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🇮🇹  unlock Italy with CNN Travel’s ultimate guide

CNN Travel writer Julia Buckley is seen here visiting a geothermal park in

Italy’s Tuscany region.

With the upcoming premiere of the second season of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” on March 13, CNN has cooked up a nine-part newsletter series that pairs perfectly with the show. Inside CNN readers get exclusive early access to CNN Travel’s Unlocking Italy, a guide filled with handpicked recommendations on where to stay, what to eat and which sights to see in eight Italian cities and regions. No plans to travel? Each newsletter introduces you to a recipe, often from Tucci himself, to savor la dolce vita at home.

Your guide through the newsletter series is CNN Travel writer Julia Buckley, who says she has always felt inexplicably drawn to the country. She told Inside CNN that her affinity was affirmed when she learned of her Italian heritage by happenstance, moved to Venice during the height of the pandemic and discovered the tomb of a long-lost family member.

“I fell in love with the idea of Italy when I was in elementary school,” said Buckley, who was born and raised in Cornwall, England. “We did a project on ancient Rome, and I fell head over heels for it.”

She carried that fascination with her through her teen years and decided to major in Italian at Oxford University. Years into her degree and after a semester abroad in Italy, her dad offhandedly mentioned that she had a great-great-grandmother from Tuscany.

“I don’t know why he never bothered to tell me before,” Buckley said, laughing. “I’m not sure I believe that kind of stuff, but it suddenly made sense that every time I went there it felt like I was coming home.”

After graduating, she started a career as a journalist and for years seized every opportunity to cover stories in Italy.

“I remember October, November 2019, I was on a plane every week,” Buckley recalled. At the time, she was working out of CNN’s London bureau. “I would fly back to London, sleep, and then persuade my editor to give me another Italy story and would get straight back on a plane.”

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. It decimated tourism, one of the most economically important industries for Italy.

Suddenly the cost to rent apartments fell across the country, and as businesses moved to remote work, Buckley had the rare opportunity to work from home. In June 2020 she seized the opportunity and moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Venice.

“Falling rents meant it was a good time to go, but I chose Venice because it had suffered more than any other city. I thought if it needs some foreigner to come give it money for a few months, I could do that,” Buckley said.

From her new desk, she has a view of Murano — a series of tiny islands tethered with bridges in the Venetian lagoon.

The view from Buckley’s desk in Venice.

While visiting the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa for a story in November 2021, she uncovered a piece of long-lost family history. Through conversations with her dad, she had learned the names of several Italian ancestors who had lived in Genoa about 150 years ago.

“As I was leaving the cemetery right before it closed, I thought, ‘Hang on, I’m just going to go and ask.’ I gave the cemetery caretaker the English name, Buckley, and up pops the name of my great-great-uncle, who died when he was a baby. And I just walked straight to the plot and saw the grave.”

The tombstone bears the name of her great-great-uncle, who died in 1876 before he was 2 years old, as well as the names of his parents — Buckley’s great-great-grandparents.

The grave of Henry Alexander, Buckley’s great-great–uncle. The tombstone reads in part,“Henry Alexander of Arthur Burton Buckley and of Ada Maria Bacci.”

Buckley channeled her love for Italy into CNN Travel’s Unlocking Italy. She says she has visited every region and city outlined in the newsletter series and nearly every hotel and restaurant mentioned. She hopes the eight-part series (plus a bonus finale) encapsulates the variety of cultures and landscapes scattered across Italy.

“I tried to choose, not my favorite regions, but regions I thought would make a really good spread for people,” Buckley said.

Buckley also tied in some of the regions Stanley Tucci visited on the first and second seasons of the CNN Original Series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.”

Buckley said she’s excited that in season two, Tucci will visit the town of Norcia, in the Umbria region, which was devastated by a powerful earthquake in 2016. The town was once famous for its food and delis. Since the earthquake hit, Buckley said, the town has reopened some restaurants in temporary buildings.

“It’s this most beautiful story of Italy regenerating itself through food and its traditions,” Buckley said.

While in Umbria, Stanley Tucci (bottom right) visited San Pietro a Pettine, a black truffle farm in Trevi. Carlo Caporicci (bottom left) and Bruno Gagliardini (top) showed Tucci how they harvest truffles. This process takes about five years. Caporicci said they are identical to the forage truffles found by dogs or pigs in the forest.  

Tucci is coming back with an all-new season starting March 13 at 9 p.m. ET on CNN. Watch all of season one of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” right now on CNNgo.

Click here to sign up for exclusive early access to CNN’s free Unlocking Italy travel guide. 

💳  CNN insider rec of the week

Brought to you by CNN Underscored

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📢  before you go

💻  Read: CNN remembers former CNN Digital Asia Director Marc Lourdes, who died last weekend at age 40. Lourdes was instrumental in leading the company’s digital expansion in Asia.

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✉️  talk to us

Who would you like to see spotlighted next? Send your thoughts to insidecnn@cnn.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

– Written and edited by Beryl Adcock, Tricia Escobedo and Jessica Sooknanan