11 x 5 Cities

Italo Calvino’s 'Invisible Cities' (1974) concerns Marco Polo, the thirteenth-century Venetian explorer, merchant, and writer who wished to trade with the Great Eastern Empire of the Kublai Khan. Polo was granted permission on condition that he describe on each visit to Khan cities he had seen on his travels. The novel contains descriptions of 55 cities with 11 types and 5 of each type. However, we are left to wonder if in fact they are all descriptions of the same city, Venice.