The Pinocchio town

Nuora runs her own business, Little Bee, making brightly coloured and beautiful clothes for children (mainly). Over the summer she had a stall at a number of markets including one in Vernante the weekend after we arrived there.

Unfortunately her designs seem to be too bright for the Italian market on the whole. They prefer more sombre colours, even for their children. But we think they're wonderful and believe if she perseveres she will get a breakthrough - in spite of the expensive Italian tax regulations on self-employment. 

Anyway, back to Vernante.

In 1881 Pinocchio first appeared in one of the earliest weekly Italian magazines for children. The story of the little wooden puppet was serialised, before, in 1883 the story was published in book form. Since then, of course, it's gone on to have many incarnations. 

Attilio Mussini was the most famous illustrator of the character in the version of the book published in 1911. He gave new life to the character. After the death of his son and wife he moved to Vernante with his new wife who encouraged him to return to his art. He did so and even opened up his studio to provide a free art school for those wishing to learn to draw or paint. He died in 1954 and as a tribute two local artists, Bartolomeo Cavallera and Bruno Carletto, decided to revive the scenes of the children's novel on the walls of the town.

Since then more murals and statues have been added making Vernante 'the Pinocchio town'.

I'm familiar only with the original Disney story so found some of the murals illustrating quite a different tale, an altogether blacker story. It has been described as a metaphor for the human condition so I guess that makes sense. Anyway enough rambling. It's photos you want to see. I'll just select a few.

The murals pop up all over the place.

Vernante also has an expensive gelateria, which sold the most delicious hazelnut ice cream.