Il paese dei balocchi, ‘toyland’, is none other than Bagni di Lucca. Born and brought up in Collodi, where his mum was in service at the elegant villa Garzoni, Carlo Lorenzini, alias Carlo Collodi, was aware of Bagni’s hedonistic reputation as a centre of gaming and gambling with its famous casino, and as place of flirtatious encounters in its thermal baths.
Journalist and Mammalucco founder Marco Nicoli is well aware of this fact and has miraculously restored Bagni’s faded reputation into a centre for fun for children of all ages in these two days of September when the care-free days of summer encounter the realities of back-to-school and back-to-work.
From elf-man to bubble-man to bungee jumping with a difference to mad-hatters tea-party to old-tyme children’s games to lucky dips to azure magic fairies to shark-infested ponds to stalls of all varieties to face painting to Pinocchio himself transformed into a puppet show punch-and-Judy style to a Balkan-style street band from the Maremma there was so much to please and entertain.
It’s just a pity that life isn’t always like toyland for, as the chap from Stratford (not the one at the end of the Jubilee line, I hasten to add) said ‘if all the world were playing holidays to sport would be as tedious as to work’. However, you can have still have fun playing the game of life provided you don’t cheat at the rules….
Bagni di Lucca was filled with colour and music dear Pinocchio came to life once more as a puppet for children and adults alike. All the stalls with their merchandise were literally bursting with colour with their wares of jewellery nik naks of useful items, charitable sales for different good causes, face painting multifarious balloons, cos play, perambulating musical bands, players, even the mad hatters tea party, bunji jumping for tiny tots, games, most shops and restaurants dressed their windows with Pinocchio memorabilia, it was all very delightful and amusing for adults and children alike. My favourite was the retwlling of a section of the Pinocchio tale with puppets in a Punch and Judy style theatre e children were well behaved attentive and most responsive audience participation really worked wonderfully well. We were able to dream awhile with dear Pinocchio in his Paese dei Balocchi.
Thank you very much for your descriptive comment.