Journey
From Venice
Smashwords Edition
by Brian Lawrenson
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Author: Brian Lawrenson. © 2011 Brian Lawrenson.
The photos in this edition are the copyright material of Brian Lawrenson and bigstockphoto.com. They may not be copied, sold or reproduced.
Smashwords Photo Edition ISBN: 978-1-921814-39-6
Published: September 2010 October 2011
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Journey from Venice
The Vatican was a fleeting sight as our Qantas flight from Sydney lost altitude in its glide path into Rome. Just an hour or so later, we were weaving our way through the midday traffic along the Canal Grande in Venice in a water taxi from Marco Polo International Airport to the Pension Paganelli, located just two blocks from San Marco’s Square.
The fact that Venice is without vehicular traffic, sounds exciting but the reality is that people and goods have to be transported somehow and this is now done by a variety of water craft. We’d chosen the most expensive option, the water taxi. But we were able to relax as the boat wound its way through the other craft along the canal. We could view the history of Venice on display as our wake crossed other wakes on the way to our hotel. We weren’t first timers and in fact, for me, this was my third visit; Venice had changed little in the intervening years. Later we were to find out that it had changed little in the past 600 years.
The long flight had left us both hot and tired. Jill, the brightest star in all my travels, and I had met in London in the late 1960s. Since then we’ve travelled the world together. After we’d showered and needing a late lunch, we dropped into the ground-floor bistro. “I’d like something light,” Jill announced. I decided on cabanossi carbonara, topped with grated parmesan and fresh parsley. Jill ordered the rigatoni with peas, asparagus, and ricotta. With a glass of light Italian wine, we clinked glasses. “To Venice and finding the home of Marco Polo!”
The objective of our visit was to research life and times of Marco Polo. We’d come prepared complete with film making equipment and an already thick dossier of research material. This was to be the start of a three months overland adventure following the trail of the travel legend. This was to be a little difficult because at the time the Iran-Iraq war was raging and the Russians were fighting the local tribes people in Afghanistan. The latter conflict scared us the most and we eventually took the road south through the Baluchistan desert as an alternative route to travelling through war-torn Afghanistan. The people here, the Baluchis and the Pathans tribally are linked to the people of Afghanistan, in any case, which we assumed had a very similar culture. But as Marco Polo had followed the ancient trading routes along the Silk Road, we too were constrained by the more direct paths of the modern highways. Well, perhaps the word highway might give the wrong impression because in parts our path followed what might best be described as goat tracks. But the combination of the highway, the goat tracks and the various constructions in between did take us to over 20 of the places that Marco Polo recalls in his travel books.
Venice was teeming with tourists. It seemed like a swarm of locusts had descended and was devouring everything. We’d been before but the magic was still there: San Marco Square, the Doges Palace and the Campanile. There were throngs of people, flights of pigeons, elegant shops bursting with Italian designer clothes, quaint souvenir shops, and busy restaurants and trattorias. There was the hum of voices all trying to make themselves understood, tour groups following guides, cameras flashing, buskers on sidewalks, tourist touts, and probably a couple of pickpockets. Together they made up the eclectic mix that is Venice.
As we idly wandered across the Piazza, Jill asked, “What was Venice like in Marco Polo’s day?”
“Venice was originally a feudal state dating back to Roman times. However, the Venice of today was founded in the twelfth century by rich, powerful merchants. Their leaders were known as dukes or doges. They supported the crusaders to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Lands in the Fourth Crusade. By the twelfth century, the city had grown to rival Genoa as the principal port in the Mediterranean. By then they were a wealthy trading state with a considerable navy,” I replied in my least pompous voice.
As we passed a coffee shop with a sign saying that it was Europe’s first bottega del café, opened in 1683, I pointed this out to Jill. “Was Marco Polo born here?” she asked.
