  Context: To date, more than 30 planets have been discovered around giant
stars, but only one of them has been found to be orbiting within 0.6 AU from
the host star, in direct contrast to what is observed for FGK dwarfs. This
result suggests that evolved stars destroy/engulf close-in planets during the
red giant phase.
  Aims: We are conducting a radial velocity survey of 164 bright G and K giant
stars in the southern hemisphere with the aim of studying the effect of the
host star evolution on the inner structure of planetary systems. In this paper
we present the spectroscopic atmospheric parameters (\Teff, \logg, $\xi$,
[Fe/H]) and the physical properties (mass, radius, evolutionary status) of the
program stars. In addition, rotational velocities for all of our targets were
derived.
  Methods: We used high resolution and high S/N spectra to measure the
equivalent widths of many Fe{\sc\,i} and Fe{\sc\,ii} lines, which were used to
derive the atmospheric parameters by imposing local thermodynamic and
ionization equilibrium. The effective temperatures and metallicities were used,
along with stellar evolutionary tracks to determine the physical properties and
evolutionary status of each star.
  Results: We found that our targets are on average metal rich and they have
masses between $\sim$\,1.0\,M$_\odot$ and 3.5\,M$_\odot$. In addition, we found
that 122 of our targets are ascending the RGB, while 42 of them are on the HB
phase.
