how to make it all those years ago.

In the fine tradition of Tuscan home cooking,

it'’s cheap, nutritious and full of tomato.

-[TUCCI] I make it quite often. -[JOAN] Do you? Yeah.

[TUCCI] Of course, yeah. The kids love it.

But here'’s the thing,

every time my mother comes to visit, which is too often.

-Alright. -Alright, anyway.

I always go, "Can you show me how to make this?",

but mine still doesn'’t turn out the way hers turns out.

I don'’t get it.

-I think that's it, Stan. -I think we did it.

[JOAN] We did it.

-We did it. -Nice.

[TUCCI] There we go.

[JOAN] It'’s nice to have help. I love it, it'’s fun.

That's my hobby.

But I don'’t have anyone

to cook for anymore. I miss my grandchildren.

Oh don'’t, don't.

But you could move to England. If this series does well...

-If this series does well. -Which series?

The one we'’re shooting right now.

I got news for ya.

[LAUGHS]

The time we shared in Florence changed everything for us.

-Finally, you're here. -Yes.

After a year spent in the home of the Renaissance,

we returned to America as a family reborn.

It'’s so delicate, this sauce too, isn'’t it?

You smell the sweetness of the carrot and the butter.

Our eyes had been opened

to some of the greatest treasures on Earth

and some pretty good food too.

It's so good.

For me, it was the start

of a lifelong love affair with Italy.

-Cheers. -Cheers.

Thank you, thank you.

-To Florence. -Thank you, cheers.

There'’s a family whose name hangs over this region

like the hot Tuscan sun.

Their astonishing wealth

made them one of the most powerful families

on Earth back in the 1500s.

They practically bankrolled the Renaissance,

paying for artists and scientists

like Michelangelo and Galileo

to remake the world.

[TUCCI] How many days a week are you here?

They are the Medici.

So come in.

And I'm going to meet one of them.

You are in a place

that the Florentines call '‘The Casino de Medici'’.

And this is a place created as a scientific laboratory

the Medici wanted all the bright minds in Europe

to come here

and to create new things

and to experiment with science, with the arts,

with food, with spices.

So it was like you say a think tank.

A think tank.

-Or a taste tank. -Exactly.

Expert Art Restorer, Daniela Murphy,

is sneaking me in for an audience

with the most powerful Medici of them all.

-Where is he? -He's right, right there.

Oh my.

Meet Cosimo Primo de Medici.

He led the family at their dizzying height

in the 1500s.

In this fresco, undergoing restoration,

he'’s become so powerful

he'’s being crowned Grand Duke of Tuscany

by the Pope himself

He marries an extremely wealthy woman,

the Spanish princess' Eleanor de Toledo.

Not only does she bring a lot of money

but she brings a lot of the new spices from the New World.

The chocolates, the coffee,

Everything that is the cuisine.

That'’s when the tomato arrived?

That's when it arrives more or less in that era then.

Which completely altered Italian...

Completely.

-Completely. -...cuisine

Medici money cultivated this city, and the arts

and the ideas that grew here in the Renaissance

changed how we all see the world.

But this family also changed the way things taste.

It may seem a long way from Michelangelo

to the greatest T-bone steak you'’ve ever eaten,

but the Medici had a hand in that too.

Secret.

Fabio Picchi may look

like he'’s fallen out of a Renaissance painting,

but he'’s actually a renowned chef,

a born and bred Florentine,

and a master of meat.

Back in the 1500s

most people wouldn'’t even get close

to cuts of meat this good.

Tuscany'’s famous Chianina cattle needed lots of land,

that was hugely expensive to run.

Of course, the Medici didn'’t need to worry about that.

But why?

500 years later, thankfully you don'’t need to be

a Grand Duke to enjoy steaks this big,

and Fabio wants to cook for me Tuscany'’s signature dish,

the magnificent bistecca alla Fiorentina.

Good.

And in case lunch isn'’t looking worthy enough

of, like, ten men,

Fabio picks out a little appetizer,

yet another cut of meat.

We head back to the deli Fabio owns.

Thank you. Oh, look at that, look at the flowers.

He hurries us past any food that hasn'’t had a pulse.

And we head up to his hideaway on the roof,

where he does his cooking.

Oh my god. Come on.

We'’re starting with the Chianina beef,

the Medici family favorite.

