VENICE, once Europe's window on the East, from which men like Marco Polo sailed for the Orient, returning with the holds full of silks and spices.
I was about to retrace those historic maritime journeys aboard the Sultan of Oman's royal yacht, the Fulk-al-Salamah, on loan to UNESCO to carry a 70-strong international team on this 16,000-kilometre expedition.
The Spice Route was primarily an artery of commerce that linked some 25 major ports between Venice and Osaka. Along this artery flowed not only commercial items like cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and pepper - but a variety of equally precious if intangible products like religion.
The Spice Route was the sole channel of communication between isolated societies. The only windows these communities had on the world outside were their sea ports, and it was through them that such ancient societies transmitted and received information.
How is it that a predominantly Muslim country like Indonesia has a Hindu bird, the Garuda, as its national symbol? And why do macaroni, tagliatelli and spaghetti look and taste so much like noodles? It was questions like these that stimulated UNESCO to undertake this modern-day voyage.
Our ship left Venice to the sound of trumpets, escorted from the harbour by a flotilla of boats carrying Venetians in period costume.