The Count's Beard

We're reading Italian Folk Tales, by Italo Calvino (one of our most favorite authors -- we've mentioned him before).  They have the same raw feel of the tales of the brothers Grimm, with odd little details here and there, and lots of witches, evil stepparents, and love-upon-first-sight followed by happily-ever-after.

Last night, we read "The Count's Beard," and the description of the protagonist, Masino, caught our imagination:

Concerned over how little he was at birth, his mother had bathed him in warm wine to keep him alive and make him a little stronger.  His father had heated the wine with a red-hot horseshoe.  That way Masino absorbed the subtlety of wine and the endurance of iron.  To cool him off after his bath, his mother cradled him in the shell of an unripened chestnut; it was bitter and gave him understanding. 

Marvelous.

This lovely chestnut found here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_hippocastanum