The cattle has grazed the Tuscan fields

for 2,000 years.

They'’re of such high quality,

that we'’re eating it raw.

Oh my god.

That's the best sushi I've ever had.

[LAUGHS]

And now, the main event.

So what he'’s doing now he says, this is, the secret--

[FABIO] The family secret.

Besides excessive amounts of salt.

So the little sort of wisps of olive branch

like this in the fire.

So you're getting, you're getting

the flavor of those olive branches.

It gives it a very distinctive taste.

During the Renaissance,

the Medici lit fires around the city on feast days

and handed out roast beef to the common people.

Most of the time though,

they kept this amazing meat for themselves.

This one actually comes from the same area

where the Medici family originated.

Jesus.

This is like no steak I've ever eaten.

It'’s both crisp and delicate

and the smoke carries the taste of the land.

God damn it! It just melts in your mouth.

It'’s what makes the regional cooking of Italy

about so much more than just a tasty meal.

But the palate is the organ that connects Italy.

-I'll drink to that. -Yeah.

Cheers.

There comes a time in any show about Tuscany

where the host heads out to the spectacular hills

and tells you how the Mediterranean sun

has blessed the Tuscan vineyards for 3000 years.

They may even have a thoughtful sip

of a world famous Tuscan wine

like Chianti Classico.

But I'’m not going to do that.

I'’m going on a good old fashioned bar crawl.

And when I say '‘old fashioned'’, I mean, like, the Renaissance.

I'’m going to meet a friend of mine, Elisabetta,

who is a Renaissance scholar.

She'’s incredibly boring, but we'’ll make it through.

My God, I can'’t believe you came.

-Hi. -How are you?

-How are you? -Good to see you.

Nice to see you too.

This little bar has just reintroduced

a 500-year-old tradition.

In 1559, our old friend,

the Grand Duke Cosimo Primo de Medici,

decreed that wealthy Florentines

could sell the wine they produced

on their country estates direct from little windows

cut into the walls of their city palaces

instead of through taverns and inn keepers.

So, you would walk by, and you would buy, not by the glass,

but you'd buy by the bottle.

-You'd buy a flask. -You buy a flask.

They had a little wooden door, there was a bell.

Sometimes they would also place things like a flask on top

like an advertisement to say, "Hey guys, we sell wine."

Because I remember living here when I was a kid.

I'’d see these things,

I always thought they were for, you know,

where you'’d put a little statue or something.

-Yeah, like a tabernacle. -Yeah, exactly.

-Let's order some wine. -OK

-Let's order some wine. -How do you. Do I pull this?

-Ring -Oh, it's a bell.

-Will someone come? -Well, they're awfully slow.

Oh, hi. That's wonderful. Hi, how are you?

-Here you go. -Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you so much, thank you.

That's good.

-That's good. -I always thought wine,

the taste is better when it comes through a window.

Yeah.

You get another wine?

-Yeah, oh yeah. -Yeah.

It seems to be empty.

Oh, hi. How are you?

Can I get...

Five hundred years ago,

everyone was encouraged to drink

at least a liter of wine a day.

Not for the winemaker'’s profit but for health reasons.

-Come on. -Let's sit.

So tell me everything else you know.

And some people needed to be more healthy than others.

If you were pregnant you could have one at any time.

-You could have one at any time? -Yeah.

-If you were pregnant. -Yeah.

Because it was considered...

My mother did that too. No, she didn'’t.

-Really? -Yeah.

Like a nourishment.

So, it's sort of the opposite of today?

-Yeah, of today. -Okay.

-Come on. -Let's go, come on.

This could be a disappointingly short wine crawl

as Bar Babae is currently the only

functioning wine window in Florence.

Even if there are still 130 or so defunct ones

around the city.

These little Wine Windows

don't exist anywhere outside of Tuscany,

another example of Renaissance genius.

-There are too many of them. -Yeah.

And then, completely by chance, we come across another.

But the sign would be from when?

That sign.

-The little doors of paradise. -Paradise, yeah.

Hi, hi, there you are again.

Hi, how are you?

Thank you so much.

To end of the evening

we head out for Tuscany's favorite nightcap.

the local dessert wine, Vin Santo, the holy wine.

It's called Vin Santo because when you drink it, a halo...

-A halo comes? -A halo is on your head.

Anyway.

