Silk Road Advanture Archives

The second birthplace of Marco Polo

by mygrations | Apr 24, 2021

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

Trading & Travelling along the Silk Road

by mygrations | Apr 12, 2021

A long time ago, I’m not really sure when, I stumbled upon the story of the Silk Road. Not Marco Polo but Herodotos made me read the first travelogue about this ancient trade route. Of course, I knew about the route. Even though I didn’t pay attention during history classes in school (hate myself for that) soon after I graduated started getting interested in routes like this.

Trading & Travelling

The Silk Road has something in particular that I love, it’s the travelling through different places. And because of that experiencing all types of food, unknown habits, beautiful languages. When the Silk Road was truly a trade route one didn’t travel through countries but through lands, often not owned by a government but by a tribe. There were bandits along the road, now there are groups we often call terrorists, but they are just bandits developed in time. The road was and still is dangerous but also adventurous and a revelation.

Products from East to West and vice versa were done. The trade route brought us silk, spices and gun powder, and also religion, languages and diseases. Not much has changed right?

From West to East the goods included:

Horses
Saddles and Riding Tack
The grapevine and grapes
Dogs and other animals both exotic and domestic
Animal furs and skins
Honey
Fruits
Glassware
Woolen blankets, rugs, carpets
Textiles (such as curtains)
Gold and Silver
Camels
Slaves
Weapons and armor

From East to West the goods included:

Silk
Tea
Dyes
Precious Stones
China (plates, bowls, cups, vases)
Porcelain
Spices (such as cinnamon and ginger)
Bronze and gold artifacts
Medicine
Perfumes
Ivory
Rice
Paper
Gunpowder

The black death

We are now one year in a pandemic. One year in which millions of people got ill, many died, many more survived but we all were hit by the virus. You do not have to get sick to be hit. Restaurants, pubs and shops closed. People lost their jobs, their freedom and their friends.

Well, that’s not new. Along the silk road came many deseases, one of which we know as ‘the black death’. Venice, being the end of the silk road – or the beginning, got hit three times by the Black Death. The last time, in 1629, more than 50,000 people died. That’s one third of the city’s population! One third!

The ancient trade route

But, let’s focus on the good stuff. Of which one is definitely the silk that came to Venice. Besides silk there were lots of products being traded along the Silk Road, but still the road is not called ‘The Tea Road’ or ‘The Road of Spices’, not even ‘The Ivory Road’.

Silk in particular was very valuable and one of the most beautiful products that was traded along the route. Still, spices such as pepper (in that time called ‘The Black Gold’) were also quite expensive. It is said that the uncle of Marco Polo left him spices in his will.

Back to silk. It was called the Silk Road simply because one of the major products traded was silk cloth from China, nothing more and nothing less.

Let’s explain silk

💥 What is Silk?
Silk is a natural fiber produced by insects as a material for their nests and cocoons. There are several types of insects that produce silk, including silkworms (the most common type of silk) but also beetles, honey bees, bumble bees, hornets, weaver ants, and many more.

⚡️The history of Silk
The earliest example of silk fabric comes from China when it was used in a child’s tomb to wrap the body. China dominated the silk industry for many years, and initially the material was reserved for the Emperor. The Chinese used silk as a form of currency, and cost was measured in lengths of silk.

What is the Silk Road?

It’s the route linking China with the West, that carried goods and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China. Like I wrote before, silk went westward, and wools, gold, and silver went east. China also received Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism (from India) via the Silk Road.

Venice and Silk

Situated in the heart of a lagoon on the coast of northeast Italy, Venice was a major power in the medieval and early modern world, and a key city in the development of trade routes from the east to Europe. Its strategic position on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, within reach of the Byzantine Empire and traders from the Near East, allowed the city to become a hub of trade in the west, receiving goods from the east by sea and disseminating them into the growing European market.

A trade treaty between Venice and the Mongol Empire was established in 1221, illustrating their ambitions to extend their trading capacities across Central Asia. Both luxury goods and daily necessities were exchanged in the markets of Venice, from salt and grain to porcelain and pearl. Similarly, gems, mineral dyes, peacock feathers, spices, and a profusion of textiles such as silks, cottons and brocades from Egypt, Asia Minor and the Far East all passed through the ports of Venice, and were taken on by Venetian merchants to Europe, where they were becoming highly desirable and valuable items.

Marco Polo

It was from Venice that Marco Polo, himself a Venetian, set off on his famous expedition to the east in 1271, returning in 1295 with stories about eastern cultures, peoples and traditions that were considered unbelievable by contemporary audiences. His journey demonstrated the possibilities of travelling to the east, and did much not only to create a western fascination with the east (especially through his travelogue The Travels of Marco Polo), but also to put Central Asia, India and China on the western medieval map and thus to encourage further trade and communication in this direction.

Silk weavers in Venice

The Venetian Republic became the centre of a maritime empire of unequalled power, extending over the entire length of the shores around the eastern Mediterranean, to the islands of the Ionian Sea and to Crete. By the end of the 13^thcentury, it was one of the most prosperous cities in Europe.

During this time there were about 30.000 silk weavers in the city. Now only 1 survived and we arranged a visit to this silk weaver in Venice; Tessiture Bevilacqua. We got to see their workshop and how they make beautiful fine fabrics for high quality fashion. They got requests from the Kremlin, the White House and many more. The production is extremely complex and still carried out by hand on 18 looms of the 18th century. It feels like stepping into history.

So, silk came from China and ended up in Venice where weavers made the most beautiful products from it. Like we always do things differently we made Venice the starting point of our Silk Road Advanture.

💫 Is there something you’d like to know about the Silk Road, our trip or Venice? Leave a comment!