What country was Marco Polo from?

Marco Polo was from Italy, having been born in Venice, then an independent city-state and the capital of the Republic of Venice. That makes “Italy” the standard modern-country answer, even though modern Italy did not yet exist during his lifetime.

Polo was born around 1254 into a Venetian merchant family. His father, Niccolò, and uncle Maffeo had already traveled through Asia before Marco joined them on their major journey east. Between 1271 and 1295, Marco traveled across the Silk Road and spent many years in the Mongol Empire, where he served at the court of Kublai Khan.

People sometimes call him simply a Venetian rather than Italian, and historically that is more precise. Venice did not become part of the unified Kingdom of Italy until 1866. After returning to Venice, Polo was captured during a conflict with Genoa and dictated an account of his travels to Rustichello da Pisa. That work, later known as The Travels of Marco Polo, helped shape European ideas about Asia.