Thanks to the handful of members that checked in to see where I went while I was away, it meant a lot that folks checked in. I guess my "loud mouth" has made an impact with some folks ;)
I had one of the only people I trust locally take care of my potted (out of bin) figs while I was away. I had a couple that were looking a bit rough when I left, so out of the 50-60 I left her with, I expected to lose around a dozen. Realistically, I think I lost only 6 in 16oz cups, and one 1gal fig that was already looking poor, so... only lost about 10% of my potted trees total. Due to lack of anyone to care for the cups I had in bins, I lightly watered them and sealed the bin before leaving, knowing darn well that they could last 2 weeks without watering, and I would lose at least a couple to mold. I lost about 30% of those cupped figs after 2 weeks of sitting in sealed bins.... such is life, I guess? All in all, I really only lost 5-6 varieties that I can't replace, I think, but I still haven't gone through to tally up what I had then and what I have now. I gave my fig "babysitter" a Negronne tree (thanks, PK) for her gracious duties and plan to give her an Italian Honey (thanks, BS) a few months down the road as well.
Sadly, I did not return with a single fig cutting nor the books I was hoping to find for myself and a couple other folks around here. But what I did return with is a great breadth of knowledge I did not have before, a reaffirmation that I can still speak Spanish fluently (although my word base and verbal comprehension skills now suck), and some information that can help some of our Spaniard and Italian friends or anyone travelling to these two countries in finding some interesting figs.
The volcano interrupted our trip heavily. We took off on the 9th or 10th of May, a few hours before a massive flare-up occured. Flight was delayed from leaving for one hour, then detoured in-flight to add two more hours; we landed 45 minutes after our flight to Florence left Charles De Gaulle, and CDG is one of the worst airports to ever miss your connecting flight. They made us fly through Rome with no connecting flight ticket, we arrived 15 minutes after boarding of the plane started, but somehow made it to Florence by midnight : 25 hours total travel time, one extra flight (3 total), then they lost our bags for the first 3 days of the trip :\
Our trip was as follows:
Florence -> Pisa -> Lucca -> Florence for the Italy leg, with all travel by train except to/from airport (cab)
Barcelona -> San Sebastian -> Bilbao -> Burgos -> Lerma -> Madrid for the Spain leg, with all travel by rental car (and cabs to/from airport)
In Florence, I very rarely saw any figs anywhere. It was almost as if none existed. Everyone seems much more interested in growing Oak trees for truffle production. We stayed across from the Pitti Palace (apartment). This is where the Boboli Gardens are. If you go to the rose garden inside Boboli Gardens, along the back castle wall (if you can call it that), there is a huge fig growing out of the wall with trunk the diameter of a teenager's leg. The fig is small and dark, darg green with a maroon colored tight eye. Additionally, there is an observation area that gives a direct line of sight to the Duomo; halfway between this and the main stairs leading down to the entrance, in the paths, you will find a series of fig trees growing out of a gigantic oak tree. I took pictures of both, I believe, and can post them in a later reply.
We took a train round-trip to Pisa (to see the tower) and Lucca (to shop and enjoy the city, walk the walls). Again, I expected to see dozens and dozens of figs on the train ride, but sadly, most of the production seemed to be stone fruits and Oak trees for truffle harvesting. There were occasional fig trees here and there, but it was as if everyone between these cities felt as if the fig was a second-class fruit that was not worth of growth. I saw only a half a dozen small cities with a house that had a fig tree, and no more than 3-4 of those had more than one (one or two had 5-6 trees).
Of note, As we were arriving at Lucca from Pisa, on the south side of the tracks as you come into the station (westbound), there was the most magnificent fig with a very unique leaf pattern I've never seen before, it appeared to be growing wild and very aggressively. The approximate location is between Via Di Fontanella (where it crosses the tracks) and the train station, on the same side of the tracks as the small offshoot of Via Di Fontanella. The dominant leaf had 5 lobes, some with "thumbs", it looked very similar to Strawberry 04A as listed in the variety database, but the little jags in the leaves were much rounder, and the leaves looked approximately 50% larger.
