Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri

Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725) was an Italian adventurer and traveler. He was among the first Europeans to tour the world by securing passage on ships involved in the carrying trade; his travels, undertaken for pleasure rather than profit, took him through the Middle East, India, China and the New World within a span of five years. Some suspected him of spying for the Vatican (or rather for the Jesuits) on his journey. The reliability of his travel accounts were once doubted, but are now considered to be authentic due to the details observed in his writings.