Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon hit the road again in Michael Winterbottom’s sequel to “The Trip,” but this time the itinerary is the Italian peninsula rather than northern England. While the level of hilarity that results may not quite match the first installment, it’s still pretty high in a feature that, like the first, has been re-edited from a six-episode British TV series. And the scenery is absolutely bellissima.

The set-up is pretty much the same as the first film: Coogan, finishing up a project in Los Angeles (and once again a bit at a loss, professionally speaking) is contacted by Brydon, who lets him know that the newspaper editor who came up with the food-tour of northern England idea that provided the premise the last time, has offered them a second round, this time in Italy. Though Coogan observes that sequels usually turn out badly, as quickly as you can say ‘subito,’ the two are tooling around Piedmont en route to their first destination. And during their initial lunch, they launch into an extended riff on the unintelligibility of Christian Bale and Tom Hardy in “The Dark Knight Rises,” the first of numerous cinematic references sprinkled throughout the picture, some of which provide openings for the two to do competing impressions—as if they needed much incentive to do so. (A brief sea voyage, for example, will lead to a riff on “Mutiny on the Bounty,” but surprisingly not the familiar Charles Laughton Captain Bligh but Anthony Hopkins’ take on him.)

The Bale-Hardy business sets a high bar that most of the pair’s further routines don’t equal, but some—like their extended bit at Pompeii, which allows Brydon to riff on his “small man in a box” routine in a weirdly offbeat fashion—come close, and all are at least mildly amusing. A further wrinkle is provided by the fact that the itinerary follows that of Percy Shelley and Byron, who take the place of Wordsworth and Coleridge in the first picture in giving the duo the chance to spout historical tidbits about the doomed poets while musing about their own mortality—a theme emphasized by the periodic appearance of an achingly beautiful fragment from the last of Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs.” (The guys’ occasional recitations from the poets’ works, however, aren’t allowed to get too gloomy—they’re often given in the imitated voices of people like Richard Burton.)

That’s only one of the ways in which “The Trip to Italy” takes a more serious turn, even if there too the detours allow for some dark humor to be attached. An example involves a one-night stand that Rob has with an attractive British tour guide (Rosie Fellner) who ferries the pair around the so-called Bay of Poets, where Shelley drowned during a storm in 1822. Though he later confesses what had happened to a friend with some wisecracks, it’s obvious that Brydon is disturbed at having betrayed his wife, whom he calls regularly to talk about their young daughter. As for Coogan, he obviously feels miffed when Brydon gets an offer to audition for a role in a Hollywood movie (which gives Rob ample opportunity to do his Al Pacino), and throughout his mood indicates his worries about aging. But the final reel also takes up his effort to reconnect with his teenage son Joe (Timothy Leach), who joins them on what turns out to be the last leg of their journey at Capri. That turn emphasizes a poignant undercurrent about family and children that runs throughout the film.

But none of that is allowed to overwhelm the general good spirits of “The Trip to Italy,” or the comedic chemistry between the voluble Brydon and the more dour Coogan, who apparently worked out the script together with Winterbottom in improvisational sessions, since no writer is credited. The supporting cast—many of them actual chefs, waiters and hotel employees, but some of them actors, though perhaps non-professionals—is fine. And everybody will appreciate the gorgeous locales, captured simply but stunningly by cinematographer James Clarke. The intermittent shots of the dishes served to Coogan and Brydon at the various restaurants—as well as the footage of them being prepared—are pretty luscious, too. All the material has been assembled into a leisurely but flowing whole by editors Mags Arnold, Paul Monaghan and Marc Richardson.

Tagging along with these exaggerated versions of the two stars is just about as enjoyable the second time around as it was in the first. One can hope that there will be another leg to their journey in our future.