From the 13th century, a handful of Italian merchants travelled eastwards to Asia, often documenting their voyages and sharing their impres...
From the 13th century, a handful of Italian merchants travelled eastwards to Asia, often documenting their voyages and sharing their impressions of the landscapes, peoples, customs and traditions of what were exotic lands for Europeans. More than 200 years after Venetian explorer Marco Polo’s late 13th century visit to India came Florentine merchant Andrea Corsali. Then followed Filippo Sassetti, another resident of Florence, who travelled to India in the 16th century and studied Sanskrit.
But it wasn’t just medieval merchants from the Bel paese who ventured as far as India. Among the visitors who came calling from Italy was one romantic adventurer whose story and chronicles of the visit stand out. A privileged man, born into immense wealth and travelling the world to recover from heartbreak, may not seem outlandish in the 21st century, but it was quite unique 400 years ago. The man who would undertake this journey was Pietro Della Valle, born in 1586 to Giovanna Alberini and Pompeo Della Valle. Such was his lineage that the Sant’Andrea Della Valle church and street in Rome get their name from his illustrious family, which also boasted of two cardinals.
Like any person born into an elite family in Rome in that era, Della...
