The journey of Marco Polo: a story that will make you say a million times "I want to do it too!"
The journey has always been for man an inexhaustible source of wonder, knowledge and experience; it represents the desire for adventure, escape, and it touches our emotional sphere. A journey is therefore not just a shift from a point A to a point B, it is not just about the laws of physics, it is a moment of "elevation of the spirit", to quote Hegel. Any place we visit, any square we tread, any work of art captures our gaze, everything leaves an indelible mark on our soul. We travel for the love of it, because we are curious; we travel to have new eyes.
And just try to imagine what the pupils of the young Marco Polo felt when, back in 1271, he sailed from the Venetian port to the then distant and exotic Asian continent.
When he was only 17 years, he was lucky enough to embark on an extraordinary, long and adventurous journey, to meet new people and ethnic groups, thanks to his father Niccolò and his uncle Matteo, who started it in the silk trade. And just by following the Silk Road, the Polo stopped in the Terrasanta, in San Giovanni d'Acri, and then crossed Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, the Gobi desert, and finally, after four years, they arrived in North Chine, the Catai, at the court of Kublai Kan, the Great Kan of the Mongols. We can only imagine what the young man of the Serenissima felt when he found himself admiring the bizarre people of the silk-dressed Tartars, the rich metropolises, the immense streets, the pagan customs and the fabulous treasures at the court of the Kan,
the largest palace ever seen, it is a palace so beautiful and majestic that no one in the world who could do it would have been able to design it and make it better. The walls were covered with gold and silver, adorned with statues of dragons, animals and golden birds, knights and idols. The high roof, vermilion, yellow, green and blue, shone like crystal. The beautiful parks were full of animals of all kinds.
This is how Marco Polo describes of his first meeting with the East in The Travels of Marco Polo, the first travel report of the story, which shows the details, the curiosities and the most compelling stories of the fabulous Polo trip, an adventure between East and West, which marks the first partnership between the two civilizations. Marco, in fact, became the favorite of the Kan, remained in his service for 17 years, invested with honors and government offices. A councilor and ambassador, he was often sent on official missions, which enabled him to discover and know even the most extreme regions such as Yunnan, Tibet, Burma and India. Enraptured by the nightingale song and by exotic beauty, he fell in love with Princess Hao Dong, the daughter of the Great Kan, and the marriage between the two further seals the association between the two worlds. But, like any self-respecting trip, there is no departure that does not lead to a return, so, after 17 long years, the Pole left the thriving Asian land, to return to the native Republic of San Marco, after 24 years of absence. Needless to say, once landed, at first glance no one recognized them, having now assumed the tartar style in dressing and their look (beard and hair).
This demonstrates how a journey can change lives, enrich them, change them, offer possibilities otherwise precluded. Who knows how the life of young Marco would have been if he had not sailed that day to Catai, would have traded fabrics or built ships; certainly he would never have had the chance to live those adventures, sail the seas, cross the desert and climb the snow-capped Tibetan peaks, he would not have discovered the existence of different customs and habits, nor could he have expected to hold prestigious positions. This is the beauty of the journey, never knowing what can be expected, what opportunities are in store for us, and it is precisely the unpredictable that makes everything even more appealing. This is the reson why man has never stopped traveling, to find new horizons to explore, to be amazed by the beauties and the diversity of the world.
Just read the stories transcribed by Rustichello from Pisa in the The Travels of Marco Polo and you will understand the wonder and fascination that is felt in discovering such an ancient civilization, so different from ours, a civilization that still maintains that aura of mystery, of exotic, a civilization that still has a lot to offer. And that is why many follow today the footsteps of the Polo family, the pioneers of China, and keep alive that link, that exchange, that partnership between East and West started centuries ago and that will never end, because where there is dialogue, stimulus and openness there will always be growth, wealth and new opportunities. All you have to do is to grab with open mind the opportunities that are offered to us, the kαιρός, as the Greeks would say, that it is a journey, a training project, a job, every possibility that can change our life, the key to change , the incentive to embark on the ship that will lead us to sail straight towards our future.
