Day 101

Pinocchio day! Today is the day we went to Collodi, Italy to visit the Pinocchio museum and a Butterfly Sanctuary.

Everyone was up early because the night before our host, Mark, had told us to come up in morning so we four (Jack, Bria, Landon, and I) could feed his two rabbits and the big pond of fish. When we walked up he was all ready out at the shed with carrots for the rabbits. The rabbits were scared of us at first then after a while they came out for carrots and food. The fish were fun to feed. When we tossed the feed in the fish would come and eat really fast, the food disappeared instantly.

After feeding time, we went into Mark’s house to help him decorate his small Christmas tree. The lights were old and we had to be careful with them. And most of the ornaments were old and fragile. When we were finished we headed back to our house to do school and eat lunch.

We left for Collodi after lunch. When we arrived the town was very quiet. No cars were out and when we walked into the Pinocchio museum the man working was sitting on a chair and staring at his phone.

The first room we entered was filled with fake people dressed up to look like the characters in the Pinocchio story. There was also a big bin of clothes for us to dress up with. Bria and Jack dressed up and I got an article or two on. Landon did not want to dress up in anything, but Mom made him anyway.

As we walked through the building the walls were lined with shelves. On the shelves were all the books of Pinocchio. In one place there was a big blue mat on the floor with all different sizes of Pinocchio’s.

Once through the inside museum and outside again we found a giant-sized chess board painted on the ground. Girls against boys! From up above, Mom took good pictures and lots too. We played two fast games, First game the Girls won and the second game the Boys won. I, Elizabeth have to say that was the best games of chess I have played yet!

Because the park was empty, there was no one running the rides, but we didn’t care, they were all for littler kids than us. In the yard right across form the chess board was a huge Pinocchio mosaic in the lawn, made out of different color stones.

As we walked through the park we came to an open area. In the center was a Pinocchio face with a long nose. We stuck our heads behind the face to look like Pinocchio himself.

Farther on we came upon another game on the path through Pinocchio’s park. This game reminds me of the board game Uncle Wiggly! Bria spun the wheel for us and we moved the number spaces it said. Landon won the game.

As time was running out if we wanted to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary therefore we did not play any more games. As were trying to find our way out we can upon a BIG whale head. Jack, Bria, Landon, and I climbed up the stairs and went down into the mouth of the whale then walked through the teeth and Jack walked across the stepping stones to the path were Mom was. But Landon, Bria, and I were going to cross when a lovely white swan came swimming up as fast as she could and guarded the path. Landon tried to cross but she would not let him. when she retreated a bit, Landon did jump over, but Bria and I went back the way we had come.

On the way back to the exit we were sprayed with water by a snake. That made us jump when it sprayed us! It was a drizzly cool day, not the type of weather one wanted to get wet in. There were metal animals along the way and we had not known that when you walked by they would spray water at you. The snake is the one that got us, we also passed a crab and the sensors were not turned on, because it did nothing.

Back in the building there was a little shop and two wood panels. One was Pinocchio and the other was a princess. I got Pinocchio and Bria got the princess.

Soon we left the Pinocchio museum and headed to the Butterfly Sanctuary across the street. Outside we went to the duck pond in the center of the butterfly garden. In the center of the pond was a wood duck nest with 2 wood ducks swimming around. There were also black swans. The black swans have beautiful red beaks.

Next we went to the butterfly house. We found a few butterflies, but all the others were hidden away, not a sunny enough day. They also have little birds, turtles, trees, vines, and many more things. They have walking sticks in a glass cage and all different kinds of beetles in glass cages. Outside we found a plant that was growing in the shape of a butterfly.

Outside we climbed the hill and saw many different statues that are fountains in the summer time. Lots of orange trees and a couple lemon trees.

Up at the very top of this garden built on the side of a hill is a little pond that in the summer when it was full would run over and then down in the next pool and the next and so on down the line. All of the upper ponds were made from rocks. And there were status of lions, men, and women. But for the winter it was all dry.

Off to the left at the top was a pen of 3 goats that Bria really liked. Farther down the path was a set of 5 chairs that we sat in and the picture for that is the header picture of the post. This place was huge and we did not see it all.

This is a formal garden and everything is symmetrical. If one plant was planted on the left side then it was planted on the right side too. Surprisingly there were a lot of flowers still blooming in the park. One plant that I would not mind having is pictured below. The plant is big with yellow and green variegated leaves. Mom thinks it might be Agave. Picture below beside the goat picture.

As we were leaving it started to rain. On the way back to the car we stopped at a road side stand. Mom took her time deciding which Pinocchio ornament to buy. When she finally picked one as we were checking out the lady was really kind. She gave us a big bag of some kind of sweet chips, for free. There were three flavors, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla. The bag did not last long at all. I have never tasted anything like them here in the states.











Here are some pictures to finish telling about the garden.

After finding our way back to the car we started the long drive back to the house. On the way out of town we passed the tallest Pinocchio in the world!