Route:
Venice - Beijing
Following Marco Polo’s trail – the ancient “Silk Road to China” on horseback.
Length of Journey:
15 months (Venice: 2008 Beijing: 2009)
Distance to be covered: 13,900 kilometers (8,637 miles)
Transportation:
Horseback only
Countries to be visited:
(16) Slovenia; Croatia; Hungary; Serbia; Romania; Bulgaria; Greece; Turkey; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Iran; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Kazakistan; Kyrgyzstan; China
The Team:
10 Italian horses
5 adventurers and travel experts who will depart Venezia and travel on horseback to Beijing.
Friendship Relay:
A local group of “relay riders” will meet the Mission Prometheus team at the border of each country and accompany it along the way.
Guests:
On certain sections of the trip, the team will be joined by locals belonging to the cultural, artistic, scientific, and sports worlds. They’ll have the opportunity to ride alongside the Mission Prometheus team and share their personal stories and emotions, as well as to contribute information on the various environmental and human aspects of the Silk Road.
Mission:
A slow and relaxed trip on horseback will allow genuine and natural contact with the people who currently live along the Silk Road, and will allow profound research on the remains of this ancient means of communication – its relics, traditions and wonders, as well as a study of its evolution and the outlook for its future.
Mission Prometheus can help to establish sincere relationships and friendships based on mutual awareness, with the countless ethnic and linguistic minorities scattered along the journey; each one heir and at the same time keeper of a rich and precious cultural heritage. Another important opportunity will be for the riders - the contact with delicate biodiversities and with extraordinary species of animals and plants that delighted past travellers – species which, in spite of the continuous reduction of their habitats, still exist in the most remote places along the Silk Road, often reachable only on foot or on horseback.
To travel the Silk Road today, while respecting the times and customs of ancient eras, requires a cultural depth and mental openness toward the new and unknown - which inevitably leads back to the abstraction of the “voyage of the spirit”, the same abstraction that directed the travels of our main inspiration: Marco Polo.