Not many people know that the Italian writer Carlo Lorenzini (named Collodi), internationally renown as the author of Pinocchio, was himself addicted to gambling and to a very irregular life. Like Pinocchio, he struggled intensely to live a healthy and balanced life.

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Is it important to live a healthy and balanced life?

In 1881, Collodi began the publication, in installments, of "The Story of a Puppet" for "Il Giornale per i Bambini" (Newspaper for Children ). Pinocchio was born.

Let's meet Pinocchio's author!

[...] In 1856, when he decided to become a novelist and, in jest, published his first comedy, "Gli Amici di Casa", Carlo Lorenzini was already far from the bitter poverty that marked his childhood and earliest years of adolescence [...] Although current anectotes [...] represent the civil servant Collodi as a lazy man, intolerant of hierarchy and discipline, in reality he must have been well protected [...] esteemed and equally valued by his superiors [...] to judge by the development of his career: quite a distinguished one [...] However, in spite of his many activities and the money he earned, certainly not insufficient earnings, Collodi often struggled with financial problems due to his losses from gambling.

[...] Regardless of the proliferation of anecdotes, gambling truly created an awkward presence in Collodi's life, at least until the years of his full adulthood. Gambling, the painful wretchedness of the lack of money and the need to find it in a hurry.

[...] Was it the need to escape the irresistible temptation of gambling or the desire to get away from the routine [...] that motivated his brief escape from Florence and his participation in the second war of independence? [...] (1)

[...] The reason for Lorenzini's departure from Florence was probably sentimental, as pointed out by Collodi's nephew: "between many, more or less fatuous and fragile loves, he must have had a truly serious one, which, if it had been possible, would have compelled the eternal bachelor to take a wife." Carlo, charming and passionate, in fact fell in love with a married Florentine woman, or a resident of the city, that, due to the fact that she was married and had two boys could not find the strength to leave them for him. A daughter was born of their relationship, but apparently died prematurely [...] (2)

As time went by, Collodi led a calmer life; he became more of "a bourgeois", and continued to write. In 1881, he began the publication, in installments, of "The Story of a Puppet" for the "Children's newspaper". On January 25 1883, the publication ended and was issued with a new title "The Adventures of Pinocchio".

1890. The fifth edition of the "Adventures of Pinocchio" was issued. The 26th of October Collodi died "following a rupture of an aneurism".

[...] His body had reached its limit, and not only for his excesses; [...] in the future, the reporters remembered him as one of "the best journalists of his day" [...] (3)

[...] It was Collodi's grandchild who told us that Paolo Lorenzini (Carlo's brother) "reviewing the papers that [Carlo] left, found a number of letters that Collodi had jealously kept. Reading some of them, that could have compromised the reputation of many notable women who were still alive, he took the decision to burn all of them without reading others. But in this way he also burned letters from Collodi's companions of political belief and friends who were journalists and artists; letters which could have been used to construct a very precious documentation that could have shed light on and given value to Collodi's political, journalistic and artistic activities. [...] (4)