Viaggio a Costantinopoli (1609-1621)

Set sail in the spring of 1609 aboard the merchant vessel Buona Ventura, a Venetian crew and a handful of soldiers bound for the great city of Constantinople. The narrator chronicles the departure, the wary encounter with an English brig, and the first stops along the Adriatic coast—Pola, Fasana, and the hill‑top fortress of Lesina—describing bustling markets, cheap meat and olive oil, and the crumbling ruins of ancient stone theaters. His eye for detail captures both the ordinary comforts of a sea‑borne expedition and the occasional tension among the men, such as the discovery of a theft of artillery powder and the swift discipline that follows.

Beyond the practicalities of navigation, the account offers vivid snapshots of early‑seventeenth‑century life: the cheap fish of Curzola, the towering stone palaces of Pola, and the wary sighting of French ships near Corfu. Listeners are treated to a candid, unembellished voice that records the sights, sounds, and small dramas of a world on the edge of modernity, making the journey an intimate window into a forgotten chapter of Mediterranean travel.