In September 1298, the rival Italian republics of Genoa and Venice fought a fierce naval battle at Korčula, along the rocky shores of southern Dalmatia. Despite the odds, the Venetians, led by Admiral Andrea Dandolo, the Doge's son, were defeated. Among the thousands of Venetian prisoners was Marco Polo, a nobleman, merchant from Venice, and occasional traveler to East Asia. Trapped in a Ligurian prison, he narrated his story to a fellow inmate, a writer of romantic works named Rustichello of Pisa. The narrative of his travels that Marco Polo dictated to Rustichello during his captivity - the "Il Milione" - would be widely read and spark European interest in the East and its treasures. "Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu" by Laurence Bergreen is the fascinating and masterful reconstruction of the life and wanderings of one of the greatest explorers in world history. Between 1271 and 1275, Marco Polo accompanied his father Niccolò and his uncle Maffeo on a journey eastward from the Acropolis in Central Asia along the Silk Road, eventually reaching China and the court of the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan. Entering the Khan's service, he traveled extensively within the Mongol Empire. The three Venetians returned home by ship in 1292-5, stopping in Sumatra and southern India before reaching Persia, making their final trek to Venice overland. Three years later, the fateful encounter with the Genoese fleet in the Adriatic occurred...