If you are curious what fairy tales are from Italy, you’ve come to the right place. We have come up with a selection of Italian fairy tales for your enjoyment.
Italy has influenced not only the world literature but the history of world culture as well. Italian folktales and/or Italian fairy tales, especially Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, have huge contributions to many forms of arts and other areas.
Here are four delightful Italian folktales for your enjoyment!
What Fairy Tales Are from Italy? – 4 Best Short Folktales from Italy
These Italian fairy tales are in the public domain, retold in the shortest manner possible for your quick reading. Now, let’s dive into the 4 best short folktales from Italy.
1. Don Giovanni de la Fortuna
Don Giovanni de la Fortuna receives a magic purse from the devil that grants him unlimited money, but he has to refrain from bathing, grooming, and changing clothes for over three years. He gladly accepts the deal, enjoying the riches while disregarding his appearance and cleanliness.
Don Giovanni is sitting on the steps of a large house, cleaning dust from the road. The owner mistakes him for a beggar and tells him to leave. Don Giovanni jokingly asks to buy the house, and surprisingly, the owner agrees. He rents rooms at an inn, fills one with gold from a purse, and pays the house owner with it.
Don Giovanni lives in the mansion, surrounded by his filth and rags that worsen with each passing day. The fame of his enormous wealth reaches the ears of the always money-needy king. The king asks for a loan, and Don Giovanni promptly sends sacks of gold. Once the king takes what he requires, he returns the excess gold. However, Don Giovanni declines to accept it. The messenger brings the gold back to the palace.
The king now offers his eldest daughter’s hand to Don Giovanni as a gesture of gratitude for his service. Don Giovanni accepts and presents a photograph, which horrifies the princess. Even though the queen disapproves, the king upholds his promise because of his royal word.
The youngest daughter courageously volunteers to marry Don Giovanni, earning gratitude from the king but mockery from the queen and elder princess. The wedding is scheduled for two months later, giving Don Giovanni a month to purify himself before a looming deadline imposed by the devil.
When the devil’s pact comes to an end, Don Giovanni transforms himself by shaving his beard, cutting his hair, and discarding his rags. He takes a bath and emerges clean, then heads to the king’s palace. His handsome appearance astonishes the royal family. The queen and elder princess, consumed by envy and anger, end up drowning. Eventually, after a period of mourning, the youngest daughter marries Don Giovanni.
Upon the old king’s death, Don Giovanni takes over the throne. He possesses wealth and remains joyful throughout his life, as he retains the magical purse that continuously provides him with money. Additionally, he cherishes his wife, and their love for each other remains strong.
2. Cannetella
Princess Cannetella of High-Hill refuses marriage despite her father’s wishes. King invites a handsome man to a banquet to gauge her interest. During the feast, the man drops an almond, which he hides. Later, Cannetella criticizes the man for letting the almond fall despite his impressive appearance.
The King introduces potential suitors to his daughter, Cannetella. She keeps finding excuses to avoid marriage. Cannetella claims she’ll only marry a man with a golden head and teeth. The King, determined to fulfill her wish, announces that whoever possesses these features will marry his daughter and inherit the kingdom.
Now the King has a mortal enemy named Fioravante, a cunning magician. Upon hearing a proclamation, Fioravante magically turns his head and teeth into pure gold. To summarize, Fioravante captures the princess, brings her home, and places her in a stable with horses. He tells her to wait for him for seven years without being seen by anyone, warning of regret if she’s seen.
For several months Cannetella lived on corn left by the horses. But one day as she stood looking through a hole, she saw a garden with fruits and flowers. She desired for a bunch of grapes and decided to go out and pluck it. After all, who was there to tell her husband? So, overruled by hunger, she went out or the grapes.
When Fioravante returns, one of his horses informs him about Cannetella’s actions. In a fit of anger, he takes out his knife with the intention of killing her. However, Cannetella falls to her knees and pleads for mercy. Fioravante forgives her but warns that if she disobeys again, he’ll punish her severely when he returns in seven years.
Cannetella, consumed by misery, realizes her self-inflicted predicament. Her pursuit of a golden head and teeth led to her unfortunate situation, facing the weight of her choices. Regretful, she laments not obeying her father’s wishes and becoming emaciated. After a year, Cannetella spots the King’s locksmith near the stable, eventually revealing her identity. Placed in a cask on a horse, she heads to High-Hill, where her father recognizes and comforts her. Sharing her ordeals, including her marriage, they reunite with a bath and food.
Fioravante returns home and the horses inform him about Cannetella and the locksmith. Filled with rage, he heads towards High-Hill, encountering an old woman near the palace. He pays her to access her roof for a view of the King’s daughter.
Cannetella, on a palace balcony, spots Fioravante as she dries her hair. She informs her father, and the King immediately constructs a chamber with seven iron doors for her.
