Pinocchio, Collodi and Florence

The adventures of Pinocchio, a mischievous and cheeky puppet, were published in instalments in the children’s magazine *Giornale per i Bambini* from its first issue on 7 July 1881.
The author of this ‘childish tale’, as he himself described it, was Carlo Lorenzini, a writer and journalist, who signed his work as Collodi, after the village in the Valdinievole where his mother Angiolina was from.

Places and people in the origins of the world’s most famous puppet

Pinocchio and Florence – or at least the area surrounding the city – are, however, very closely linked. The inspirations, places and characters of the novel can be traced back to a ‘suggestion of the landscape’, which meant that the first readers of the puppet’s adventures – collected in a single volume that would go on to become a global literary success – recognised Florence, Castello, Peretola and Sesto Fiorentino behind the fictional place names.

Collodi and Florence

Carlo Lorenzini was a Florentine, born in 1826 – exactly two hundred years ago – in Via Taddea, near the San Lorenzo Market. On the façade of number 21 there is a plaque commemorating the birth of Carlo Lorenzini, ‘known as Collodi, father of Pinocchio’.
His parents, both of humble origins, found themselves working for the family of Marquis Leopoldo Carlo Ginori, whose family played an important role in the young Carlo’s life; he also received his education at the Liceo Classico Galileo, in Via Martelli, where another plaque commemorates him.
Palazzo Ginori in Via Rondinelli is another site associated with Collodi, where the writer lived and died; his grave, however, is in the Cimitero delle Porte Sante, at the foot of San Miniato al Monte and overlooking the city..

But during his lifetime, Collodi also spent a great deal of time in Castello, the hillside area between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino, where the Medici family had their villas and where his brother Paolo owned Villa Il Bel Riposo, a peaceful holiday retreat nestled within a landscape of great beauty.
Paolo Lorenzini was, for many years, from 1854 to 1891, the director of the Manifattura di Doccia, situated on the outskirts of Sesto Fiorentino.

The places

If all works of art are rooted in concrete reality, one might embark on a journey into the origins of Pinocchio and his whimsical adventures.

It is precisely the narrow streets of Castello that served as the backdrop to Pinocchio’s life, with the craftsmen’s workshops (those of Geppetto and Mastro Ciliegia) and the presence of a maid, little more than a child, blonde and blue-eyed, who lived in the villa Il Bel Riposo: the prototype of the fairy, who in the book is also called the beautiful little girl with blue hair.

And since we are situated between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino, the colourful, popular street festival held in Sesto Fiorentino at the end of August was probably the source of inspiration for the Land of Toys.  
 

The "sea"

The most intriguing and unexpected aspect of the origins of the locations associated with Pinocchio around Florence is the one linked to Peretola. A suburb of the city, associated with the name of Florence’s airport, Peretola has historically been home to ancient families, such as the Vespuccis (yes, the family of Amerigo, the navigator).

We are in the so-called ‘plain’, which, as records from the nineteenth century confirm, was a marshy area characterised by the presence of water. Thus, the numerous references to the sea in the book of Pinocchio could well refer to this very “sea/lake” of Peretola, traversed by shallow-bottomed boats typical of marshes. A “sea”, an expanse of water, which could be clearly seen from the hill of Castello. A sea that has now been supplanted by extensive urbanisation and the airport

A worldwide hit

A fantastic journey, this one, taking us to the places where the inspiration was born for an author who went on to become world-famous and for a character, Pinocchio, the puppet whose nose grows when he tells lies, whose adventures, full of meaning and narrative depth, go far beyond a mere children’s fairy tale. 
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a literary masterpiece, translated into at least 240 languages with hundreds of editions. It has been the subject of dozens of stage and film adaptations, including Walt Disney’s version, and has captivated many directors, from Comencini to Benigni, from Guillermo del Toro to Garrone.

We would like to thank the authors of the book *La guida ai luoghi di Pinocchio* (The Guide to the Places of Pinocchio), Maurizio Bruschi and Anna Soldani (Florence Art Edizioni), for their suggestions for this itinerary.