When Marco Polo Returned Home

The Hourly History book on Marco Polo is disappointing. Lot of info of where he travelled to, but very little of his experiences there. And his period with Kublai Khan is barely touched upon. All that said, the chapter on what happened when they (Marco, his father Niccolo and his uncle, Maffeo) returned to Venice was very interesting.

 

They had gone native during the 24 years of absence, and barely fit in Venice anymore. Their “worn and unusual clothing” was mocked. Their mannerisms were Mongol. They’d forgotten their native language. Their home had been taken over by relatives, who assumed they were long dead.

Uncle Maffeo’s wife was so aghast with his dressing sense that one day, when he was away, she took all his Mongol clothing and gifted it to a homeless man. Big mistake. All of the jewels and pieces of gold he had accumulated were sewn into those clothes! Maffeo went crazy at the loss, and went searching for the beggar. Luckily, he found the man and seized his clothes: his valuables were still in there as the beggar hadn’t stumbled upon them.

 

While the Polos’ journey had been a success, Venice itself was in decline. During a sea battle with Genoa, Marco was taken prisoner. In prison, he rambled details of his journey to his cell mate, Rustichello da Pisa. Da Pisa went on to craft them into a written narrative that the world came to know as The Travels of Marco Polo. In 1299, Marco was released from prison.

 

Within a decade though, Marco’s reputation began to wane. Why? As the Muslims took control of the land routes to Asia, Europe’s interaction (and thus awareness) of Asia fell, and so Marco’s accounts began to feel “increasingly doubtful” to the general populace: animals with long necks (giraffe), paper money, gun powder, coal as fuel – it all sounded outrageous. Marco was increasingly taunted on the streets:

“Messer Marco, tell us another lie.”

 

The silver lining for the Polos? For all the travails in their journey, the disbelief at home, the difficulty in adjusting back, at least they were rich upon their return and lived in prosperity (apart from the stint in prison during war).