I never thought of Pinocchio as an Italian. Honest!
I have watched his adventures on TV cartoons and films, enjoyed his antics on comic books, regaled on many wooden pinocchio dolls selling on almost all the cities I’ve visited in Europe, even used the Pinocchio paradox to friends if I suspected that they were telling a lie, and all the while I never really stopped to question myself from which country he comes from, until a few days earlier…..
Pinocchio’s fountain statue in Vernante
I have been back in our mountain village home in the South for quite sometine now and since Italy is just over the fence, the frontier being just half an hour away, I decided I needed to satisfy my photoshoot cravings in the land of La Dolce Vita.
Since the Ventimiglia -Cuneo line of Trenitalia passes through our village station several times a day, I checked their timetable and the Vernante stop made me curious. After all, it is just one hour train ride away from where I live and also, I used to see it covered in snow, like a Winter Wonderland magical village whenever H and me took the train to Cuneo, a historic town 90 km south of Turin.
I immediately googled the name and got curiously captivated when I read that this is Pinocchio land, and that the wooden puppet’s original comic book illustrations are duplicated in the form of murals painted all over the town, a living memory to his original illustrator, Attilio Mussino, who spent the last days of his life in Vernante.
THE MURALS
Vernante is the only place in the world where Pinocchio murals are painted on the outer walls of the houses in the historical center. From 1989 when Bruno Carletto and Meo Cavallera initiated the painting, the number of murals have grown, bringing the total count to 150.
My first sight of the murals was at the train station building itself
This is the ”Casa Carlet” where I saw Pinocchio comic books selling at 5euros each.
Carlet is the nickname of Bruno Carletto, one of the two Vernante locals who came out with the idea of the murals as a way to remember Mussino.
The garden of Casa Carlet is also decorated with the characters of Pinocchio’s comic book series.
Excerpts from “The Adventures of Pinocchio”
At last, by sheer luck, a Carabineer happened along, who, hearing all that noise, thought that it might be a runaway colt,
and stood bravely in the middle of the street, with legs wide apart, firmly resolved to stop it and prevent any trouble.
Pinocchio saw the Carabineer from afar and tried his best to escape between the legs of the big fellow, but without success.
The Carabineer grabbed him by the nose (it was an extremely long one and seemed made on purpose for that very thing)
and returned him to Mastro Geppetto.
He struck a most solemn blow upon the piece of wood.-”Oh, oh! You hurt!” cried the same far-away little voice.
Mastro Cherry grew dumb, his eyes popped out of his head, his mouth opened wide, and his tongue hung down on his chin.
“Will you be good enough to give me a bit of bread? I am hungry.”
-”Wait a minute and I’ll come right back,” answered the old fellow, thinking he had to deal with one of those boys
who love to roam around at night ringing people’s bells while they are peacefully asleep.
After a minute or two, the same voice cried:
“-Get under the window and hold out your hat!”
Pinocchio had no hat, but he managed to get under the window just in time to feel a shower of ice-cold water pour down on his poor wooden head, his shoulders, and over his whole body
“Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you.” (the cricket says)
-”Why?”
-”Because you are a Marionette and, what is much worse, you have a wooden head.”
-At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket.
And meanwhile his hunger grew and grew.
The only relief poor Pinocchio had was to yawn; and he certainly did yawn, such a big yawn that his mouth stretched out to the tips of his ears. Soon he became dizzy and faint. He wept and wailed to himself: “The Talking Cricket was right. It was wrong of me to disobey Father and to run away from home. If he were here now, I wouldn’t be so hungry! Oh, how horrible it is to be hungry!”
Suddenly, he saw, among the sweepings in a corner, something round and white that looked very much like a hen’s egg. In a jiffy he pounced upon it. It was an egg.
o - o - o - o - o - o
The bricked campanile of San Nicolao Parish as a great backdrop for the mural
These murals and Attilio Mussino’s legacy have helped tourism grow in this little town of 1,251 inhabitants.
For all Pinocchio-philes, this is the place to buy every Pinocchio gadgets and toys you could think of. I like the snow balls!
Hmmm….I wonder if those in the bottles are some kind of Pinocchio liquors….
A Galleria entirely painted with murals
such as this one which covers the entire wall
There is also a fountain dedicated to Pinocchio
And a more modern one…
I continued to walk towards the edge of the town and stumbled upon this cemetery. For me, visiting cemeteries is a must-do when exploring new places. It is part of my search for that place’s history, its legends. Or its famous sons and daughters, perhaps.
Of course, Vernante is an alpine village where snow falls most months of the year, and the style of their tombs is also fashioned according to the climate. This roof framing the cross symbolically protects it from snowfalls.
Walking farther, I nearly staggered backward when I saw another image of Pinocchio, weeping, carved on a big slab stone.
Such heart-rending scene, believe me, for the grave belongs to his foremost illustrator, Attilio Mussino, who died in 1954.
Alongside his name is that of Marguerita Martini, the real Vernantese, who became his last companion in life.
It was Marguerita who donated all of Mussino’s work to the town of Vernante which can now be found in the Museum bearing his name, the Museo Comunale Attilio Mussino.
He became terribly frightened and, running as fast as he could, he finally came to the spot where it had once stood.
The little house was no longer there. In its place lay a small marble slab, which bore this sad inscription:“Here lies the lovely fairy with azure hair who died of grief when abandoned by her little brother Pinocchio….
The Adventures of Pinocchio
