Naples, San Francesco da Paola, 1/31/2025
Travel literature from “Il Milione” to the religious aspects of Roots Tourism
1. Introduction
As cultural anthropology suggests, it is necessary, beyond the theological and sociological pluralism of individual faiths, to recognize religion as a cultural universal, that is, a persistent anthropic factor, independently of institutional religions and the processes induced or supported by them. The religious identity emphasis can, however, become an exasperation of localisms to the detriment of universality, as has occurred in some multinational and multireligious countries. It is no coincidence that Christianity itself, in the social and political fields, must today fight on two fronts: against a modernity that threatens, in its extreme manifestations, some of its values, and against the fanaticism of the most radical religious fringes. In this way, we end up in a socio-political project, which retains only the name (Leviathan) of the biblical and which, not by chance, the theologian J. Moltmann was able to judge, from a theological perspective, as a real blasphemy expressed against the Creator. The hypothesized solution, in fact, rather than inaugurating a way of translation, on the socio-political level, of a specific Christian ideal in the rich "market" of religious proposals, progressively marginalizes the religious from the city, from the journey, from the tours, even from the city of roots, relegating it to the private, sentimental, lived, and inner conscience spheres. It is a fact that the first encounter of the Christian gospel with the cities of the Mediterranean took place in an intricate set of elements that we can well define, now for then, as pluralistic, qualified as it was by various cults, religions, values, ideas, economic structures... In this complex world, Christians, rather than presenting a culture that is different and antithetical to the pre-existing ones, contrasting them with a unique and exclusive truth, eliding any other contemporary perspective, prefer to wedge themselves into the multiplicity of backgrounds, occupy the same physical places as others, assume the same grammars, the same figurative techniques, deal with the lemmas and concepts in use, inhabit the same places and woods, frequent the same temples. But, very soon, they creatively re-semanticize and re-signify all the previous arrangements, that is, by imitating on a reflexive level the same kenosis of the Word, they allow the cultural heritage referred to Christ to “incarnate” itself again in pre-existing cultures and to regenerate them, so to speak, from within, sometimes proceeding to real linguistic re-inventions which in turn refer to real “rational” inventions or, if you prefer, to renewed ways of showing the reasonableness of the believed faith and the credibility of the professed truths using the same categories of the pluralistic cultural world to which they address themselves but, at the same time, appropriately re-semanticize the whole. And yet, it is not useless to remember that, in addition to the Mediterranean trade routes, the Christian faith, from the beginning, traveled the routes and stations of the East, through the Red Sea route and, by land, through the stations, already Jewish before Christian, that had reached distant China. The sea route led first of all to India. Literary, archaeological and numismatic sources tell us that ancient Rome exported and imported coral: oriental trade was very important for the Empire, because it brought a strong profit in customs, considerable sums that were used above all for the maintenance of the enormous Roman army; it is a very large network of exchanges between the Mediterranean and Eurasia, which the history of Christianity ignored for a long time, but which cannot be ignored. In turn, China had created its own road system up to the limes romanus: non-Roman roads and without the stones of the consular roads that, already from the second century AD, connected the Chinese world with the Mediterranean West. They were useful roads for commercial, cultural and religious interactions. The Silk Road takes its name from the lucrative trade that took place during the Han Dynasty in China (207 BC - 220 AD) Already around 114 BC the Han Dynasty expanded the trade routes of its road. The Chinese were very interested in ensuring the safety of the products they traded, in order to protect the trade route. If you read chapter 18 of the Apocalypse, you will find the list of goods that, within the first century of the Christian era, arrived from Arabia Felix and western southern India, in particular from the city of Muziris (especially precious stones and pepper)

2. The travels of Il milione
In his work Il Milione, Marco Polo recounts his journey that begins in Piazza San Marco and reaches the gates of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The importance of Il Milione has been fundamental for Western history, especially for the compilation of the Mappamondo di Fra’ Mauro: it is also thought that the Venetian merchant’s book may have inspired the travels of Christopher Columbus (which then led to the discovery of the Americas). But it should not be ruled out that it was in turn inspired by the ancestral criterion, now back in vogue, of roots tourism.
Marco Polo’s journey winds along the famous Silk Road, the trade route that united, as has been said, the world for several centuries, through numerous cities and populations more or less known to the Venetians and Westerners of the 13th century. He could not fail to take into account the passages of the Apocalypse.
The people of God are commanded to leave Babylon (18,4-8)
((⏱️=500))4 and I heard another voice from heaven… Society and the world are two conceptually distinct entities. Society is the community of men, the world - biblically - is the reality of sin that establishes itself as a structure among men. The welding between society and the world constitutes Babylon. Already Peter (first letter 5,13) calls Rome Babylon, precisely because of this welding. In this situation, the people of God are invited to leave Babylon: the Church will go into the desert (Revelation 12:6 and following), but at the same time it does not flee, because it is present with "the two witnesses". Babylon thus sees all its possibilities of seduction fall. The people of God will leave Babylon, but it will tenaciously persecute it, as a result of which Babylon will receive "double for its misdeeds". It will end up in a real prison in the whirlpool of evil and destruction: "Its plagues will come: death, mourning and famine. It will be burned by fire, because the Lord is God who condemns it". 11 Even the merchants of the earth weep and lament over it, because no one buys their goods anymore: 12 their cargoes of gold, silver and precious stones, pearls, linen, purple, silk and scarlet; perfumed woods of every kind, objects of ivory, wood, bronze, iron, marble; 13 cinnamon, amom, perfumes, ointment, incense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, flocks, horses, chariots, slaves and human lives.
The eyes of Marco Polo, during the exciting and tiring journey, real or partially imaginary, had the opportunity to admire unique scenarios: boundless seas, proud mountains, uninhabited deserts and legendary cities. We are not certain whether the things recounted in the Milione were all experienced firsthand by Marco Polo or whether they were recounted by companions in adventure he met during his crossing between present-day Europe and Asia. In the sixth chapter we read that the great Khan is curious to know about Christian things: «When the two brothers came to the Great Khan, he made great rejoicing and great joy, as a person who had never seen anyone Latin. And he asked him about the emperor, who was a lord, and about his life and his justice and many other things here; and he asked him about the pope and the church of Rome and about all the deeds (and states) of the Christians. The two brothers answered well (and wisely), as wise men that they were; and they knew how to speak Tartar well». And in chapter 29, where Toris is told, the conflicts between Christianity and Islam also emerge: «When the term was completed, in the morning all the Christians went to church and had the mass sung, praying to God to help them. Then they took the cross and went to the plain in front of this mountain; and there were, between males and females and small and large, well 100,000. And the caliphate came there with many armed Saracens to kill all the Christians, believing that the mountain would not change. While the Christians were kneeling before the cross praying to God for this fact, the mountain began to crumble and change. The Saracens, seeing this, were very amazed, and the caliph converted and many Saracens. And when the caliphate died, a cross was found around his neck; and the Saracens, seeing this, did not bury him in the fortress with the other caliphs who had passed by, but rather put him in another place. Now let us leave Turin and speak of Persia."
3.The sacred journey of roots
Among the processes used by travellers and migrants to create a "home" outside their territories of origin, there is today also the glue of religion, in Italy predominantly in its Christian form, especially devotional rather than cultic. This glue almost acts as a suture thread which, at the same time, allows us to imagine and "remember" the past and re-attach the limbs and members of a collective body, which has often experienced social violence, or has been forced to leave its original places for economic and political reasons.
In order to rebuild their personal an