The ninettenth-century Italian activist, feminist, and Princess, Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso, expressed her views on gender and politics through writing and through action. Included in Belgiojoso's corpus are not only travel writings, fiction and letters, but also texts on religion, history and politics. The tale Emina (1856), which shall be the focus of this study, emerged from the Princess's eleven-month journey across Turkey and Syria to regions little known to Westerners at the time -- to European women in particular. Belgiojoso's political convictions, and her experiences as a social reformer in Italy and Turke set the scene for Emina and her other "travel tales."