Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a difficult novel to read.  It appears to the reader as though each page is filled with repetitive descriptions of endless cities.  Nothing stands out as pertinent to the novel’s plot or message.  There are certain passages that Calvino writes that make the reader believe that he himself sees little value in describing all of these cities to us.  When Marco Polo is describing the city of Zaira, he talks about the rooftops, but Marco pauses and says, “but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing,” as if his story of the city is worthless (10).  The interactions between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan present the reader with some insight, almost as a guide for interpreting the descriptions of the cities.  Marco, at one point, says to Kublai Khan, “Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else” (44).  After reading this passage, my perspective on the novel changed completely.  My new interpretation of Marco Polo’s journeys to all of the different cities was that each city is the same physically. Each city has streets and houses and rooftops and other things that make it what it is.  What differentiates each city, is the people and the experiences each person has within their lifetimes.  Marco tells Kublai Khan that once the stories of his adventures are spoken, they no longer exist. The cities can only exist in Marco’s mind, they way he experiences them. This, to me, is why this book is difficult to interpret.  The words that Marco says to tell us the stories of his adventures in different cities only have value for him, because he is the only person that ever has or ever will feel them and understand their value.