But before the brothers left the Khan asked them to take a message to the Pope and to return to China with a hundred Christian priests ! He also asked for some of the special oil from the famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Niccolo and Maffeo agreed and said that they would return as soon as possible.
After a three-year journey along the Slik Road, the brothers arrived at Acre, a town on the Mediterranean Sea. There they learned that the Pope was dead and they could not take the Khan’s message to him. So they sailed straight home to Venice to see their families.
In 1269. Niccolo and Maffeo arrived in Venice – sixteen years after they began their journey, But life was now very different. Niccolo’s wife was long dead and he had a fifteen-year-old son called Marco.