Carlo Lorenzini was born in Florence in 1826. He wrote about a marionette which was carved in a Tuscan Village, came to life, and whose nose grew whenever he told lies, and who gets into all sorts of adventures which grant him wisdom and cause him to become a real human. Lorenzini’s mother was from a village called Collodi, and he took his pen name and became Carlo Collodi.

Today, we would be visiting Collodi to check it out, maybe take in the Pinocchio memorabilia and definitely visit the Garzoni Gardens. It is this latter feature that now makes me remember Collodi fondly. It is one of those rare occasions where I don’t regret falling so far behind in getting this blogs out (I’ve started writing this on Sept 28th 2024!). At the time, I was a little annoyed with some aspects of our visit, and vowed never to return – but that was in the heat of the moment – there are some lovely parts too. Read on!

It’s a chunky 90-minute drive from Volterra, but pleasant, and we found a parking spot handily enough. A couple of sculptures caught our attention as soon as we got out of the car.

First things first: we were hungry and it was time for lunch! We walked past the best reviewed place, as we knew we were going to be eating fancily later on. We went to one of the pizza places – Ristorante Pizzeria da Geppetto, skipping past the entrance to Pinocchio Park for kids. Yeah, I know – this whole quarter of the town is something of a trap, but sadly it’s a picture of faded glory, save for the magnificent view of Collodi Castello and the old narrow village behind it. The food was ok.

Once sated, we we walked to our main target – the Garzoni Gardens, with a view to getting to Castello Collodi and the old village behind it. It was a quiet enough day, and there was only one other couple ahead of us in the queue to what we thought was the ticket booth. We rocked up and out came my wallet. “Two tickets to the gardens, please!”. Nope. The actual ticket booth was back at the kiddies park, so, slightly annoyed, we traipsed back to a slightly longer queue of two couples. We explained that we only wanted tickets to the gardens, and avoided the upsell to visit the park as well (no way were we as unaccompanied adults walking through a kids’ park!). While discussing, one of the park attendants came in and made a park-wide announcement over the PA system. The poor dude was dressed like a Christmas elf and his announcement was so sincere, that I had to pour a lot of my energy in to not cracking up.

Anyway, we walked back to the gardens with tickets in-hand, and headed through. The place, in fairness, was stunning!

Then we came across the gem of the park – the lepidopterarium (Butterfly house). It also contained some lizards and birds, but it was chiefly for butterflies and moths. We know someone who is Lepidoterophobic, so this place would have been a nightmare. The downside of it? It was very hot and humid inside.

It was a wonderful mini distraction within the garden. Once we’d escaped the sweatbox, we thought – well if we’re already sweaty, we might as well attempt the climb up to the Castello.

So, we climbed up the enormous stepped font, remembering occasionally to look back!

While walking up, I noticed that there were one or two offshoots leading into thickets. I wandered briefly down one of them and found goats in an enclosure. Why didn’t I take a shot? I have no idea. I don’t even have video… anyway – silly me. We eventually reached the top and made our way on more level ground on the picturesque path.

A sweaty mess, we finally reached the castle… and experienced overwhelming disappointment – for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the castle seemed to be in no way, shape or form open – at least from this direction. Secondly, I knew there was a lovely, if hilly, little hamlet directly behind it which we would have explored had we been able to get through the castle or its grounds. But we couldn’t see any way through at all. To visit the village, we’d have to wander back down, and take the adjoining road all the way back up again. By the time we’d reach the village, our parking would be out of credit, so, disappointed, we headed back down. The bamboo mini-forest we went through was kinda cute at least, though.

As compensation, we stopped at a little bar by the riverside – more or less opposite the entrance to the gardens, and I have to say this was a cute place. We both had a yummy crema al café!

Below you can find a youtube video of the above, and the previous blog!

That night we had our meal in La Vecchia Lira – and it was lovely, per usual!

We were flying home the next evening, so we could hang around for a little while and have lunch at Porgi l’Altra Pancia! And after that – home – but we’d be back (che sorpresa!) a few weeks later!

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