About Marco
I've been living in Penang, Malaysia for well over a decade, from where I travel and cover Southeast Asia, South Asia and beyond for some of the best international guidebooks and publications that include Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Fodor's, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Nikkei Asia, South China Morning Post and BBC Travel. In the footsteps of fellow countryman and namesake Marco (Polo), I prefer offbeat and adventurous travel.
In 2012, when getting visas to Central Asia was still a nightmare, I hitchhiked from Singapore to my native Italy across Silk Road routes and the Middle East with Kit Yeng, the Malaysian woman who's now my wife. My debut novel Nazi Goreng (2013) was a bestseller in Malaysia until it was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015. I also played punk rock guitar with a Malaysian hardcore punk band, and wrote a book about it, "Banana Punk Rawk Trails" (2015). I earned a Ph.D in subcultural anthropology from Monash University Malaysia, but the roads of the world seemed a better use of my time.
