The City Code

In the book, Italo Calvino tells a story about a story. How Marco Polo, the explorer, describes the cities he visited in his expedition to Kublai Khan, emperor of the Tartars. "Kublain Khan does not necessarily believe everything on his expeditions but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian" (pg.5)

Invisible Cities' explanations of the city are practically imagining the imaginable. Some times when Marco Polo is describing the cities I thinks he is inventing them. For example in the city of Isidora "He was thinking of all these thing when he desired a city" (pg.8). This exact city is part of the segment of the book called Cities and Memories. A crazy though came into my mind, maybe some of the cities are built from memory, the memory of the traveler. As well in the description of Isidora says the following: "The dreamed-of city contained him as a young man; he arrives at Isidora in his old age". If you analyze the cities it doesn't seem like the young Venetian is really talking about the cities exactly, but about the moments he had during the exploration. And with this city it seemed like it was a flasback, or as he was constructing the cities from past expeditions or times. I assumed this because of the ways he used to describe it, as the "city of his dreams" and how he says he dreamed it as he was young but really was there in his old age.

Every city has their own way to be described. But there's one question: Is the description literal or figurative? and what is Italo Calvino really trying to portray through this book?