Samarkand, Bukhara, the Silky Road… so many evocative words. As a child, I had a book about explorers, merchants, and cities with thousands of years of history. And a world map was hanging on the wall in my bedroom… how many times did my gaze wander over those paper steppes, surrounded by the brown colour of the towering peaks.

Years later, when I read Il Milione, the world map had gone, but the desire to eventually see those places had become a promise. In the spring of 2017 I travelled part of those ancient routes, thrilled to reach those mythical cities, just like the merchants of old.

In 1370 Samarkand became the capital of the Timurid Empire, founded by Tamerlane with the ambition of restoring the splendour of Genghis Khan’s rule. Even today, centuries later, the most common name in Uzbekistan is Timur.