Collodi

Collodi is famous throughout the world for having given its name to the writer Carlo Lorenzini, who assumed for his greatest creation the name of the village that was his mother's birthplace :
for "Collodi" was none other than the pseudonym taken by the author of "The Adventures of Pinocchio", the book with the greatest number of copies in print second only to the Bible and the Koran. The village of Collodi has since then developed into a recognized tourist destination and boasts three distinct attractions, which however share the characteristic of blending harmoniously with the Tuscan landscape, and inspiring visitors' imagination to soar into wondrous realms of never-ending story and fable.

The centuries-old hill village or castle of Collodi, whose existence is attested as from the end of the XIIth. century, probably originated in much the same manner as innumerable other medieval hill villages and castles . Military considerations were no doubt the main factor that drove the population living in the valley (where there are traces of a small more ancient settlement known as Debbia) to set up a fortified settlement on the hill that towered above, known as Odo or Odolo's Peak, a toponym of clearly Germanic derivation. Yet although situated in an excellent strategic position, Collodi had the ill fortune to be located on the boundary between lands belonging to the rulers of Lucca and land under Florentine rule, a dilemma that resulted in its being contested between the two powers for over a century, from 1329 to 1441.
After suffering numerous sieges repeated sacks, Collodi became a fortified outpost of the Republic of Lucca, with an economy based on olive-growing and the utilization of water from the Pescia Minore (or Pescia di Collodi) stream to drive water wheels, olive presses, silk and paper mills.
One of the most striking features is the structure of the picturesque old hill village, which today as in days of yore is explorable only on foot. It is a veritable cascade of little stone houses clinging to a steep hillside ;
high at the top rises the ancient Rocca or Castle Keep, matched at the bottom by the majestic Villa Garzoni. As one wanders through the maze of narrow paved streets, lined by houses with intact medieval façades and doorways, the road winds its way upwards, past the remains of the medieval fortifications, until it finally reaches the Church of San Bartolomeo (XIIIth. century) at the top of the hill. The interior contains a number of valuable works of art :
a sixteenth-century painting depicting "the Virgin Enthroned" attributed by some art historians to the School of Raphael, a wooden sculpture of the "Virgin with Child" dating from the fifteenth century, a terracotta plaque from the same period depicting Santa Lucia (School of Matteo Civitali), and a fifteenth century wooden sculpture by San Bartolomeo (School of Jacopo dela Quercia).