Tuscan tradition dictates you dip almond biscotti,

known in Italy as cantucci, in your vin santo.

Oh, angle, is that what it means?

Yeah.

The result is a sweet, crunchy and heady delight.

Maybe too heady.

Anything that ends in Tucci, I like.

[LAUGHS]

-That's the end of that episode. -That's so funny.

Cantucci, right.

Tuscany may be renowned

for incredible meat and fine wines,

but this food of the rich is only half the story.

The other branch of Tuscan cooking

grew out of biting poverty and humble ingredients.

So, where do you wanna go first?

Historian Leonardo Romanelli

is taking me to Florence'’s central market

to show me the ingredients of what the Italians call

'‘Cucina Povera'’, poor food.

So, you wanna show me some beans

which are a staple of Florentine cooking.

-So you have different types. -For different dishes.

The best are zolfini.

These type of beans are solid

but you don'’t need to put in the water before cooking.

-Oh really? -And they taste so...

You don'’t have to soak them beforehand?

No, that's the difference.

It means the Florentines eat the beans.

The bean eaters.

Yeah, because we are using so many different--

Oh no, now you're going to mix them all up.

[LAUGHS]

The cooking is really, very poor, simple cooking.

That's true.

I read that during the Renaissance

the wealthier people would have meat.

Whereas the poorer people basically just had beans,

some kind of soup and some bread and that was it.

I have to say, we use what we have.

It says something about the character

of the Tuscany people.

We have Tuscan bread without salt.

I know, I remember when I was a kid

and we came here

and we tasted the bread and I was like,

"This is terrible, this is the worst thing

I've ever had in my life."

We never got used to it.

Seeing these basic ingredients

here in the city market is one thing,

but the only way to truly understand Tuscan '‘poor food'’

is to get out of the city

and go deep into the endlessly beautiful countryside.

Isn't that kind of amazing when you look around,

is that, I mean, you really don't see

a contemporary building for miles.

Look at that.

I'’m following the River Arno, 50 miles south of Florence,

to a small village called Ponte Buriano,

where I'’ve been invited to a wheat threshing festival.

Do I know what threshing of the wheat is?

Are you kidding?

I grew up threshing wheat.

Now, if memory serves,

threshing is where the grains of wheat are shaken loose

so they can be ground down to make flour.

[TUCCI] Oh that's the steam, that'’s the steam engine.

[RENATO] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Renato Viscovo, a local teacher, organizes this event.

Tonight there'’s a huge feast for the villagers.

They'’re coming together to give thanks

for the good times in this region

that was once ravaged by famines

and where farmers were treated as indentured servants

by their oppressive aristocratic landowners,

until relatively recently.

This is a world away

from the huge steaks and fine wines of Florence.

The people here cook what they grow

and after the toil of harvesting

and milling the wheat,

what they're left with is bread.

Lots and lots of bread.

So here the dough is rising and you cook it in that oven.

Like it was done many years ago.

Over in the kitchens,

some of the 200 villagers

are hard at work preparing the feast,

and here too, bread plays a starring role

in pretty much everything.

[TUCCI] What are they making?

[TUCCI] Oh, the Gander.

Oh my god.

-[RENATO] Good? -It's delicious but it's so hot.

I go out back and discover wood-fired ovens

full of roasting ganders.

These male geese were one of the few farm animals

that peasants were allowed to keep for themselves

and not have to share with their landlords.

They were saved for special occasions

like weddings and festivals.

The smell is incredible.

Come on.

You know? Really, it's like a Christmas in your mouth.

Yeah, wow.

Well, you're great cooks.

Over the centuries,

the food of the working people here in the Tuscan countryside

developed into its own cuisine.

It'’s not as showy as the food in Florence

but it's one that is just as glorious

as the landscape from which it comes.

[LAUGHS]

My night at the wheat threshing festival

has reminded me of the epic, insatiable obsession

Tuscany has with bread.

It'’s a love that has echoed through the ages

and there are recipes for every stage of a loaf'’s life.

The best ones however are saved for the advanced years,

when bread is old and stale.

That'’s when Tuscan cooks get really creative.

[TUCCI] And here we are.

-Yeah. -Yeah, it's very exciting.

I'’m having lunch at the Cinghiale Bianco,

one of my favorite restaurants in Florence.

So nice to see you. Really nice to see you.

