I’m not Stanley Tucci. Stanley Tucci is not a friend of mine :-). But we are ancestral neighbors LOL.

My apologies for riffing off a statement made by the late senator Lloyd Bentsen.

First hello to all my friends, followers and visitors. It’s that time of year again and another hike is in the offing. As many of you may know, this season of Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy” on CNN (a show I watch fairly regularly) just started this past week in the southern region of Italy known as Calabria. The Tucci family ancestral home of Marzi is only 20 miles from San Giovanni in Fiore, the home of the Succurro’s, my paternal grandmother’s parent’s surname (though her maiden name was Americanized to Securo) ergo in the distant past there is the possibility that the Tucci’s crossed paths with the Succurro’s…..Oh well, yes, that’s a stretch but I needed a hook to get you reading didn’t I LOL?

I have two new hiking buddies this year, my sons William and Stephen. I had hoped that at some point they would be able to join me and this year is it. We will be hiking a relatively new path, the Kalabrian Coast to Coast path.

We will be hiking from west to east (as many of you already know I really like to hike with the wind (and thus the rain) to my back) so, we will be hiking from the town of Pizzo (no this isn’t a typo, Pizzo not Pisa) on the Tyrrehenian Sea to the town of Soverato on the Ionian Sea crossing over Monte Acido (elev. 3,225′) in the process. The entire hike is only 33 miles but there is a lot of elevation to deal with so good news/bad news. One of the cool things about the hike is that on a clear day, once one reaches the summit of Monte Acido, one should be able to see both seas….we shall see LOL.

Anyway we will be hiking over four days with overnight stops in Pizzo, Monterosso, San Vito Sullo Ionio and Soverato then continuing with a side trip by car to San Giovanni in Fiore, where we hope to have a little time with her honor the Mayor, Rossario Succurro (distant cousin? or is “Succurro” in San Giovanni in Fiore like “Tucci” in Marzi, basically the surname equivalent of “Smith” LOL. Inquiring minds want to know 🙂 )

We will be spending an afternoon in SGiF after the hike so more on that later.

Anyway, enough for now, just wanted to give everyone a heads up that is interested that more will be on the way shortly.

Ciao! Distinti Saluti!

Luigi