The Marco Polo Drive

Two global leaders. 15,000 km across the modern Silk Road discovering the people and ideas shaping our future. #togetherisfurther #toseeandbeseen

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

From the heart of Rome, our journey began.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

The best way to feel a city is on foot. In Venice, Patrick Zhong laces up with a group of university students and runs the city where Marco Polo was born, past canals and across bridges, through the streets that first pointed a curious teenager toward the East.
750 years ago, a young Venetian left these same waters for the Silk Road. Now a new generation runs them, full of the same questions about where they're headed and what the world holds.
Running with the young people of every city is how this journey listens. They're the ones who'll carry the road forward. Together is further.

#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #WhatsCoolAbout #SilkRoad #Venice

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Meet Marco the Robot in Rome, Italy

At the Pantheon in Rome, Italy, history meets the future. Patrick Zhong sits down with Marco, a humanoid robot, ahead of the long road to Hong Kong. Between the crowds and the centuries old stone, the two share a simple wish: that travel can still connect a divided world. Because in the end, together is further.

#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #WhatsCoolAbout #SilkRoad #Rome
@AGIBOTofficial

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Our next chapter begins where Marco Polo's did. Venice.

Long before he set out for the East, Marco Polo was a boy from a city built on water, a place stitched together by canals that run through it like veins. Venice was the great gateway between West and East, the port where goods, ideas and stories washed in from the other side of the world.

750 years later, The Marco Polo Drive returns to where it all started. We'll follow the canals, trace the trade his family sailed, and stand in the city that first pointed a curious teenager toward the Silk Road.
From Rome to Venice, the road east begins. Together is further.

#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #WhatsCoolAbout #SilkRoad #Venice

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Running through Rome, Italy, there is no better way to feel the pulse of a city than by hitting the streets on foot. Patrick Zhong takes to the ancient roads with Jimmy, the first of many guests across 12 countries, weaving past the Colosseum and through open-air history that no museum could replicate. Getting lost, trusting your instincts, and staying curious, this is exactly the spirit Marco Polo carried 750 years ago, and it is the same energy driving this expedition forward. Because to truly understand the West, you have to move through it. Together is further, and it starts here.

#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #WhatsCoolAbout #SilkRoad #Rome

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

More than a dinner, this is an intimate gathering marking the beginning of a modern Silk Road journey - bringing together cultures, ideas, and people from across the world.

For one evening, guests will step into a hidden world of Roman grandeur, history, and cinematic beauty, as we officially open this journey from Rome to Hong Kong through dialogue, discovery, and culture.

PALAZZO COLONNA
https://t.co/5JYM2Q1F3h dei Santi Apostoli, 66, 00187 Roma, Italy

#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #SustainableDevelopment #Silkroad #WhatsCoolAbout

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

This summer, we’ll follow the footsteps of Marco Polo and set out on a journey of discovery.

Together, Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Zhong will travel by electric vehicle from Rome across Eurasia - through Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and China.
But this journey is not only about distance.

Along the way, we hope to spend time with local communities, young people, scholars, entrepreneurs and decision-makers - sharing meals with families, playing football with children, cooking local dishes with chefs, and sitting down for honest conversations with people who see the world through different eyes.

In a time when everything moves faster than ever, perhaps understanding still asks us to slow down.

To stay curious.
To listen carefully.
To learn from one another.

This is a journey of exploration.
A journey of listening.
A journey of learning.

And we’re grateful to begin.

#TheMarcoPoloProject #TogetherIsFurther

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Football and this journey share the same idea. Both bring the world a little closer, across borders, languages and rivalries, in the search for connection and peace. 15,000km. 12 countries. Rome to Hong Kong. Together is further.

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#TheMarcoPoloDrive #TogetherIsFurther #WorldCup #silkroad #searchforpeace

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

As the World Cup kicks off, a message from the pitch in the United States: World Cup winner Marco Materazzi wishes Patrick Zhong and Professor Jeffrey Sachs well on the road ahead.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

The Silk Road connects us deeply. At Cambridge, Patrick Zhong speaks with experts Dr. Gillian Tett and Dr. Nargis T. Nurulla-Khoja to see how blending Western and Chinese poetry creates a new culture for sustainable development. #TogetherIsFurther

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Marco Polo didn’t just travel. He listened.

Ahead of the Marco Polo journey, Patrick Zhong and Jenny Johnson meet in London to reflect on a timeless idea: real connection begins with curiosity — not judgment.

750 years later, the spirit of the Silk Road still matters.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

What’s cool about Rome? A city where history, faith, science, and culture have shaped the world for centuries — and where conversations about our shared future begin. With Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Zhong, we explore why human connection still matters in a divided world.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Now, we are taking that spirit forward... not to see the world from a distance, but to experience it, connect it... not to see the world from a distance, but to experience it, connect it, and see what 750 years later still makes this world feel beautifully connected.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

What’s cool about Rome? Every street feels like a conversation between history and the future... where science, faith, beauty, and imagination have shaped the world for centuries. Marco Polo was only 17 when he set out. He learned the world by being on the road...

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

Why are Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Zhong driving 15,000km across the Silk Road?

Some conversations can’t happen in a studio.

Some stories can only be understood by crossing borders, meeting people, & seeing the world up close.

43 days. 12 countries. Rome to Hong Kong.

[The Marco Polo Drive @marcopolodrive]

What happens when you cross Eurasia not by plane, but by road?

750 years after Marco Polo, Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Zhong will drive EVs 15,000 km from Rome to Hong Kong across the modern Silk Road.

Departing June 13.

#MarcoPolo #TogetherIsFurther