“It’s the weirdest thing in the world. I mean, sometimes you’ll get a great piece of pizza at a gas station and you’re just like ‘What?’” Stanley Tucci said on the Rich Eisen show while promoting the first season of Searching for Italy. And that’s why I take my American friends and family who come to visit me in Italy to gas stations.

I know it seems unbelievable, but as soon as they step foot into an Autogrill and see the display cases full of fresh sandwiches and pastries, they’re blown away. The same can’t be said on road trips through the U.S., where I might buy some potato chips and a soda while hoping for something more fresh and interesting that doesn’t look highly dubious. In Italy, it’s a whole other ball game.