The World's Most Famous Puppet

Walking Tours of Florence

Pinocchio by Enrico Mazzanti, The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1883

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He is the most famous puppet in children's literature and his creator, Carlo Lorenzini, was born in Florence on November 24th, 1826.

Lorenzini began writing the Storia di un Burattino (Story of a Puppet) in 1881. It was published, in weekly parts, in Il Giornale per i Bambini, the first Italian newspaper for children. Lorenzini wrote the work under the pen name of Carlo Collodi. Collodi is the Tuscan town in which his mother was born and where Carlo spent much of his childhood.

Pinocchio is famous for having a nose which grows longer, whenever he tells lies. Collodi intended his story, which ends, somewhat gruesomely, in the puppet's execution, to act as a warning to children who didn't tell the truth.
However, at the request of his editor, Collodi gave the tale a happy ending by adding chapters 16–36, in which the bella Bambina dai cappelli turchini (beautiful Young Girl with turquoise hair) rescues Pinocchio and transforms him into a real boy.

In 1883 the new version was published in book form (with illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti) under the title Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Carlo Lorenzini was living in Via dei Rondinelli (n. 17, now marked by a plaque) when he died on October 26th, 1890. He is buried in the Cimitero delle Porte Sante. ​

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Plaque to Carlo Lorenzini

Cimitero delle Porte Sante