Italo Calvino included a variant Prezzemolina in his "Italian Folktales". He took a variant from Florence, but noted that variants were found over all of Italy. The captor who demands his captive to do impossible tasks, and the person, usually the captor's child, who helps with them, is a very common fairy tale theme -- Nix Nought Nothing, The Battle of the Birds, The Grateful Prince, or The Master Maid—but this tale unusually makes the captive a girl and the person the captor's son.