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The Road to San Donato
- Author
- Robert Cocuzzo
- Narrator
- James Patrick Cronin
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 1 September 2019
- Run Time
- 7 hours 29 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Rating
- 3.0 (1 review)
What to expect
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.
Critics Review
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“A thrilling, unputdownable read.”
Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, on Tracking the Wild Coomba
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“An insightful look at the life of a legend.”
National Geographic on Tracking the Wild Coomba
User Reviews
Book 3.0
Narration 4.0
-
3.0 4.0
Started promisingly but just got caught up in a rather dull memoir of this time spent with his Father.
Not a patch on his book about Doug Coombs which was an exceptional piece of work.LazloWoodbine 2025-09-17
Details
- Author
- Robert Cocuzzo
- Narrator
- James Patrick Cronin
- Duration
- 7 hours 29 minutes
- Release Date
- 1 September 2019
- ISBN
- 9781982636708
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Memoirs, Cycling: general and touring, Cycle racing, Travel and holiday
- Rating
- 3.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 4.0(1 review)
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.
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