MARCO POLO, 770 YEARS AFTER BIRTH
2024 marks a double anniversary for Venice: 770 years since the birth of the explorer Marco Polo and 700 years since his death. This name has been a constant echo within the walls of Venetian houses since time immemorial. But who was Marco Polo really?
The son of a family of wealthy merchants, he became accustomed to traveling far away from a young age, spending a lot of time in China and at the Mongolic court on behalf of the Great Khans. In 1925 he fell prisoner of the enemy, during one of the many battles between the Genoese and Venetians that raged in the Mediterranean Sea at that time. It was from prison that he wrote his travel report, Le Divisament du Monde, soon known with the famous title Il Milione, from the nickname of the entire Polo lineage, Emilion.
The Venetian not only described a good part of Asia in a plausible manner, but also played the role of supreme representative and interpreter of the international trade exchanges of his native land. The fame of the Serenissima as the commercial capital of the West was therefore strongly influenced by this eclectic figure and his charisma.
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