Prison Diary

Talking of explorers, how can we forget Marco Polo? His account of his years of travel in Asia, “The Description of the World”, was written when he was a prisoner of war. After his return from the East he served in the Venetian forces fighting Genoa. He was captured in 1298 and imprisoned in a Genoese jail. There he and another prisoner, Rusticiano of Pisa, an experienced writer, collaborated on the book. It was widely read, and was given the nickname “Il Milione”, meaning “ The Million”, probably because of the innumerable tall stories it was thought to contain.