Now why did I know that she was going to ask this question. The origin of Marco Polo’s birthplace has always been one of great debate. “Many Venetians believe that he was born in Venice. In 1254. Others believe he was born in a small town along the Dalmatian coast. But as a young boy he certainly lived in Venice. His father, Niccolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, owned houses in Venice and already had a business based in the Venetian quarters of Constantinople, now Istanbul. There were many such trading families and it was this trade that made the Venetian state both rich and powerful. The elder Polo’s had made at least one journey into western Central Asia/Europe to the court of Berke Khan, leader of the Golden Horde. This was a newly formed state on the western end of the Grand Khan, Kublai’s empire. By 1270, it had become an independent state based around the Volga and Don rivers in Russia. In modern terms, this includes parts of Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Moldavia, Kazakhstan and the Caucasus. Marco Polo’s family, like many Venetian merchants, knew the Middle East and Persia well and had lived and traded there for many years. Despite the difficulties of trading there, they always were keen to seek out new trading opportunities”.
“So how did the Polo’s get to China?” Jill wanted to know. I was able to tell her that although few records exists of this, it is believed that Berke Khan provided a letter of introduction to Kublai Khan and offered them court officials to guide them on their way.
The afternoon sun was beating down, so we headed for the shade of a veranda behind the columns of the Napoleonic Wing of the piazza, built during the French occupation in 1810. Here, I explained that China also boasted having a culture more sophisticated than anywhere else in the known world and the Great Khan was very interested in learning and religion. After a lengthy journey, upon arriving at Kublai Khan’s court, the Polos were offered an audience with him. They were asked questions about their civilisation and religion. The great Khan was impressed and he sent the Polos back to Rome with a request to return with 100 learned priests to teach Christianity and Western knowledge at his court.
“And what happened, next?”
“Well, they had to await the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271, after the death of Pope Alexander IV in 1269, before they could make their return journey to the Mongol capital Khanbaliq, now Beijing. Niccolo took his son Marco, then aged 17, together with two friars, on this second journey. The friars soon abandoned the journey because they feared for their lives. Was this not a crossroad in the history of the world because one cannot but wonder how the world might have been different had the Polo’s returned with a hundred learned men, as requested. The Polos spent the next 17 years in China”.
“Seventeen years seems a long time to be away. What were they doing during this time?”
“Outwardly, they were merchants whose business was selling saffron and other goods from Venice and Europe, but they became drawn into the business of serving the Khan. This was not unusual as the Khan was known to have employed many foreigners in his administration”.
I went on to explain how the Polos’ travels were amazing journeys. It took them three years of travelling overland to reach the court of the Great Khan’s court. Here, the great leader took a liking to Marco, who was by then fluent in the Mongol language. Marco was an engaging storyteller. Having won the Khan’s trust, he was asked to carry out a number of diplomatic missions to sometimes distant parts of the Khan’s empire. On returning, he would entertain the Khan with vibrant stories and insightful observations. These journeys included visits to northern India, Burma, Tibet, and the northern part of what is now Vietnam.
Marco Polo possibly might have joined Chinese traders on sea voyages to Japan and Korea, and he might have even journeyed eastward to the shores of Alaska. Thanks to new maps discovered this century, it is now known that Chinese seafarers pioneered ancient trade routes to Africa and the Americas in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. So by the time Marco arrived in China, an extensive trade network with the New World had already been established.
***
But we had Venice to explore and photograph. It was such a brilliant, sunny, clear day and we decided that we’d start at the very centre of Venice, the Piazza. Here stands the Campanile of St Mark’s Basilica in San Marco Square. After a long climb up the Campanile, looking out, we marvelled at the ornamental domes of St Mark glistening in the sun, the grids of houses and apartments with colourful terracotta-tiled roofs stretching as far as the eye could see, I wondered how much this scene had changed since Marco Polo’s time. Very little, I thought. Only the television antennae are new.
The 323 feet (98.6 m) Campanile tower was originally a lighthouse to assist navigation into the lagoon. It was used by Galileo to demonstrate his newest invention, a telescope, to the doge in 1609. It is topped by a Golden angel that is said to look over Venice and prevent disaster. This left me wondering whether this might be the first of the angels in John Berendt’s book based in Venice, The City of Falling Angels.
