Paramaribo, Feb 29: British-Italian Maurizio Giuliano announced that he had broken the record to become the youngest person ever to visit all 192 of the world's independent countries.
Giuliano, 23, said he chose Suriname as the last country he would visit because it is the only country in Latin America where Dutch is the official language. "And from what I have seen and read, Suriname has the ideal mixture of culture, nature and ethnic groups," he told reporters.
"What is also unique is that each ethnic groups have preserved their culture compared to other countries," said Giuliano, who launched his travels at the age of 14.
He heads to London Thursday with more than 40 passports filled with immigration, visa and transit stamps, to prove his record with the Guinness Books of World Records.
Giuliano, who studied sociology at university, took specialities in Latin America and Eastern Europe. He worked to pay for his travels in between his studies.
Giuliano has worked for the United Nations (news - web sites) in Somalia and East Timor (news - web sites) and hopes to find employment with an international organization once his record becomes official.
A free-lancer writer, he has also written two books on Cuba.
"Of all the countries I have visited, Suriname is my favorite," he said.
Suriname, situated on South America's northeast corner, is home to 490,000 people of diverse cultural and ethnic origins.
Bureau Report
