The Travels of Marco Polo Author:Marco Polo Marco Polo (1254-1324) spent the best part of twenty years globe-trotting from the Polar Sea to Java, from Zanzibar to Japan, and probably traveled more extensively than anyone before him. His travels began in 1271 when he accompanied his father and uncle on their second visit to China. There he worked as a diplomat, undertaking numerous... more » missions in the service of Kublai Khan. A few years after his return to the West in 1295, Polo was captured as a prisoner of war in Genoa, and in prison met Rustichello of Pisa, a romance writer who became his enthusiastic collaborator in putting together this book.« less