Venice, the birthplace of Marco Polo. Or is it? On the Croatian island Korcula they believe otherwise. In their believe Korcula is the place of birth. For us enough reason to check it out.
Reaching Korcula
As it’s an island there is only a few ways to actually get here. One is by boat, which we did. The other one by swimming, which we would not recommend. And that’s about it. You can get here by taking the boat from Split (no cars allowed), or the ferry, which we took. Korcula is apparently the largest inhabited island without bridge to the mainland. Yeah when you don’t have a USP you make one right? The other one is Marco Polo.
And let me tell you something about this famous explorer. I guess it’s about time.
Marco Polo on Instagram
If Marco Polo had Instagram he would probably have this as his bio;
🧔 Marco Polo • Explorer & adventurer
🫂 Friend of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan
✨Author of ‘The Travels’
🗺 Famous for traversing the Silk Road
Marco doesn’t have Instagram and it took him several years in prison to write a book about his travels so an Instagram bio isn’t enough to explain who this young man was. But, it does give you a quick idea.
Who is Marco Polo?
Alright so we know when he was born (1254), however where he was born remains a mystery. Venice claims he was born there but Korcula, a Croatian island claims otherwise. Even though evidence is a bit sketchy, Korcula town still boasts Marco Polo’s alleged house of birth.
Even though Marco’s place of birth is somewhat ambiguous, it is certain that he was taken prisoner by the Genoese in the naval battle of Korcula, between the Venetian and Genovese states. Having been captured and taken to a Genoese prison, he wrote his book Million about his travels to China.
Why is Marco Polo famous?
Marco Polo isn’t famous because of the pool game. Shocking! No, the book he wrote in prison made Marco’s travelling exploits famous throughout the world. The work caused a sensation in western society when published, since many Europeans were for the first time vividly immersed into the exotic and hitherto unknown culture of the Far East. Polo noted down the use of coal and ceramics in China, centuries before they became widespread in Europe.
However, many of Polo’s stories seemed so far fetched that people thought that he had made them up. Some of his claims have never been verified. Nevertheless, many merchants would follow Polo’s routes, and many more travellers and explorers, including one Christopher Colombus, were to be inspired by Polo’s achievement.
What’s our connection with Marco Polo?
And so are we. However, why we follow in his footsteps? Why we are driving the Silk Road with an oldtimer? Not sure… It may be the adventure that a trip like this brings, the stories the road will tell, the mysteries it hosts. Maybe it’s the curiosity of what is left of the ancient Silk Road and how modernity changed it.
We don’t know and neither did Marco Polo. He went on a trip, blunt and unexperienced. And we, although we’ve travelled a lot, do quite the same. I guess it’s the adventure that attracted him to travel and it’s the same for us.
Many explorers like Barents, Alexine Tinne and Ibn Battuta are our inspirations and Marco Polo is certainly one of them. We followed Barents to Spitsbergen, another dream I have is to follow Alexine Tinne’s footsteps along the Nile and we would love to see as much as Ibn Battuta. Now we are on our quest to follow in the footsteps of Marco and to see if we can find traces of his journey East. Even if it is so little it’s hardly worth mentioning.
Marco Polo’s Travels
Even though he inspired us to travers the Silk Road we are not entirely following in his footsteps.
In 1271, precisely 750 years ago, Marco set out from Venice to Khubilai Khan’s capital Dadu (Beijing) with his father and uncle. However, they didn’t set out in a van, but on a boat. They travelled to Acre by boat and from their to Ayas (Turkey). From Ayas they went overland to Erzincan, Erzerum, Tabriz, Esfahan and so on until they arrived in Dadu four years later.
We set out from Venice in 2021 and continued our journey East via Bled in Slovenia crossing the border into Croatia and we will continue our route through the Balkans, Greece and Turkey. From there we will visit Georgia and Armenia before we find Marco’s footsteps again in Isfahan. In his time Afghanistan wasn’t a safe place but the bandits then aren’t the bandits now. So, we skip Afghanistan by car and will travel safer roads which take us from Iran into the Stan; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazachstan, Kyrgystan, Tadjikistan until we arrive in China.
Marco Polo stayed for 17 years in China at the court of the Mongol Emperor. Whereas we do not have the intention of staying there for 17 years you never know. Polo didn’t.
So I guess that’s the story of Marco Polo and I’m sure on our trip you’ll get to understand him a lot more through our tellings. We will refer to his book, which we have with us, once in a while. And of course many other historical people worth mentioning.
If you have any questions regarding Marco Polo, do read his book, if it’s not in there it can’t be answered 😉
Love, Milene & Yuri
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