The colascione (or calascione, Italian: [kolaˈʃʃoːne], French: colachon [kɔlaˈʃɔ̃], also sometimes known as liuto della giraffa meaning giraffe-lute, a reference to its long neck) is a plucked string instrument from the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods,[1][2][3] with a lute-like resonant body and a very long neck.
Noteworthy are the great similarities of the colascione with instruments such as the dutar or the saz.
A smaller version of the instrument existed, called the colascioncino, with string length 50–60 centimeters.
[4] Domenico Colla toured Europe with his brother in the 1760s, playing both colascione and colascioncino.
In the literature of colascione, it is often confused with calichon, a bass version of the mandora.