The countdown has already started. With the inspiring title “Ad Oriente. The amazing journey of Marco Polo”, the 2024 Venice Carnival celebrates one of its greatest travellers. On the 700th anniversary of his death on 8 January 1324, Marco Polo returns to the lagoon as the main protagonist of the traditional festivities in Venice. The theme of travel is about discovery and coming face to face with worlds that were only imagined so far, but also an intimate travel in ourselves. This will be the focus of the 2024 edition of the Venice Carnival. A fantastic journey into the imagination that will look “to the East” in the footsteps of the path that, many years ago, the Venetian merchant chose to embark on to discover new wonders. But also an educational voyage across borders and cultures, unthinkable at the time, which changed the destiny of the young ambassador of Venice, and the world as it was known in the 14th Century.