Cesare Borgia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maleborgia) wrote2013-01-03 12:35 pm
maleborgia) wrote2013-01-03 12:35 pm
Entry tags:
Vacation 2013
Last year Cesare went back to Pisa for one day, arranged for some charity (not for the most altruistic reasons), stocked up on things for 2012, and got laid. My initial plan was to have him do more or less the same thing--return to Pisa during the same period since canon hasn't progressed a full year yet, and be so busy with all the stuff he wants to get done that it will seem like he is in two places at the same time (spoilers: he would be). Some point after writing that in the OCC com post about vacations and having him start getting things together in preparation ICly, I changed my mind.
There are a couple places Cesare wanted to see because they will be important later on in his life and he would like to be better prepared--the most important of which was the town in northern Spain where he is supposed to die. A few days after Christmas but before the new year, Cesare made up his mind to go there instead.
His plan (which succeeded) was to arrive in Logroño, then nearest large town/city in order to better blend in as well as to be able to still collect all the supplies and gifts he had promised. Logroño is in La Rioja, which is noted for having excellent wine, so all of his guests will continue to be well-supplied, at least. He also picked up some trinkets for people, and some fabric. It's all a little lacking in attention, since he was only willing to spend a few hours on this and basically just threw money at merchants and didn't take more than he could easily transport. On that note, he did get the most important thing on his list, which was a horse for the other Cesare. Again, lack of time combined with Logroño not exactly being the best horse market--he basically paid double what he should have normally in order to take a random minor noble's horse.
He didn't use his own surname, but said he was originally from Corella because the area actually does know of him in 1492, the year he was aiming to arrive in, since he's the archbishop of the neighboring diocese. Miguel is from Corella, which is near enough to be plausible but not so near that he needed to worry about running into too many people from it, and it's a place he would have actually heard described. To excuse his lack of precise knowledge (and different accent), he blended Miguel's and his father's histories and said he was sent to Italy as a child to live with his maternal relatives. That way, also, his father still gets to be Spanish. He did say he was studying canon law at the University of Pisa when asked, and gave that theological bent as the reason in turn for why he was traveling outside of Corella when back in Spain--he was taking the Camino de Santiago, one of the main pilgrimage routes in Europe, which conveniently links all three Spanish cities involved in his story.
From Logroño it is a short walk (and shorter ride) to Viana, and as a fancy university student with an eye on entering the Church hierarchy he could be excused for being too soft to do the route properly and on foot. Cesare's concern, of course, was with time, and making the most of what little he had. In Viana he found a room at a hostel for pilgrims and made the donation of winter supplies he had gathered in Camp with an eye to Pisa to the Church of Santa María to be distributed to the needy. Talking to the parish priest (the church is actually, technically, a cathedral but it was a long-standing complaint that the bishop was never in the area), Cesare told him in confidence that he was actually working for Cesare Borgia and that his master had, upon granting him leave to take the Camino, commanded him to make donations to those churches that seemed especially holy and deserving (great flattery for a tiny church in a small town), but that he had not desired to be known as the man fronting this charity. They both understood this as some form of dissimulation, but fortunately not in the same way. Cesare is very proud and could not resist one tentative nudge towards them later keeping his tomb in the church. He doesn't know if this will influence anything or if the priest will remember or make any note of it for later.
That evening Cesare asked around for a favor: he wanted someone from the town to guide him to a specific spot that had been mentioned to him by a friend who had traveled through the area. It was a certain marshy gulch that was named for having a salt water spring. Several of them had argued over whether or not it could be and he wanted to prove the argument one way or another. He hired a boy to be his guide and declared that he wanted the boy ready to lead him out of the main gate in the early hours of the morning, before the sun rose, because he was eager to see this spot and then go on to the next church on the route. The boy agreed, reluctantly, but Cesare paid in gold and he led him the few miles in the dark to la Barranca Salada, confirmed that he was certain this was the right spot, and was sent back to Viana.
Cesare stayed there the entirety of his second day of vacation, getting used to riding on the terrain, practicing turning and dodging and then let the horse rest and just walked the land to try to get a feel for it. It was very cold; it snowed on and off, the skies were grey. He very much wanted the clouds to break.
There are a couple places Cesare wanted to see because they will be important later on in his life and he would like to be better prepared--the most important of which was the town in northern Spain where he is supposed to die. A few days after Christmas but before the new year, Cesare made up his mind to go there instead.
His plan (which succeeded) was to arrive in Logroño, then nearest large town/city in order to better blend in as well as to be able to still collect all the supplies and gifts he had promised. Logroño is in La Rioja, which is noted for having excellent wine, so all of his guests will continue to be well-supplied, at least. He also picked up some trinkets for people, and some fabric. It's all a little lacking in attention, since he was only willing to spend a few hours on this and basically just threw money at merchants and didn't take more than he could easily transport. On that note, he did get the most important thing on his list, which was a horse for the other Cesare. Again, lack of time combined with Logroño not exactly being the best horse market--he basically paid double what he should have normally in order to take a random minor noble's horse.
He didn't use his own surname, but said he was originally from Corella because the area actually does know of him in 1492, the year he was aiming to arrive in, since he's the archbishop of the neighboring diocese. Miguel is from Corella, which is near enough to be plausible but not so near that he needed to worry about running into too many people from it, and it's a place he would have actually heard described. To excuse his lack of precise knowledge (and different accent), he blended Miguel's and his father's histories and said he was sent to Italy as a child to live with his maternal relatives. That way, also, his father still gets to be Spanish. He did say he was studying canon law at the University of Pisa when asked, and gave that theological bent as the reason in turn for why he was traveling outside of Corella when back in Spain--he was taking the Camino de Santiago, one of the main pilgrimage routes in Europe, which conveniently links all three Spanish cities involved in his story.
From Logroño it is a short walk (and shorter ride) to Viana, and as a fancy university student with an eye on entering the Church hierarchy he could be excused for being too soft to do the route properly and on foot. Cesare's concern, of course, was with time, and making the most of what little he had. In Viana he found a room at a hostel for pilgrims and made the donation of winter supplies he had gathered in Camp with an eye to Pisa to the Church of Santa María to be distributed to the needy. Talking to the parish priest (the church is actually, technically, a cathedral but it was a long-standing complaint that the bishop was never in the area), Cesare told him in confidence that he was actually working for Cesare Borgia and that his master had, upon granting him leave to take the Camino, commanded him to make donations to those churches that seemed especially holy and deserving (great flattery for a tiny church in a small town), but that he had not desired to be known as the man fronting this charity. They both understood this as some form of dissimulation, but fortunately not in the same way. Cesare is very proud and could not resist one tentative nudge towards them later keeping his tomb in the church. He doesn't know if this will influence anything or if the priest will remember or make any note of it for later.
That evening Cesare asked around for a favor: he wanted someone from the town to guide him to a specific spot that had been mentioned to him by a friend who had traveled through the area. It was a certain marshy gulch that was named for having a salt water spring. Several of them had argued over whether or not it could be and he wanted to prove the argument one way or another. He hired a boy to be his guide and declared that he wanted the boy ready to lead him out of the main gate in the early hours of the morning, before the sun rose, because he was eager to see this spot and then go on to the next church on the route. The boy agreed, reluctantly, but Cesare paid in gold and he led him the few miles in the dark to la Barranca Salada, confirmed that he was certain this was the right spot, and was sent back to Viana.
Cesare stayed there the entirety of his second day of vacation, getting used to riding on the terrain, practicing turning and dodging and then let the horse rest and just walked the land to try to get a feel for it. It was very cold; it snowed on and off, the skies were grey. He very much wanted the clouds to break.