Marco Polo s Isle

Sketches from the Dalmatian Island of Korčula, Paperback, Very Good Condition. The Croatian Adriatic – the New Riviera. Surprisingly, this nickname is a good hundred years old; yet once again the area has become a popular destination. However, apart from guides and books of a political or academic nature, nothing has appeared in English for 25 years. Marco Polo’s Isle is thus a timely publication. In it the author offers an in-depth view of one particular island, but at the same time captures the spirit of Dalmatia as a whole. In 1298 a naval battle between Venice and Genoa took place off Lumbarda, at the south-eastern tip of Korcula. Marco Polo was one of those taken captive by the victorious Genoese. It was while imprisoned in Genoa that he dictated to a fellow prisoner – who happened to be a writer – the account of his journeys to China. Thus it was that the world’s most famous travel book came to be written. Although Marco was fighting on the side of the Venetians, Korcula claims – with a fair amount of evidence – that it, not Venice, was his birth-place. Using this theme as a connecting thread, the author brings to life from the inside the people, traditions, language, history, music and festivals of Marco Polo’s Isle, one of the most beautiful in Dalmatia.