If you can’t be in Italy yourself, seeing Ayo Edebiri amble about over there—in a plush hotel room with a stunning garden, no less—is a pretty good alternative.

In honor of Edebiri’s 30th birthday last week (we love a Libra queen!)—and her first Vogue cover—we caught up with the After the Hunt star to present her with A) an expensive birthday cake and B) 30 questions hidden across the grounds of her Italian hotel. Spoiler alert: Her answers are, characteristically, laugh-out-loud funny.

After sharing the three movies you need to watch before you turn 30 (13 Going on 30, duh, along with Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky and Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman) and cutting into her cake, she variously discusses Midsomer Murders; her mother’s mac and cheese; Boston’s North End; what her Dogue, Gromit, would sound like if he could speak; and how her parents reacted to the news that she was planning to become a comedian (“Ultimately, they wished me luck and told me that they would not be able to financially support me”).

Then, Edebiri is ready for a garden stroll and a hop into the water taxi that will ferry her to the birthday party of her dreams. She boards the vessel with a chic “Grazie,” and before you know it, she’s at the helm and zipping away.

Director: Posy Dixon
Director Of Photography: Malgorzata Rabczuk
Editor: Katie Wolford
Producer, C41: Pietro Mari
Producer: Rashida Josiah
Creative Production Coordinators: Sofia Setti, Anisa Kennar
Assistant Camera: Nicolas De Luigi
Gaffer: Hanoi De La Paz
Audio: Kevin Granahan
Production Assistant: Marco Dal Borgo
Stylist: Danielle Goldberg
Hairstylist: Jacob Aaron Dillon
Makeup Artist: Ernesto Casillas
Production Coordinator: Tanía Jones
Production Manager: Kristen Helmick
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow
Art & Graphics Lead: Léa Kichler
Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew
Supervising Editor: Kameron Key
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Enterainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy
Executive Producer: Rahel Gebreyes, Barbara Guieu
Senior Director, Digital Video: Romy van den Broeke
Head of Video, Italy: Iacopo Caravaggi
Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson
VP, Video Programming Thespena Guatieri
Filmed on Location: Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel, Venice