And I'’m joined again by local food expert,

Professor Leonardo Romanelli,

and my friend the art restorer, Daniella Murphy.

-Hi, Stanley. -[TUCCI] Uh-oh.

-[LEONARDO] Oh, hi. -[TUCCI] Hi.

This place specializes in '‘poor food'’

and their recipes are so heavenly.

I'’m sure it's where old bread would choose to come and die.

Marco Maselli is the restaurant'’s owner

This is the ribolita.

Basically, the main ingredients are bread and the black cabbage.

And then, we have the tomato and bread soup,

Pappa al pomodoro.

The base is olive oil and garlic,

Tuscan bread and tomato.

It sounds very simple.

-Not so simple to prepare. -[TUCCI] Not simple to make.

[MARCO] To make good.

But, in my opinion, the queen of the Tuscan dishes

is the Panzanella.

I was hoping that was mine.

Also, a very simple and 'poor' dish.

Tuscan bread soaked in vinegar and onion and tomato.

-[MARCO] Enjoy. -[TUCCI] Thank you.

[Daniella] This Panzanella is very good.

[TUCCI] And this Pappa al pomodoro, perfecto.

This is one of my favorite things,

I make it for my kids, they'll just eat.

Like it's ice cream, practically.

We have good tomatoes, good olive oil and Tuscan bread.

Maybe not Tuscan bread.

Maybe, OK. [LAUGHS]

I have to admit,

that I much prefer Tuscan bread cooked in dishes like this

because on its own it can taste quite bland

and that'’s an understatement.

It actually tastes like cardboard.

That'’s because it's unsalted.

One theory is that Florence refused to pay

its arch-rival town of Pisa for its salt.

They were willing to spend money with other people

but never give money to Pisa.

-Yeah, especially Pisa. -Even today.

But of course, this being Italy,

food rivalries go deep but no-one can quite remember why.

Another idea is this,

if they don'’t use salt the bread could stay for a long time.

Really, without salt?

-I didn't know that. -Because, because

-the salt, the salt... -The salt breaks it down.

The salt became brine.

For sure the most convincing one

is we don'’t want to give money to the Pisani.

That's the most convincing. [LAUGHS]

I believe that, actually, most of all.

-Yeah. -[LAUGHS]

For me panzanella is one of the greatest dishes

of Tuscan poor food.

Giving brittle old bread new life by using fresh tomatoes

to create a surprisingly refreshing salad.

Knowing my love of food and art,

Daniela has invited me to a festival this evening.

A very fancy festival.

The one thing that everybody has in common is the food.

Yeah.

This event is about as far as you can get

from the wheat threshing festival.

Here Florence'’s richest and most powerful families have gathered,

as they have for centuries,

to toast the city'’s new creative talent from chefs and musicians,

to artists hoping to follow in the footsteps

of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

You are right now in a situation where,

more or less 500 years ago,

the Medici would have done something like this.

So we'’re going to go and have some food now.

She knows me too well.

Really?

It's a very sophisticated form of Panzenella.

This looks very different

to the rustic bread salad we had for lunch.

[DANIELLA] But it tastes of Panzanella.

It completely tastes of Panzanella.

Panzanella was what the farmers would eat.

And now it's turned into this very sophisticated--

-[TUCCI] Foam. -Foam.

You see, the past being rediscovered.

[TUCCI] It'’s a little Renaissance in a bowl.

[DANIELLA] There's a little Renaissance in it

and a lot of the future.

[CROWD CHATTING]

[BUSTLING CROWDS]

After tasting this new version of panzanella,

we made some inquiries and found the chef who created it.

Nerina Martinelli and her team

are just about to open Nugolo, a brand-new restaurant

that re-imagines Tuscany'’s rural food in the heart of the city.

[NERINA] The idea around the menu and the dishes that we do

is to take traditional dishes, traditional recipes

and then add something new.

All the team of the restaurant,

we are all under 30 years old so we are all really young.

These young chefs

are seeing old Tuscan dishes with new eyes.

[NERINA] So, the Panzanella foam

is an example of a traditional Tuscan dish.

So, farmers.

Basically made with the simplest...

Exactly.

-...poorest ingredients. -Onion, tomato, bread, vinegar.

Cucumber, that's it.

And normally we do it with old bread.

-[TUCCI] With old bread. Right. -With old bread.

