The 17th century Italian traveller, Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, at around the age of 42 in 1693, decided he had had enough of practicing law, and citing unknown misfortunes, threw it all in and took off on a world trip that lasted about 5 years. He was unusual in that he was one of the first free-loading, self-financing, backpacking travellers in an age when those who ventured out of Europe were mostly missionaries, traders or those on diplomatic missions. He visited Turkey, Persia, India, China, the Philippines and Mexico before hitching a ride on a Spanish Galleon to Cadiz, and travelled back overland to his hometown of Naples. Once back, he spent the next 6 months writing his 6 volume account, which became highly popular, going into a number of editions, and being translated in French and English. Not everyone believed he had done and seen everything that he wrote about, but over the centuries, he has come to be seen as providing a largely authentic account of life around the globe in the 1690s. Here is a piece on Gemelli Careri and his account of his travels.