So, he was born in 1254 in Venice, Italy. He was born to a middle class merchant family. In fact, his father and his uncle, they got out of town the year that he was born, before he was born. His father and his uncle, Nicolo and Maffio, I don't speak Italian very well, they actually left even before Marco Polo was born. They set their sights on the east to make their own fortune, landing in first Constantinople. They cashed out in 1260, lucky for them, the next year the Eastern Roman Empire is going to re-enter Constantinople and burn down the Venetian quarters and blind all their citizens. How horrible is that?