# data[].attributes.body
He set off on a journey to the East at the age of seventeen with his uncle and father as part of a diplomatic mission for Pope Gregory X.

# data[].attributes.body
A citizen of the Republic of Venice, Polo grew up in a family where both his father Niccoló and uncle Maffeo were merchants.

# data[].attributes.body
We do know that Marco Polo spent at least part of his childhood in Venice, which was at the time a city state heavily engaged in international commerce. He recieved a good education that included, among other things, classes in French and Italian. His native language is believed to have been Venetian.

# data[].attributes.body
Even before Marco was born, the brothers had travelled extensively, setting up trading posts in Constantinople, Sudak, Crimea, and the western part of the Mongolian Empire. They even visited China.

# data[].attributes.body
This trip, which would end up taking 24 years since they stayed for very long in China, is the one chronicled by Marco Polo in his book.

# data[].attributes.body
It has been assumed that the Polos travelled along the Northern Silk Road, although the possibility of a southern route has also been advanced by some scholars.

# data[].attributes.body
The brothers Niccilo and Maffeo Polo left Venice and embarked on their first long sejour abroad when Marco was just a child.

# data[].attributes.body
They ended up spending three years in Bukhara in today’s Uzbekistan, pretty much unable to move anywhere else.

# data[].attributes.body
Kublai Khan, fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the would-be founder of China’s Yuan dynasty, was happy to see the foreigners and greeted them with great hospitality.