The bell tower in its current form dates back to 1514 although various structures have existed on the site from Roman times. Although it has been repaired a number of times after damage by fire and earthquake, it was always though of as being sound. In the first few years of the 1900’s it developed a number of cracks, perhaps heralding things to come. At 9:52 am on 14 July 1902, without warning, it collapsed. Fortunately the only causality was the caretaker’s cat. It was rebuilt based upon the original design but with added reinforcement and reopened on the 25th April 1912, exactly 1000 years after the first building had been constructed on the site. I for one, found it difficult to believe that this building, like all those in Venice, is supported on wooden piles. In recent years, much work has been done to redress subsidence and ensure that the towers remains vertical.
Standing on the balcony we soaked up the scene. To the east was the Lido and the open sea; closer in was the entrance to the port. We eavesdropped on a group with an English-speaking guide. “Across the Piazza is the clock tower built in 1499. It has been tick-ticking away for over 500 years. See, the large clock face displays the hour of the day, various phases of the moon, and the movement of the sun through the signs of the zodiac. Just twice a year, at Epiphany and Ascension, a procession of the statues of the three kings led by an angel can be seen, thanks to the sophisticated mechanism inside the tower”. He paused for breath. “Above it stands the winged lion of St Mark with a backdrop of blue with golden stars. On the top of the tower stands a huge bell that is struck on the hour by two bronze Moors”.
Afterwards, when we climbed to the top of the clock tower, we were surprised to see that the bronze Moors were clothed only in short sheepskin coats, revealing the full extent of their manliness. Now the views were reversed as we sat gazing at the Campanile. Later we learned more about the use of bells in pre-Swiss-watch Venice. When the Campanile’s tower collapsed in 1902 only one of the original five bells survived intact. This was the largest bell, the Marancona, which originally was used to call people to a meeting of the Big Council. Other bells called a meeting of the Senate and yet another was used to indicate the time of public executions. Today the belfry houses the one original and four replacement bells that are used to mark special occasions.
We had been given the directions to the location of where Marco Polo’s parent’s house had stood. It was no longer there but the Professor of History who we had befriended had offered us directions and suggested that visiting the area would give us an idea of what Venice was like in Marco Polo’s time. So, later in the afternoon as the shadows lengthened, despite following the professor’s directions, we had difficulty finding the precise location of the Polo’s house. The instructions said that it was located at the corner of two minor canals – Rio San Marino and Rio San Giovanni Grisostomo which were seldom visited by the tourists’ gondolas. Giving up our search in favour of a restaurant with a sign claiming that Marco Polo regularly ate there was an easy choice. Over a glass of chianti, an essential part of any detailed investigation, I questioned the staff.
“Was this restaurant here at the time of Marco Polo?”
The waiter, a young pimply faced local who would one day be quite handsome, replied, “Oh, there has always been a restaurant here. Parts of the building were destroyed in the Great Fire but it’s been rebuilt”.
I’d read about the Great Fire in 1596. “How do you know that Marco Polo dined here, though?” I pressed on.
“He was a famous person in Venice after the publication of his book. Stories have been told by generations of the restaurant owners about how crowds used to gather here just to hear more about his travels”.
“Do you have any proof?”
“Oh, the story is so well known it must be true,” he responded.
So there appeared to be no real proof in the claim. I don’t quite know what I expected – perhaps a chair. Yes, an old, creaky, rather dusty chair, with his initials carved into it. Just something, but it was not to be.
For the rest of our stay in Venice, Jill and I took delight in walking the back streets. Always the romantic, she ruminated further on the subject, “So many of the streets are part of legends and not-so-well-known stories about ghosts, family feuds, suicides, quarrels between families … and even murders”.
The thoughts of this folklore all developed in an evocative way in our imaginations. The city is a maze. It has 118 islands and about 400 bridges. Over four days, I think we visited them all. At night, as we sank exhausted into bed, our legs felt like we would continue to walk forever in our dreams.