When Chingiz Khan died in 1227 the Mongol army had already overrun Central Asia, was in northern Persia and had penetrated deeply into China. A vanguard of the army was in Eastern Europe. Italian merchants trading along the Black Sea coast willingly gave the Mongol army a wealth of intelligence about European states and their leaders. One result of the ties with Italy was the travels of Marco Polo.

His account of China inspired other Europeans, including Columbus, to both interest and greed. Serious questions have always been raised about the authenticity of the text. Some scholors have pointed out that much of Polo's vocabulary is Persian rather than Chinese, and suggested that he got only as far as Persia. Others have noted that he omits descriptions of certain aspects of Chinese life which would seem unmissable - the Great Wall of China for instance.     

Fra Jacopo d'Acqui, a contemporary of Marko Polo and his first biographer, described Marko's words at his death bed, one winter day in January 1324. When the priest, and Marko's relatives and friends asked him to refute finally all those countless lies which he presented as his real adventures, Marko Polo raised himself from the bed, rebuked them and said: "I have not told you the half of what I had experienced because I knew that you would not believe me."