The Road to San Donato, Robert Cocuzzo
The Road to San Donato, Robert Cocuzzo
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

The Road to San Donato
Fathers, Sons, and Cycling across Italy

Author: Robert Cocuzzo

Narrator: James Patrick Cronin

Unabridged: 7 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2019


Synopsis

The Road to San Donato is an adventurous and nostalgic bicycling memoir of an American father and son tracing their Italian heritage. Riding rental bikes and carrying a bare minimum of supplies, Rob Cocuzzo and his sixty-four-year-old father, Stephen, embark on a 425-mile ride from Florence to San Donato Val di Comino, an ancient village in the mountains outside of Rome from which the Cocuzzo family emigrated a hundred years earlier.Prompted by Rob’s ailing grandfather, who regrets having never visited his home village, the two cyclists pledge to make the trip in the old man’s honor. Despite an expired passport, getting lost, some near misses, and other misadventures, the father and son finally reach the quirky village of San Donato. For Italian Jews in the 1940s, the road to San Donato was one of exile, and many of the people in the village banded together to protect nearly a hundred Jews. While meeting his many new “cousins,” Rob attempts to unlock this history and glean what role his family played at the time—resistors or collaborators? The Road to San Donato is a generational story that many Americans share and a travel adventure not to be missed.

About Robert Cocuzzo

Robert Cocuzzo is an editor, journalist, and author of the critically acclaimed Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs. He is also the editor of Nantucket Magazine and has written for Outside, Town & Country, Departures, Luxury, and Boston Common. Rob and his wife, Jenny, live with their daughter in Arlington, Massachusetts. Visit him online at RobertCocuzzo.com.

About James Patrick Cronin

James Patrick Cronin began his audiobook career at twelve years of age opposite Christopher Lloyd in the book-on-tape of The Pagemaster. A classically trained stage actor with an MFA from the University of Louisville and a degree in philosophy, James has spent his years since college performing as an actor and a comedian on stages all over the world. He has performed everything from the classics to original material in Ireland, Scotland, Serbia, and Israel, as well as throughout the US. He has recorded over 100 audiobooks across an extensive range of genres.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy

I know I’ve thoroughly enjoyed a book when I’ve heavily underlined it. This one’s filled with graphite! I laughed out loud, I got teary, I was incredulous, and I was drawn right into this true story. I quickly became transfixed and was transported by Rob Cocuzzo’s skillful way with words. I felt as......more

Goodreads review by Joe

I came upon this book by chance, as my Quintiliani ancestors also hail from the small mountain-side village of San Donato. Although I had heard stories about San Donato from relatives, I had no idea about the historical context in relationship to World War 2 and found this to be both tragic and inspi......more

To steal a cyclist phrase, "I clipped into the pedals", but for me the vehicle of transportation was the book and I kept on reading! Cocuzzo's skill with words transported me along side father and son through Tuscany, Rome and up and up through the Apennine Mountains of Italy. It held me in suspense......more


Quotes

“A thrilling, unputdownable read.” Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, on Tracking the Wild Coomba

“An insightful look at the life of a legend.” National Geographic on Tracking the Wild Coomba