Italian Explorers
Major Italian Explorers
Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (c. 1182-1252) - The first European to enter the court of the Great Khan and author of the earliest important Western account of northern and central Asia, Rus, and other regions of the Mongol Empire.
Marco Polo (1254-1324) - One of the first Europeans to visit China and Mongolia and the first European to leave a detailed chronicle of his travels in China.
Odorico da Pordenone (1286-1331) - The first European to enter Lhasa, the capital of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, and the first European traveler to describe distinctions between Oriental and Occidental culture accurately and in detail.
Cristoforo Colombo or Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) - Discovered the New World.
Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) - Demonstrated that the New World was a separate land mass and gave his name to the new continent: America.
Giovanni Caboto or John Cabot (c. 1445 - c. 1498) - Discovered the coast of North America.
Sebastiano Caboto or Sebastian Cabot (1484-1557) - Discovered the coast of North America and the entrance to Hudson Bay.
Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485 - c. 1528) - The first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick, including New York Bay and Narragansett Bay.
Antonio Pigafetta (c. 1492 - c. 1531) - Traveled with Ferdinand Magellan and his crew on their circumnavigation of the world, served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language, the first recorded document concerning the language.
Alessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) - Undertook a voyage around the world and a scientific expedition throughout the Pacific Ocean (the Malaspina Expedition), exploring and mapping much of the west coast of the Americas from Cape Horn to the Gulf of Alaska, crossing to Guam and the Philippines, and stopping in New Zealand, Australia and Tonga.
Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823) - Explored much of the Nile region; discovered and documented the tomb of Seti I (still known as "Belzoni's Tomb"); and was the first to penetrate into the second pyramid of Giza.
Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà (1852-1905) - Added an area three times the size of France to the French Empire and gave his name to Brazzaville, capital of the Congo.
Umberto Nobile (1885-1978) - Developed semi-rigid airships and commanded the 1926 flight around the North Pole, piloting the first aircraft to ever reach the North Pole and the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America.
Minor Italian Explorers
Vandino Vivaldi and Ugolino Vivaldi (c. 1200's - c. 1200's) - Led the first known expedition in search of an ocean way from Europe to India.
Niccolò Polo and Maffeo Polo (c. 1230 - c. 1294; c. 1230 - c. 1309) - The first Europeans to see Bukhara in Uzbekistan; father and uncle of Marco Polo; reached China before Marco Polo.
Giovanni da Montecorvino (1247-1328) - Founded the earliest Roman Catholic missions in India and China.
Lancelotto Malocello (1270-1336) - Rediscovered the Canary Islands for the first time after the fall of the Roman Empire and gave his name to the island of Lanzarote.
Niccolò de' Conti (1395-1469) - Traveled to India, Southeast Asia and possibly Southern China; one of the first Europeans to write a detailed account of India; and one of the sources used to create the 1450 Fra Mauro map, which indicated that there was a sea route from Europe around Africa to India.
Antoniotto Usodimare (1416-1462) - Accompanied Alvise Cadamosto on two voyages and discovered a great stretch of the West African coast.
Antonio de Noli (c. 1419 - c. 1479) - Discovered several of the Cape Verde islands.
Alvise Cadamosto (c. 1432-1483) - Undertook two voyages with Antoniotto Usodimare and discovered a great stretch of the West African coast; the first European to sail up the Gambia River.
Bartolomeo Colombo or Bartholomew Columbus (1460-1514) - Accompanied his brother Christopher Columbus on his third and final voyage in the New World.
Ludovico di Varthema (c. 1470-1517) - The first European and Christian to enter Mecca.
Andrea Corsali (1487 - c. 1500's) - Demonstrated that Sumatra (Indonesia) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) are two distinct islands, identified New Guinea, hypothesized the existence of Australia, and identified, located, illustrated and named the constellation now known as the Southern Cross (Crux).
Marco da Nizza (c. 1495-1558) - The first European to arrive in Arizona territory.
Giovanni Battista Pastene (1507-1580) - Explored the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile as far south as the archipelago of Chiloé.
Francesco Carletti (1573-1636) - First private traveler to circumnavigate the globe.
Pietro Della Valle (1586-1652) - The accounts of his travels in India remain one of the most important sources of the history and ethnography of the sub-continent.
Eusebio Francesco Chini or Eusebio Kino (1645-1711) - Explored the Pimería Alta (modern-day Sonora, Mexico and southern Arizona) and proved that the Baja California Peninsula is not an island.
Enrico Tonti or Henri de Tonti (1646-1704) - Explored the Mississippi River and established the Arkansas Post, the first permanent European settlement in the lower Mississippi region.
Alfonso Tonti or Alphonse de Tonty (1659-1727) - One of the founders of Detroit, Michigan.
Piercarlo Di Lietto (1672-1729) - Explored the Mississippi valley.
Giacomo Beltrami (1779-1855) - Discovered the source of the Mississippi River and the Red River of the North and gave his name to Beltrami County in Minnesota.
Luigi Maria D'Albertis (1841-1901) - The first explorer to travel the full navigable length of the Fly River in Papua New Guinea and the first European to venture far into the uncharted territory beyond the coastal regions of New Guinea.
Giacomo Bove (1852-1887) - Sailed on the first voyage through the north-east passage and later explored Tierra del Fuego and the Congo River.
Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti (1855-1926) - The first European to extensively explore the horn of Africa and coined the name Somalia.
Vittorio Bottego (1860-1897) - One of the first Western explorers of Jubaland in the Horn of Africa.
Umberto Cagni (1863-1932) - Led a probe over the surface of the Arctic Ocean in 1899-1900 with Luigi Amedeo di Savoia-Aosta, achieving the northernmost point reached by exploration up to that time.
Luigi Amedeo di Savoia-Aosta (1873-1933) - His 1899-1900 Arctic expedition with Umberto Cagni reached latitude 86°34′ N, setting a new world record.
