oh, my god. it just melts in your mouth. i m stanley tucci, i m fascinated by my italian heritage. so, i m travelling 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. michaelangelo, 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. 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 amoutn of bread. i really don t know how. 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 20 years old. you have to taste that. like this tartlet filled with rice pudding. i mean come on, there s always something wonderful to discover
nice to see you too. this little bar has just reintroduced a 500-year-old tradition. in 1559, our old friend the grand duke of medici decreed that wealthy florentine s could sell the wine they produced on their country estates direct from little windows cut into the walls of the city elapses. instead of taverns and innkeepers. in the early 1500 s with the trying to become the heart of europe. so this family had to reset the business and to do something different. and it became a great business in that moment for many families because it was from producer to consumer. so there is no middleman. you would walk by, and you would buy a glass they had a little wooden door, there was a bell. sometimes there was a flask on top as a sort of advertisement saying, hey guys we sell wine.
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. this cattle has grazed in tuscan fields for 2000 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! and now, the main event. so what he s doing now it s that it s the family secret, beside excessive amounts of salt, for a branch like this,
the world in 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 may look like he s fallen out of a renaissance painting but he s actually a well known chef, a born and bred florentine, and the master of needs. back in the 1500 s 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? why the moon? why the sun? 500 years later, thankfully, you don t need to be a grand
thing that everybody has in common is the food. this event is about as far as you can get from the week threshing festival. here florence is richest and most powerful families have gathered, as they have for centuries. to toes to cities new creative talent from chefs and musicians, to artist 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 are going to go and have some food now. she knows me to. well really? . it s a very sophisticated form of panzanella. this looks very different to the rustic bread salad we had for lunch. but a taste of panzanella. a completely taste of