Me, Stanley Tucci, and a food-filled escapade through Florence

It’s late evening in Florence when I decide to wash down a spoonful of dolci patti with a sip of red wine – only to be stopped abruptly by Stanley Tucci. “Dinner wine, with that dessert?” he says. “Absolutely not.”

With a friendly nod to the server, Tucci arranges for a “proper dessert wine” to be placed next to my plate, and before I know it, I am sipping on a sweet and sharp Tuscan classic Vin Santo. Its nutty yet full-bodied white-grape nature complements the flavours of…