Collodi - Italy

Ciao and benvenuti! (Hi and welcome!)

We arrived back in Singapore after a wonderful holiday in Italy.

I am going to upload 3 postings covering the trip over the next few weeks. The first is on Collodi, in North Tuscany, where Daniela’s Mum lives and where we stayed for some of the time. The second is the camping holiday at Vada in central Tuscany. Finally I have some photos of the few days we were in Turin in Piemonte.

Collodi is the home of Pinocchio. The author was Carlo Collodi. He was born Carlo Lorenzini in Florence, but took his pen name Collodi from his mother who was a Collodian.

The original Collodi is a small narrow medieval hamlet (12th Century) that winds and twists its way up a Tuscan hill, near Lucca and Florence. In the more modern town at the foot of Collodi there is also a famous Pinocchio theme park. At the front of the town there is a 'villa' (more like a palace!) called 'Villa Garzoni'. Garzoni was the noble family of the area. The Garzoni Park is well known by butterfly lovers.

I very much enjoyed being in the ancient village again. Singapore is so modern, I realised I was thirsting for some history! In Italy there's ooooodles of it. But it's a steep climb. Reminded me a bit of the Great Wall of China!

I hope you enjoy the photos. See you in a couple of weeks!

Love

Alan