The Road to San Donato cover art

The Road to San Donato

Fathers, Sons, and Cycling across Italy

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The Road to San Donato

By: Robert Cocuzzo
Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
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About this listen

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 64-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.

©2019 Robert Cocuzzo (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure Travel Europe Travel Writing & Commentary

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All stars
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Loved it. Charming, honest, heartfelt and funny. Made me think about adventures with my own father.

A beautifully told story of family and adventure.

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I enjoyed this. it surprised me. Learning of the relationship between father and son was lovely.

a lovely insight

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it's hard to hear the very good lively writing behind the dreary monochrome reading,

Great book, monochrome reader.

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Great book , highly recommend, not just for cyclists but for anyone, I listened to this twice

Recommend

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This is a fantastic story full of wisdom & wistful takes on life.

The family dynamic was beautifully captured & presented.

What a great book.

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A great listen filled with illuminating descriptions of Spanish culture, society, agriculture, architecture, history, and culinary delights.

A Thoroughly Enjoyable Book

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If you are a father or son and the relation to your family is important to you it's a must read.
It's not a book dedicated for cyclist, cycling here is just a baseline story but the foundation is much different. Just give it a try!

Great story of relation between father and son.

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This book was okay. Some interesting parts and insight into generational differences and similarities. The narration was not good. Strange intonation and many words were emphasized incorrectly in a sentence. In fact, it felt like it was being read by an AI. This really ruined the experience for me.

Okay

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I found this a rather dreary tale as far as the journey was concerned. Bit i did enjoy the history and the stories of the people that the author encountered on the way and at the end of their journey. I chose this as I also have ancestors who came from Italy but i did not feel as inspired as I had hoped.

Dull and lacklustre

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