Un puente entre oriente y occidente

I have in front of me a picture of the church of San Felice, Venice.  It is a simple temple, modest if we compare it with others in town.  It is built by the side of a canal and next opens a small square or campo of the same name. I could not know when it was built.

It is very probable that in this church, or in its earliest version, was baptized Marco.  I have no proof of this assertion except the irrefutable fact that his paternal grandfather, Andrea Polo, belonged to the parish and lived in the nearby neighborhood.

The neighborhood or confini of San Felice is located in the north of the island and less than a kilometer from what was then the center of the city: the Rialto. I would not say it was in any way a slum or suburban but it surely was not the area chosen by the rich nobles.

There are general agreement that the Polo came from Sebenico in Dalmatia, and they settled in Venice in the eleventh century.  It was a noble family, nobili de stirpe, members of the aristocracy but modest range. Its political action was null.  They were merchants,  traded goods with the East, which was very usual activity in Venice.

Marco grew up almost without the presence of his father, who was away 10 of his first 15 years.  About his mother, we know she died when he was a child. We assume, without proof, that he grew up under the guardianship of his grandfather, Andrea Polo, in the confini of San Felice.  We know very little about this years of the life of Marco.  In 1270, his father Niccolo and his uncle Maffeo returned to the city after a decade of trip to the East.  They return with the desire to back to the Tartar court and with the mission to fulfill certain orders that the great Khan made ​​them.  Here Niccolo finds out about the death of his wife. Just under two years the brothers remain in Venice. In 1272 they decided to go.  Marco, 17, will also be part of the trip on this occasion.agraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me.​

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