But you're taking it to another level by foaming it.

The air inside it becomes very light

but still keeping the flavor of the panzanella.

And we finish with the basil oil.

Couple of drops.

I love that you did this.

-Extra virgin olive oil. -It's so smart.

It's, it's delicious.

[ANTONIO] Especially for summer time, it's really fresh.

Yeah, it's like, it really is the perfect appetizer, isn't it.

-Exactly. -Exactly.

Wow, you've taken tomatoes to a whole other place.

And the simplest dishes to a whole other level.

This simple bread salad has woven its way

through Tuscan society.

From peasants ensuring food doesn'’t go to waste

to Florentine aristocrats.

It'’s great to see these definitive Tuscan flavors

now inspiring a new generation,

making exciting food that looks to the future

while respecting the land and its history.

The food of rich cities and the poor countryside

are the two great pillars of Tuscan cuisine.

But what unites them is a blast of fresh sea breeze

blowing in from Tuscany'’s fabulous coastline.

I'’ve come 50 miles west of Florence

to the city of Livorno.

In the late 16th Century, the Medici family

turned it into one of the great trading ports of Italy,

where Tuscany welcomed the world.

Chef Fabio Picchi is never happier than when he's here,

with friends, and the prospect of a good meal on the horizon.

During the Renaissance,

migrants were actively encouraged to settle in Livorno

and its reputation as a free-thinking

big-hearted city by the sea...

[TUCCI] Oh yeah, nice.

...drew people from across Europe and beyond.

In the town center,

is a tiny place called Torteria Da Gagarin.

It opened in 1959 and sells just one thing.

Known as "the cake",

it'’s a pancake made from chickpea flour.

The torteria is a local institution,

serving up "the cake" in, what else, a huge hunk of bread.

[TUCCI] This is good, I like this.

It's absolutely delicious.

And he says that he makes it because he loves it.

He makes it at home but he can't make it as good as this.

[FABIO] Yeah.

After that little appetizer,

we head up to the house of one of Fabio'’s friends

in the hills above the town.

He'’s gathered together the ingredients

for a Livornese classic.

He's making a fish stew.

-This is a fake Cacciucco. -It's a fake.

I need to keep my voice down so the neighbors don'’t hear

but if you'’re not from Livorno,

you'’re not supposed to be making this stew.

[TUCCI] There's always this, sort of, battle between

whether you're from here or from there, or from there.

Whatever you're making. Right?

You can make the same thing but you can't call it the thing.

It is maybe a little bit different.

[CHOPPING]

Cacciucco is a rich fish stew that dates back over 500 years.

It was the way Livorno'’s fishermen

would use up whatever they hadn'’t sold that day.

This is an imperial cacciucco.

He's using this really beautiful fish,

he's also using lobster which is not a 'poor' fish, obviously.

So, he's taking this and amping it up a bit.

Like so many Italian dishes,

the base of Fabio'’s stew is the trusty tomato.

It'’s hard to imagine Italian cuisine without tomatoes

but scholars only date their arrival

to that fortuitous Medici marriage

to Spanish nobility in the 1540s.

Here in Livorno though...

Sweet.

...legend says that the tomato was brought by newcomers

fleeing oppression.

Tomatoes were a popular ingredient

among the Jews of Southern Europe.

Unless you want.

Yeah, I think so, yeah.

As the incredible smell drifts outside,

Fabio'’s friends take their seats.

The density of that flavor is just--

[TUCCI] Wow.

[APPLAUSE]

Fabio may not be from Livorno

but he can definitely cook a cacciucco.

These are ingredients rooted

in both the poor fishing community

and in Livorno's immigrant past.

It's a part of Tuscany's history on a plate.

And Fabio's not finished.

In true Tuscan tradition,

creativity is everything and nothing goes to waste,

so he whips up a whole second course with the leftover sauce.

You have all the flavors of the sea,

otherwise what would you do with that?

Beautiful.

A sauce that he had left, it only makes sense.

It's the best, best thing in the world.

[SPEAKS ITALIAN]

Cheers.

I feel very lucky that my parents followed their hearts

and moved us across the world

for a year when we were just kids.

I saw how the food of both rich and poor came together

in this corner of Italy that'’s like nowhere on Earth...

Wow

...and nearly 50 years later,

I still keep coming back for more.