Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254. His father and uncle were merchants. In 1260 they traveled by land to China, where they remained in Kaifeng the eastern capital of the Mongol emperor, Kublai Kahn until 1269. Two years later they returned to China taking Marco with them and arriving at Shang Tu, China in 1275.
     Marco Polo entered diplomatic corps of Kublai Kahn and carried out missions throughout the empire, even serving as governor of Yangchow. In 1292 he served as an escort for a Chinese princess on a trip to Iran. Once that mission was completed Marco and his family continued on to Venice where they arrived in 1295.
     The map that provides the background of the souvenir sheet is very much like a two-hemisphere map, Nova Orbis Tabula/Mappe Monde ou Description Du Globe Terrestre et Aquatique, published by Alexis Hubert Jaillot in 1694. The route of the Polos on their journey to Iran and then to Venice is traced in red on the map. Marco Polo died in 1324.
     The image of Marco Polo on the stamp on the sheet is from the first printed edition of Il Milione, Marco Polo’s account of his twenty-five years in Asia.

See the other stamps that were issued by the Vatican with this souvenir sheet by clicking here.

     The Italian stamp, issued in 1954 to commemorate the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo's birth, shows a portrait of Marco Polo, a flying lion of St. Mark and inscription "Pax tibi Marce [Evangelista Meus], for Venice the city of his birth in 1254, as well as a the dragon pillar of Peking and an inscription in Chinese.
     The map shows the route of the Polos across eastern Europe and Asia to China. The stars indicate Venice and Shang-tu the capital of Kublai Khan. Circles mark other cities the Polos visited.
     From Venice, the first circle marks Constantinople, and the second, Acre. The Polos did not visit both of these places on the same journey (either coming or going), so the map is wrong to that extent.
     In China the left hand route represents Marco Polo's travels in China. While the right hand route may indicate the beginning of his route home. I cannot be sure of the identifications of any of these circles. (Any help would be appreciated.)