INVISIBLE CITIES XVIII -- Trading Cities: EUPHEMIA

1. The culturality (to use a new-ish and very iffy word) of Euphemia and its crossroads and the merchants who visit and trade there make me wonder how you see the legitimacy of Calvino's prose.  Does his stuff feel like he really understands the Old World dessert, trade, Spice Road, and Mongol elements he's professing to tell us about, or does it all feel like so much contrivance, or is this a non-issue for whatever reason?
2. I wonder why campfires are such natural centerpieces for storytelling (not that it would take much to lay such reason out and make sense of it, but it is a magical thing).
3. Something about the trade routes, the city at the crossroads, the storytelling and, in my mind, its natural "one-up-manship" remind me of Kim (a book that seems to get better the further away you are from the time you actually forced yourself to sit and read it--you know, as the concept of it takes over the terrible writing of it).  Thoughts?