Celebrity chef Rachael Ray recently revealed the place she and her dog prefer to live, adding that New York is more like a place of work.
The 57-year-old chef told US Weekly that she prefers living in Tuscany, Italy, over the Empire State. However, her husband doesn’t quite feel the same.
“My husband [John Cusimano] loves being in New York. And I tell him, ‘Hey, go as often as you like, stay as long as you want,” Ray told the outlet. “I come to New York and upstate New York when I have work, I prefer Italy.”
Ray was recently spotted in New York City on a work adventure. The chef was seen on a rare outing in the Big Apple as she was heading in to appear on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”
Rachael Ray Hangs Out in Italy For Her Dog’s Sake
Ray told US Weekly that Italy is quieter, and her dog is “much happier” there.
“She hates New York City. Bella is not a New Yorker at all,” she said of her pup, Bella Boo Blue.
The television chef rescued her dog in June 2020, according to a post on her Instagram. Her name is an homage to Ray’s beloved pet Isaboo, a pit bull who passed away in May 2020, per another post on her Instagram.
Isaboo passed away at Ray and Cusimano’s home in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Ray said Isaboo taught her and her husband “more about unconditional love, empathy, and understanding of one another than we could have ever imagined.”
Ray shares lots of Bella’s adventures on Instagram and told US Weekly she spends as much time as possible in Italy for Bella’s sake.
“She has a swimming pool and 66 hectares to run around on, and everything is very quiet, and the air is very fresh, and we have huge gardens and a vineyard and olive trees, and I just prefer that life,” she said.
Ray revealed to PEOPLE in 2021 that her New York City apartment flooded when Hurricane Ida hit the city. The flooding came just one year after her upstate New York home in Lake Luzerne burned down.
“We had finally just finished the work on making the [NYC] apartment over. And then, Ida took it out. And I mean, out. Down hard,” she told PEOPLE. “Like, literally every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall… It was like the apartment just literally melted, like in Wicked or something.”
Rachael Ray Celebrates 20 Years of Marriage in Italy
Ray also told US Weekly on October 15 that her and Cusimano celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on September 24 in a “chill” celebration in Italy.
“We went to see some of our friends and [went] to our favorite restaurants in Florence and Rome,” she said. “We live in Tuscany, so we can bop back and forth to both of those places pretty quickly.”
“We were very chill this year. We had parties for 60 to 100 people over the decade, but this year we just went with us,” she continued. “Two nights in Florence, two nights in Rome.”
