Niccolò da Poggibonsi (Latin: Nicolaus de Podiobonito) was a Franciscan friar of the 14th century who made a famous pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1345–50, which he described in Italian in his Libro d'oltramare.
[1] From Poggibonsi in Tuscany, Niccolò, with seven companions (six of whom eventually returned home), departed for Venice, from where they embarked for a sea voyage to Cyprus.
The ship followed an adventurous course, taking him by the Anatolian coast of the Ottoman Empire, to call in the port of Tripoli, and near Poreč on the Adriatic, where he was captured by brigands but managed to escape.
Organised trips departed regularly from Venice, bringing pilgrims to Jerusalem and its suburbs (like Mount Tabor), but Niccolò eschewed typical tourism.
Niccolò informs us that the house of the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, long a Christian holy place, was destroyed, possibly by the Mamelukes sometime after 1289, when it was last recorded standing.