A beloved daytime talk show host just spilled the Negroni on why she swapped the hustle of the U.S. for the dolce vita in Italy.
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Hosting Blue Moon Burger Bash 2.0 at the New York City Wine & Food Festival on Oct. 17, Rachael Ray gushed about “Bel Paese.”
“I live there as long and as much as I can,” she told PEOPLE.
There is a bit of trouble with her love affair with Italy, though. Her husband of 20 years, John Cusimano, is a New Yorker through and through.
“My husband loves New York, prefers New York,” Ray told the outlet. “And he has a rock ‘n’ roll band, and so he spends a lot of time here. I spend as much time as I can there. We work in both places.”
“I tell John all the time, however much time he wants to spend here, do it,” the celebrity cook and TV host added.
The couple lives in an apartment in New York City and a home in Lake Luzerne, which they rebuilt after it was destroyed by a fire in August 2020.
In May 2023, the same month she ended her syndicated daytime talk show, The Rachael Ray Show, Ray shared on Instagram that she was “spending more time in Italy.” Over the next year, she posted photos from various Italian locations, including a sunset on the Tuscan island of Elba and a birthday celebration for Cusimano in Puglia.
Ray also showcased her passion for Italian cuisine in Rachael Ray in Tuscany, a series that premiered in 2024.
Another Important Member of Rachael Ray’s Family Prefers Italy…
“I prefer to be in Italy because it’s quiet, and the dog hates New York,” Ray told PEOPLE of Bella Boo Blue, the sweet pooch the couple adopted in 2020.
“Bella hates New York,” she explained. “She’s a rescue from two foster homes in a kill shelter. You know our house burned down when we first adopted her. She had to be specially trained. She just can’t handle the sound and the lack of land, grass, and woods of New York. She just can’t handle it, so I stay in Italy as much as possible. She’s there now, by the way.”
“You can just breathe,” she added about her life in Italy. “And everything is quiet. And you’re on a different time zone, so people don’t even try and find me. I’m six hours ahead, so people don’t even try and find me until much later in my day, so I’m more mentally prepared for it by then.”
Meanwhile, Ray stated that she and Cusimano plan a “very quiet” holiday season this year.
“It’s going to be much like our anniversary, very quiet, just us and Bella,” she told the outlet. “We’re coming home in December to have a quiet Christmas with our families, but a little before Christmas. On the actual Christmas Day, we’ll just be back in Italy.”