Ho Comprato Una Pipa Castello a Firenze

My wife and I had the pleasure of spending last week in Florence Italy to attend the ordination of a friend's son to the priesthood. While there I dropped by Castellana's shop near the Duomo. Mr. Castellana is a very pleasant fellow who truly loves pipes, and was a pleasure to meet and deal with him. I highly recommend paying him a visit if you find yourself in town. I left the shop with a Castello Vergin that I fell in love with at first sight, and after having run only four bowls of tobacco through it I can tell that I'm going to bond very nicely with my new pipe. Forgive the crummy photo, but I took it with my phone after downing two full glasses of Tuscan wine in the private mini-garden outside our room on the outskirts of the city.

Thank you all for your positive comments.
code: The pipe came with a bit of patina. I'm looking forward to seeing it develop.
lohengrin: I wish I had more time to spend in Italy. It was my first trip to the land of my grandparents, and I will surely return. Castellana's was smaller than I expected, but his selection of pipes suited me just fine. I stumbled into another shop that sold mostly Savinelli pipes, but I don't recall the name of the place. The pipes he carried were much larger than I prefer. Nice place, though.
Dave: Thank you for the tips on how to treat a NV pipe, but to be honest I don't generally take that level of care with the external appearance. Sacrilege, I know. I have a meer that looks like it was dragged behind a truck, but I keep it clean on in the inside and I take good care of the chamber, but otherwise I don't care much how it looks. The Castello, being briar, will hold up much better but it will receive no special treatment. BTW, I had to ask to see the Castello pipes, and as you said the guy went into the back and came back out with two trays of them. The pipe is smaller than the photo makes it appear, only 5.25" end to end. It's a kkkk and the stamped number is C33.
Harris: I'm with you on a general preference for Vulcanite stems, but I can tolerate acrylic without too much trouble. It's a trade-off between the nicer feel of Vulcanite and the need to keep them free of oxidation.