The Romans called it Mediolanum, and in 286 the emperor Diocletian made it head of the Western Roman Empire. And it was there, in A.D. 313, that Emperor Constantine issued his famous Edict of Milan, paving the way for the rise of Christianity in Europe. 

We know it by its modern name: Milano. It is the latest city visited by actor Stanley Tucci in his weekly CNN series, Searching for Italy, where he continues his search to express the nation’s essence through its “culinary culture”. 

The foods this week? risotto (one of Tucci’s favorites), polenta (corn-meal), pizzoccheri (noodles), and cotoletto alla Milanese (which a chef, Cesare Battisti, claims the Italians invented, not the occupying Austrians of yore).

To me, the most charming segment of the entire show was a short sequence in which Tucci and Rosita Missoni, the 88 year-old matriarch of the Missioni fashion family, forage for mushrooms in the gardens outside her family home, to be used for the extended family’s weekly dinner. As Signora Missoni walks around, poking fallen leaves aside with her cane, she relates a slightly bawdy story of how the Missoni name became infamous after a showing at the Pitti Palace in Florence (it has to do with bright runway lights silhouetting fashion models’ bare breasts beneath their sheer tops). 

They never do find a perfect mushroom or two but as Signora Missoni says, “It’s OK, it’s part of the fun, the experience.” She and three generations of the Missionis then feast on pheasant snuggled in polenta “so soft,” says Tucci, “that it melts in your mouth.”

In another segment, Tucci fixes a local pizzoccheri dish with Bitto cheese for his hungry crew, then freezes in mock terror when the patriarch of the cheese factory stops in to eat it with other family members. “What does he think?” Tucci asks a relative, as we see Nonno eating. “He is not saying anything,” the relative replies, “which means it’s good!”  The patriarch later confirms it to Tucci himself, who finally seems to show some of the warmth he exhibits in his on-screen roles. 

(Note: As a host, Tucci’s low-key approach is admirable yet also verges on the monotonous, although, in his slight defense, he’s pretty much limited to squinting his eyes in ecstasy or saying either, “Oh my God!” or “Perfetto!” after eating something delicious.) 

The show started auspiciously: A brief montage seemed to be a highlight reel of Milan’s treasures – its skyline, train station, fashion shops, the Vittoro Emmanuele II shopping mall, and its magnificent Gothic church, the largest in Italy (St. Peter’s in Rome is larger, but Vatican City is considered its own entity). His first companion was Beppe Severgnini of Corriere Della Sera newspaper, one of Italy’s wittiest journalists. The best that Tucci got out of him, though, was when he (Tucci) suggested that many of Milan’s foods are Germanic in nature: “Do not say this to an Italian,” Severgnini replied, smiling. 

In his 1995 book, Ciao America, which chronicled a year he spent living in Washington D.C., Severgnini writes about the concept of Political Correctness, which he says has two different meanings: “The first interpretation is ‘avoid all implicit discrimination in the language you use.’ The second is much simpler and less controversial: ‘Be polite to others.’ “  Severgnini goes on to write, ” The first kind of political correctness has led to excesses, and media-fueled reactions, that prove that America may well be a fascinating county but it is full of people who love telling their fellow human beings how to behave.” 

Nowhere was this more apparent than toward the end of the show when Tucci visited Lake Como, where a fishing trip with a local suddenly turned into a political discussion on Matteo Salvini, former head of the Lega Nord party. Salvini’s party once advocated that the more economically vibrant North split from the less successful South, often using volatile language. Salvini, now part of the mainstream political establishment, has softened his anti-South message but not his anti-immigration views, something which obviously nags at Tucci. 

(If you’ll recall, in last week’s episode in Bologna, Tucci profiled a young activist who held a rally against Salvini). 

While his host cooked a meal of fish, Tucci “grilled” him on Salvini’s views. You could sense the man’s awkwardness, trying not to offend his visiting American guest. “Maybe next time, we invite Salvini, too,” said the man. “You can meet him.” As he drove away later, Tucci’s voice-over noted that although he could imagine coming back to Como to visit his friend, he couldn’t imagine coming back to visit Salvini. Quote Tucci: “Hospitality (to immigrants) can also be a political choice.” Too bad no one said to Tucci: “Hospitality also means not imposing your views on an innocent host.”

What, you might ask, has any of this to do with the CNN’s show alleged raison d’etre: “searching for Italy via its food culture?” And you’d be right to ask. Tucci’s sudden divergence into politics came out of left field. Imagine American chef Giada DeLaurentis, host of her own recent cooking show in Italy, observe an Italian woman making carbonara sauce and then suddenly start interrogating her like Judge Judy. Are we here to eat or air grievances? 

Earlier in the show, Tucci kept his “outsider” theme going by visiting a local bar where the main mixologist was a man with an “Italian-Caribbean father and mother from Cameroon, Africa.” The man explained that he loved Milan because “anywhere else I would be a foreigner, but here I am a Milanese.” Tucci’s companion, a half-French/half-Italian woman and “social influencer” (i.e. someone who promotes themselves on social media), commented that it would be hard to find “a real Milanese” – a clear nod, and back-handed compliment, to American multi-culturalism. Isn’t this show supposed to be about Italians?

The show ended with a visit to an osteria whose history is tied in with another of Tucci’s concerns: “the people” (i.e, the working-class). It was the site of a popular workers’ strike a century ago, and the show ends with Tucci saying, “Most revolutions begin around a table.” 

Like much of Searching for Italy, that dry witticism is more parched than penetrating. Viewers hoping to learn more about Italy’s culture, history and people via its foodstuffs will also have to keep searching. Striving to avoid the usual tourist cliches, Tucci is creating new ones. He describes Milan as “dynamic,” which it is, but the entire episode on this city has an enervating blandness bordering on condescension (which is itself another form of “political correctness”). 

Next week, Tucci visits Florence, a city much more familiar to him (he lived there as a pre-teen when his father got a teaching sabbatical). Perhaps nostalgia will kick in and energize the content. –BDC