Serenissima toasts to Marco Polo

He stayed in China 25 years. Here he quickly learned the language and customs of the place, probably already accustomed to the multiculturalism of Venice and inclined to broaden his horizons, carried out administrative and diplomatic activities, and was so appreciated for his intelligence that the ruler, the Great Khan, gave him the office of “messere,” a title that bound him to the emperor whose personal adviser and ambassador he became to all the peoples of the empire. Thus, he traveled to India, Burma, Tibet… But just as adventure is a constant in the explorer’s life, so is return. Not only home, but also entrepreneurial landmarks. Venice and the family business enterprise were the destination of the fortune earned during the travels.

A homeland whose bond went beyond simple affection, for Venice Marco Polo took up arms against the Genoese in one of the many battles that animated the Mediterranean at the time. Imprisoned for more than a year following the defeat, he was not deterred by the monotony and conditions of prison and began dictating to a Tuscan writer, Rustichello da Pisa, the first lines of his masterpiece. The book The Million, took some time to go from being a fictional novel to being considered the first reliable and complete account of the East and the first work to have contributed to mutual understanding between Asia and Europe.

To him, world-famous Venetian traveler and early medieval Ulysses protagonist of the greatness of the Serenissima Republic, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his death, the city of Venice has dedicated a year of widespread events to continue writing the pages of a never-ending tale. Marco Polo’s is the first name a tourist reads when he reaches the Venetian capital, which has also dedicated its airport to him, a place of travel linked to the traveler par excellence. And what better occasion to toast with a glass of Prosecco Doc, the official bubbly of Venice, which expresses all the scents of the traveler’s beloved land and will be present at all official initiatives. For the occasion, in fact, the Prosecco Doc Consortium has designed a celebratory label to remember the great adventurer. A combination of history, emotions and scents yet to be discovered and imagined, because, as Marco Polo wrote in his Milione: “I have not written even half the things I have seen.”