| What makes it historical? |
Located midway between Collodi and Lucca, this magnificent oak tree, whose trunk is 4.5 meters in circumference, got its name because locals believed witches used to dance in its branches, pushing them flat! It was under these same branches that Carlo Lorenzini (before changing his name to Carlo Collodi) wrote several chapters of The Adventures of Pinocchio in the 1880s!
In fact, these chapters weren’t all released in the single book we know today; they were published weekly in Italy’s first newspaper for children, called Il Giornale per i Bambini. At this very tree, Pinocchio gets robbed and hanged by the devious Cat and Fox! Luckily for Pinocchio, witches weren’t the only ones to spend time at this tree, and he was rescued by a Blue Fairy! |