Upon learning of this, Fioravante approaches the old woman again, paying her to visit the King’s palace disguised as a pot seller. She enters Cannetella’s chamber and slips a paper between the bed-clothes, delivering the message as she places the paper:
“Let every one now soundly sleep,
But Cannetella awake shall keep.”
After completing the action, everyone in the palace falls asleep except the princess. Fioravante successfully seizes Cannetella along with the bed-clothes, but unluckily, the magic paper drops to the ground, shattering the spell. The entire palace wakes up abruptly, rushing to Cannetella’s chamber upon hearing her cries. They capture the wicked Fioravante, swiftly cutting him into pieces like a pickled tunny.
3. The Curse of the Seven Sons
A royal couple has six sons, and the queen is expecting their seventh child. The king warns that if the baby is another boy, all seven children will be cursed. The king goes off to war and tells the queen to hang a lance for a son and a distaff for a daughter from the window to let him know the gender upon his return.
The queen gives birth to a girl, but mistakenly hangs a lance out of excitement. When the king returns, he is devastated, believing all his sons are cursed. However, he is pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful daughter. Since his six sons have wandered away, he begins to feel despair.
Observing the tears in her parents’ eyes, the princess matures. Upon discovering her father’s curse on his seven sons, she opts to depart from the palace to locate her brothers. During her journey, she encounters a little old man who advises her that finding them won’t be simple; she must remain voiceless for 7 years, 7 months, 7 weeks, 7 days, 7 hours, and 7 minutes. After noting the exact day and time, she continues her journey, eventually arriving at a palace. Resting on its stairway, she drifts off to sleep.
Upon seeing her, palace servants approach the king and request lodging for her. Captivated by her beauty, the king agrees and provides her a stunning room. Despite believing her to be mute, the king is so enamored that he marries her, defying his mother’s objections.
During the king’s absence at war, the wicked queen mother plots against her pregnant daughter-in-law. She confines the queen within a box constructed by a mason, deceitfully convincing her son that his wife perished while giving birth. The king, albeit believing the lass to be mute, was so pleased with her that he ended up marrying her despite his mother’s disapproval.
A servant rescues the queen just before she’s due to give birth. He and his wife care for her and her son. Eventually, the queen realizes she can speak again, and she narrates her story to the servant. He frees her from a concrete box and reunites her with the king, who believed they were dead. The queen recounts her journey, detailing her departure from home, mistreatment by the queen mother, and the support of the servant and his wife.
The following day, the king invites royals and nobles to a grand banquet. The queen’s six brothers, now handsome, appear, guided by the same magician they met before. He revealed her location and her deeds. The joyful reunion expands to their parents, and they all live happily ever after.
Well, except for the wicked queen mother, who is either put in a pillory, then burned alive – or fried in oil in the public square.
4. Beppo Pipetta
A man named Beppo Pipetta receives a valuable magic knapsack from a stranger. The knapsack allows anyone he tells to jump into it. Beppo tests it on his landlord to settle a bill, making the landlord jump into the sack. He releases the landlord only after extracting a promise to stop presenting bills.
Beppo walks into an inn one time and spots a man playing a strange purse-emptying game that never seems to end. Beppo snatches the purse and runs off, but the inn owner chases him down. Beppo tricks the owner into hopping into a sack. Similar to the previous man, Beppo lets him out on one condition: the purse. The owner has no choice but to hand it over.
After two years at home with his purse and the mended sack, Beppo finally heads to the city. He discovers that the Devil plans to take the king’s daughter because of a silly promise her father has made, and this is happening the following day.
Beppo bravely approaches the king to help, though the king doubts him. Undeterred, Beppo is determined to prove himself. He stays at the palace and gets ready, while the princess hopes for a miracle. At midnight, the Devil enters the sack Beppo holds open, but to everyone’s surprise, the sack proves too strong even for the Devil. Thanks to the unyielding sack, the princess is rescued from the Devil’s clutches.
Beppo Pipetto enjoyed years of pleasure, but when his time comes, something interesting unfolds.
Before releasing the Grim Reaper from the sack after 18 months, Beppo makes him promise not to return unless willingly summoned. Death then catches up by causing a series of wars and pestilences.
Years pass, and Beppo, weary of life, calls for Death. But Death fears a change of heart, so Beppo decides to seek Death out. Unfortunately, Death isn’t home; having remembered the sack incident, he ordered his men to beat Beppo. Cast out by Death, Beppo sadly heads to hell, where he’s treated similarly. Left with no option, he goes to heaven, tells St. Peter, who consults the Lord. Alone, Beppo tosses his cap over heaven’s wall.
As St. Peter returns, he shares that the Lord doesn’t want Beppo around. Beppo requests a moment to fetch his cap, then slips through the gate and sits on it. St. Peter urges him to leave, but Beppo refuses to budge, claiming his ownership of the cap. And that’s how Beppo Pipetta secures his heavenly spot!
If you enjoyed these short Italian folktales, then you will also love these short Italian poems!