The Italian Almanac for October 13: stories and curiosities

Busted myths 📅 1881

Pinocchio was not written in Collodi: the village gave its name to a Florentine

Carlo Lorenzini was a Florentine: born in Florence in 1826, the son of a cook and a seamstress, he died there in 1890. In 1856 he took his pen name from his mother's village, Collodi, in Tuscany, where he had spent part of his childhood. Pinocchio ran in instalments in the Giornale per i bambini from 7 July 1881, when Collodi did not even belong to Pescia: the hamlet passed from Villa Basilica to Pescia only in 1884. The Parco di Pinocchio opened in 1956, paid for by the state, the town and a nationwide collection among schoolchildren, and drew around 104,000 visitors in 2022. The village did not name the puppet; it named the author.

📍 Discover Pescia

Today's tidbits

Place names

Adria named the Adriatic, then the sea moved 22 kilometres away

The Adriatic Sea takes its name from a town that can no longer see it. Adria, in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto, was founded in the first half of the sixth century BC on the river Tartaro: Etruscan in language and script, frequented by Greeks, Veneti, Celts and Latins, with a harbour Pliny called “nobilis portus”. Then the harbour silted up, the Cucca flood of 589 rearranged the local rivers and the sediment of the Po pushed the coast ever further east: the sea now lies about 22 kilometres away. The town keeps its archaeological museum and a rival: Atri, in Abruzzo, which according to Paul the Deacon gave the sea its name instead.

📍 Adria →

It started here 1898

The shoemaker to the stars was the eleventh of fourteen children, born in Bonito

Salvatore Ferragamo was born in Bonito, in the province of Avellino in Campania, on 5 June 1898, the eleventh of fourteen children. His first shoes were for his sisters; he learned from the village cobbler, apprenticed in Naples and came back to Bonito to open a small shop making made-to-measure shoes for local ladies. In 1915 he boarded the liner Stampalia for Boston, then California: the Hollywood Boot Shop in 1923 and the film stars who earned him the name “shoemaker to the stars”. After eleven years, at the end of 1926, he returned to Italy and chose Florence, where in 1929 he patented the metal arch support. The museum, in Palazzo Spini Feroni, opened in 1995.

📍 Bonito →

🎉 Celebrations today in… 5

5 towns with a guide celebrate their patron saint on October 13

Other saints of the day 5

San Benedetto del TrontoBenedetto (protomartire) · Marche Belvedere Marittimosan Daniele Fasanella · Calabria Sanremosan Romolo, vescovo di Genova · Liguria Sestrieresant'Edoardo · Piedmont Vignolasanti Nazario e Celso · Emilia-Romagna

Patron saint festival 📍 Subiaco

Feast of Saint Chelidonia

📅 Every year, on 13 October

On 13 October Subiaco celebrates Saint Chelidonia, one of its two patrons alongside Saint Benedict (21 March); the town preserves the monasteries founded by Saint Benedict himself.

Patron saint festival 📍 Belvedere Marittimo

Feast of Saint Daniel Fasanella

📅 Every year, from 13 to 20 October

From 13 to 20 October Belvedere Marittimo celebrates its patron Saint Daniel Fasanella with a feast and market; the town also hosts "Note di fuoco NDF", an international fireworks festival.

Patron saint festival 📍 Sestriere

Feast of Saint Edward the Confessor

📅 Every year, on 13 October

On 13 October Sestriere celebrates its patron Saint Edward the Confessor; the municipal territory includes the Parco Naturale della Val Troncea.

Patron saint festival 📍 Vignola

Feast of Saints Nazarius and Celsus

📅 Every year, on 13 October

On 13 October Vignola celebrates its patrons Saints Nazarius and Celsus; the same day also marks the town's volunteering day.

Patron saint festival 📍 San Benedetto del Tronto

Saint Benedict the Protomartyr, patron whose body arrived from the sea

📅 Every year, on 13 October, with a historical re-enactment and a sea procession

San Benedetto del Tronto celebrates Saint Benedict the Protomartyr on 13 October, with a historical re-enactment and a sea procession; tradition holds his body was thrown into the sea after his martyrdom in 304 and washed up precisely on this shore.

Patron saint festival 📍 Sanremo

Saint Romulus, patron who gave the city its name by living as a hermit in its woods

📅 Every year, on 13 October

Sanremo celebrates Saint Romulus on 13 October; bishop of Genoa who lived in the 5th century, he spent much of his life in the city's woods and died there as a hermit, leading the city to change its name from Civitas Matuciana to Civitas Sancti Romuli.