The Italian Language

Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncles Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China and to visit the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis khan.

The Polo brothers had already been to China and been sent back by the Khan as ambassadors to the Pope, requesting missionaries to teach the Mongols Western ways and Christianity. On their return voyage they took Marco with them. Marco soon became a favourite with Kublai, who sent him on several diplomatic missions. After the family's return to Venice they became an attraction, though few believed their stories of distant China.

Following a war with Genoa in which Marco was made prisoner, his travels were dictated to Rustichello da Pisa. They became a best-seller even in those days when printing was unknown. The book became known as Il Milione (The Million or, in English, The Travels of Marco Polo).

Cristoforo Colombo, known in English as Christopher Columbus (1451?–1506) a Genoese, was convinced the best way to reach China (made famous by Marco Polo) was to travel west. He was shipwrecked off the Spanish coast and, since no one in Genoa would listen to him, he decided to convince the Spanish king and queen to finance his voyage. He eventually discovered the islands in the Caribbean, but never reached the mainland. He died convinced he had found the Indies.