Many Iowans only know the name Marco Polo from a kids’ swimming pool game, but a guest lecturer who’ll be in central Iowa tomorrow has walked in the famed traveler’s footsteps — across 12 countries.

Denis Belliveau and Francis O’Donnell took a wild idea - retrace Marco Polo’s entire 25,000-mile, land-and-sea route from Venice to China and back - and spent two incredible years of their ...