1700’s
Following just part of the route of Marco Polo, Vietnamese maritime traders suppliedsilk and silkworms to the wealthy families of Florence, 1745.According to legend, some Vietnamese monks, following the orders of the Medicis, stole afew silkworm eggs, hid them in the hollow of some reeds and brought them to Florence.Thus the future of the Italian silk industry was boosted with the clever inventionof a silkworm smuggling tube