Here's a new family destination in Italy: Last week, the 600-year old oak tree known as the “Quercia di Pinocchio” in the park of Villa Carrara in San Martino in Colle (Capannori, Lucca) became a national monument, Italy Magazine is reporting.
Why will kids want to see this ancient tree: Because it was beneath this oak that Carlo Lorenzini (pen name Collodi), the author of the beloved children’s book The Adventures of Pinocchio, wrote several chapters of the story. This is the quercia that inspired the scene in which Pinocchio meets the Cat and the Fox under an oak tree and when Pinocchio is later hanged by bandits who wanted to steal his gold coins and rescued by the Blue Fairy.
The decision to make the tree a national monument was taken by the Regional Technical Committee for protected areas and biodiversity of the Region of Tuscany at the request of Capannori city council and WWF.