Venice's Marco Polo

FINDING MARCO POLO IN VENICE

Next time you are wondering around Venice do not forget to visit the court yard where one of the cities  most famous son's Marco Polo, once lived.  First you need to find Corte Prima del Milion which sits near the Railto bridge.  In the very small squre you will find a nice place to eat called 'Osteria Milion', then pass through Calle del Milion passing under a second sottoporticio to Corte Seconda del Milion, this where the Polo family is suppose to have lived.  The name of the courtyard is said to come from the book 'The Million', about Marco Polo's travels in the east.

Alleyway Leading to the Courtyard of Marco Polo

Marco Polo was the son of Nicolò Polo and born in Venice in 1215.  Nicolò, together with his brother Matteo, had a trading company, which specialized in Orient goods.   This explains why the Polo's decided to travel to Katai in China, this area at the time had never been visited by other Europeans.  The Polo's were trying to corner the market on Chinese goods and perhaps satisfy their desire to explore new and mysterious lands.  

  

Marco Polo

The books chronicles how the Polo brothers set sail, taking along Marco who at the time was 17 years old, plus they carried a Papal bull.  The trip to get to Katai took three years, as they passed through Anatolia, Irn, Pamir, Turkestan, and the Gobi Desert, and then across the China to the legendary city of Beijin.  The city of Beijin was ruled at the time by the Mongol King Kublai Khan.

The Emperor kept the Polo's in China for 17 years, and finally in 1292 the Polo's were granted permission to return to Venice.   The records from that era tell how the Polo's returned to Venice and due to their manner of dress, even their own relatives failed to recognize them.  The clothes were out of fashion for the Venetians but they allowed the Polo's to hide precious stones, that the Polo's used to restart their trade business.

Marco Polo himself later served in the Venetian navy and took part in the Curzola Canal naval battle between Venice and Genoa.  He was captured on September 7, 1298 and imprisoned by the Genoans, who seem to have treated him as a VIP prisoner.  It was during this time at Marco Polo dictated his book 'The Million' to his cell mate Rutichello, a writer who was from Pisa.  The book did not meet with success at first, and Polo was called the 'Milioni di Bugie' (Guy of million lies), since no else could validate the story everyone considered the book full of exaggerated claims. 

The Travel Routes of  Marco Polo

Later as more individuals traveled west the book was considered to be one of the best adventure books ever, it has been said Christoper Columbus was a big fan of the book.  There are still versions of the book and is a good read, in English you will find the book as 'The Travels of Marco Polo'.

Did Marco Polo play in this square as a child?

The Essence of the MASK

From and intereting read on use of mask's:

Social psychologist Efrat Tseëlon is interested in feminist readings of fashion and culture. Tseëlon argues that while the English dictionary might define the practice of wearing masks and disguise as an attempt to conceal and misrepresent, masquerade is something different. Masquerade is not about portraying something false, but rather it is a way to understand the intricacies of identity. Masquerade draws its meaning through historical context, as the meaning of how we present our ideal selves in public has changed over time. Tseëlon  writes:

…disguise is meant to hide, conceal, pass as something one is not. Masquerade  however  is a statement about the wearer.  It is pleasurable  excessive, sometime[s] subversive. The mask is partial covering; disguise is full covering; masquerade is deliberate covering. The mask hints; disguise erases from view; masquerade overstates. The mask is an accessory; disguise is a portrait; masquerade is a caricature. But these distinctions are tenuous, as each also shares the attributes of the other, at least in some uses or historical contexts… Thus, whatever shade of meaning of masquerade one chooses to employ  it is obvious that through a dialectic of concealing and revealing masquerade serves a critical function. It calls attention to such fundamental issues as the nature of identity  the truth of identity, the stability of identity categories and the relationship between the supposed identity and its outward manifestations (or essence and appearance).

Tseëlon outlines how the cultural practice of wearing masquerade is ancient. In Western culture, masquerade can be found in the philosophical writing of Plato, who wrote about life as a puppet show. Masquerade appears in Shakespeare’s plays, where comedic situations involving masquerade allow individuals to adopt new identities and experience other genders. It is also famously personified in the annual Carnival of Venice, held in Italy. Masquerade has been used throughout Western history as a way to play around with ideas of what makes up our “true” self. Masquerade has been employed by women in particular, liberating them from restrictive gender and sexual scripts, if only for brief periods at a time.

The study of masquerade allows us to ask: is there such a thing as an “authentic” self? Do we easily transgress social norms behind the anonymity of costume, or do we mostly adhere to the rules set out for us? Who are we when we don’t have to live up to the preconceived ideas of how other people see us?