Korcula - Island, Dalmatian Coast

Korcula, Island, Croatia
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Korcula is a favorite island for cruise ships - big car ferries ply from Dubrovnik and elsewhere.

Look at any map, and get an idea of how many islands are just off the Dalmatian Coast. Everywhere. Each with its own walled towns, its own story of invasions, defenses, power shifts, and economic exploitation, cultural exchanges pro and con, and deforestation - Turks, Venetians, on and on. No peace?
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Korcula, Croatia: Passageway, laundry
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Regular people also live here - note the laundry out the window, and through the passageway.











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Tradition holds that the Polo family lived in the house at the second floor door at this house in Korcula, before moving to Venice.  Marco Polo's writings and routes (overland and by sea) are highlighted at Saudi Aramco World Magazine at http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200504/the.explorer.marco.polo.htm. 
He recorded the goods available, the value of them, all in merchant tradition.

Marco Polo House, Korcula, Croatia (claimed)


It was a family named Polo, and there are links, but who knows? For Marco Polo enthusiasts, Here is more on Marco Polo - see www.silk-road.com/artl/marcopolo. Tune down your volume for this audio promotion for Korcula: www.korcula.net/naselja/korcula/index. There is some question whether Marco Polo actually went to China, or repeated the tales of others, because of omissions as to Chinese culture that ordinarily a traveler would be expected to note - chopsticks, tiny feet for ladies, the Great Wall. The other side notes that he probably lived with Mongols, who did not hold to those customs, and the Great Wall was not in its present form until the 16th century. This is why we love history. See ://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556866/Marco_Polo.html