Pinocchio at Collodi

1/10 COLLODI - by Wilsen Conn

I reckon the first of October earned the earliest-out-of-bed award for this year.

Mum went for a run around the walls of Lucca again, at 0630 (in the dark).  For us there was no time for reading (unusual) and no time to dawdle (even more unusual for me).  We had to be ready to take Ed to the repair workshop for his battery to be replaced and to have a switch put in.

It’s lucky Mum and Dad speak a little bit of Italian, because the workers didn’t speak English.

We managed to get across that we wanted to go to the Parco di Pinocchio while we waited for the car to be serviced.  The one worker who spoke a teeny bit of English was in charge of the place &  lent us the keys to an ancient old vivid turquoise green Fiat Panda.  When Kel and I clambered into the back seats, we were a bit surprised by how low the car was! We were used to being the size of a small truck, not lower than most of the other cars that passed us.  The most comical thing about the Panda was when Dad got in.  His knees were up around his ears!  He had to take his shoes off to use the pedals properly. 

"Not so squeezy!"

The Panda was so old it didn’t seal properly, the wind whistled around inside as we shot down the road to Collodi.  Collodi is the home of ‘Carlo Collodi’ (pen name of the author of Pinocchio, his real name was Carlo Lorenzini) and the location of the Pinocchio Park.  We all tumbled out of the little Fiat to see the park.  As we entered, we saw a little gallery of Pinocchio - related art from all over the world including a wire South African one.  

We stepped outside and the first thing I saw was a huge chess set.  I immediately insisted that we have a game before anything else.  Dad and Kel smashed me in a twenty minute game of chess practically running all over the board.

After that, we moved on through the park, admiring a little ‘piazzetta’ (square) of mosaics.

Jiminy Cricket

The Carabinieri

We walked out of the square and found in our path… a bar.  Mum and Dad went in for a coffee and Kel and I played in a nearby playground.  When Mum and Dad were done, we went out in to a sort - of maze.  We had a map though!  It was like a foresty garden with narrow paths and bronze & metal statues related to Pinocchio.  We wandered through, admiring the statues and holding up leaves, pretending to be tour guides.  My favourite statue was a giant one of the shark that swallows Geppetto...and then Pinocchio.  

We all walked through it, saw a statue of Geppetto and climbed to the top via an extremely tight spiral staircase.  Next was  an actual maze for getting lost in.  Luckily, we got lost.  What fun is it if you don’t?  After finding our way out, we started heading back to the exit we had a big lunch of pizza and salad in the park restaurant.  The waiters put us all in Pinocchio party hats (which I managed to endure). 

The Blue Fairy

After lunch, Kel decided she wanted to use the maze again, so she and Dad went to that while Mum and I had another game of chess.  When we met up again, Dad helped Mum smash me in our chess game. 

We decided that since we hadn’t yet got a call from the workers saying that Ed was ready, we toddled back into the park. Kel and I had a look around the original trailer-car-cart thingy that travelled all over Italy in the late 1800s telling Pinocchio’s story.  It had little mechanical (not electrical) automatic marionettes acting the story.  Below them it had panels with the story written in Italian on them.  After Kel and I came out of the trailer, the Conns strolled out of the Pinocchio Park and up into the little town of Collodi.  We puffed up a hill through narrow, steep cobbled streets lined with little houses.  

Reaching the top, we took some photos of the surrounding area and walked back down.  We saw these tiny tomato thingys which Kel and I rolled down the streets.  They bounced crazily.  

communal laundry

When we got to the bottom, we got back in to the Panda and shot back home. We stopped on the way for a coffee.  Mum and Dad left us Kids in the car.  Kel and I discovered that when you slap yourself on the back of your hand, it doesn’t hurt so much.  So Kel and I whacked each other on the back of our hands till Mum and Dad came back.

When we reached the workshop, Ed wasn’t done.  So we got our sketchpads and books and did some drawing in a sort of lunch room the workers offered us.  We were told that the car was done before we expected it to be.  So, we were shown all the improvements and Dad paid the €430 it cost us.  We all piled into Ed and Dad commented on how high he was (compared with the Panda).  We trundled off down the highway towards Florence and stopped in a large carpark in Fucecchio for the night.  Kel and I got out our skates and skated ourselves silly, until it was dark.  We then took off our skates and got all rugged up in our PJs inside, and sat down for a cold yoghurt dinner.

That night the kids slept like they normally do - well.  The oldies were up ½ the night with the noisy locals - 4 guys came in the night with 2 large white flags each and stood around in a square next to Ed doing synchronised waving tricks and then periodically chucking the flags up into the air and trying to catch them, while shouting at each other in exhuberant Italian.  Someone else had doof-doof music thumping at full volume across the road - or was it a night club?  Ahh we love Italy.