'Searching for Italy' Star Stanley Tucci Awarded Honorary Doctorate

American actor, writer, and producer, Stanley Tucci, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by The American University of Rome for his role as a global ambassador for Italian life, culture and food. 

Tucci's 48-year love affair with Italy has been played out since his first captivating visit to Florence as a twelve-year-old boy, and throughout his professional life in film, theatre, books, and most recently TV.

His recent hit six-part CNN TV show, Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, sees him traverse the country exploring its culture and history through the delicious lens of food, stopping off in Milan, Rome, Naples and the Amalfi Coast, Sicily, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. He describes the series as a "love letter to the place where my family is from". 

Making a video acceptance speech from his London home, food naturally featured, with Tucci saying: "like the Italians themselves, the food of Italy gives to you and keeps on giving. It is at once sophisticated and rustic, elegant but always comforting."

"This obvious passion for the history and culture of Italian cuisine, the art of cooking, and rituals of the table, reaches deep into your childhood and Italian family roots, and is a thread that runs through your life’s work,” said  Dr. Scott Sprenger, president of The American University of Rome, in his laudation address.

Watch Tucci deliver his acceptance speech in the clip below:

Tucci will be returning to Italy later in 2021 to film part 2 of Stanley Tucci: Discovering Italy.