Inside the walled portions of the city of Lucca....if you walk in on the side that is for foot traffic only - across from the train station, there is a path which has a small pedestrian bridge over the small creek, and some stairs you must take up through the old battlements...there is a church/cathedral just inside the city wall called Duomo di Lucca, on the northeast corner of the building behind a fence/wall, there was a fig tree. It is not possible to see this tree in satellite view at google maps because there is a big round shadow right over it :)
For the trip back by train...same thing. Not many figs, lots of stone fruit and Oaks again. Nothing extraordinary around the city (we walked 6-12 miles per day). Nothing on the cab ride back to the airport.
After flying from Florence/Firenze to Barcelona, this was the eye-opener. In the cab ride from the airport to downtown (via C-31 and then B-10) I saw a number of fig tree farms on the sides of the interstate. The fig trees were non-descript, the leaves were mostly 5-lobe, spatulate, it looked like it could be anything, including Brown Turkey. But they were everywhere!! Inside the city itself, I didn't see many trees, things are more concrete than anything. But, let me tell you ... as an American who has travelled all over the world, I have never seen a city as strikingly beautiful as Barcelona. Even with all of the concrete and metal, there is a very pure and organic beauty to the entire city. Also, some of the best food we had this trip, only rivalled by San Sebastian, which is then only rivalled by that of Bavarian region of Germany for me.
After a couple of days, we rented a car and began the drive through Lleida, Zaragoza, Pamplona, and then to San Sebastian. We saw periodic fig trees along the way, but, for whatever reason (probably value), there were more oak trees, grapes and poppy fields than figs.
Aside from having amazing food in San Sebastian, we took a trip up through Mount Igueldo. The entrance to this is on the north side of the mountain, the northwest corner, to be exact, next to a big metal (rusted) cubic sculpture. As you start on the trail, if you look up the mountainside near the entrance, you will see a group of fig trees - possibly just one tree - sprwaled out approximately 35' wide and 30' deep. It is huge. This was the first indication that this would be a very special find - although it seems only a fraction of the tree itself was breaking dormancy, when all others were fully leafed out and had sizable fruit...so it may have been in the process of dying. We chose to take the stairs up to the top as frequently as possible, which avoids using the long, windy roads. We had limited time to do things. Along the way, if you peer over almost any of the walls at stopping points, I would say that one out of every three walls has a fig within sight. Of particular interest, when we reached the top where the huge statue of Jesus sits and the museum is inside...if you go to the north wall where all the canons are and look over the edge, you will see a huge fig tree with leaves that could be used for umbrellas, they are that large. it is very easy to get to this area by utilizing a staircase nearby and you should see a foot trail to get into the small nook - it is clearly a party spot for local teens, lots of bottles and garbage around. When leaving, we headed out in the direction of the island in the bay that has the single house on it (west). There is a main lookout on this side of the mountain where many people congregate. If you continue down through a couple of staircases, you can see a couple of the little mini-towers. There was a bum that was living in one of them. There was also a small stone shack where a woman was staying, and it appeared she sold some food (bocadillos, etc) and drink (beer, etc), it was as if it was a cafe. Along the wall 20' northwest of the back door to this place, there is a fig that smells of the sweetest coconut milk/cinnamon, it was olive green with a red eye, only partially open, 5-lobe, very large tree, very abundant fruit in clusters. These were the most notable finds. But there were at least 12-15 trees I had spotted on the mountain, it is definitely a place I would come back to for collecting fig tree cuttings.
On the ride from San Sebastian to Bilbao, not much sighted. Also the same from Bilbao through Burgos to stay at the parador in Lerma for the night. Lerma felt like the American "wild, wild west" with very few occupants, not many dwellings. It was strange walking around - while walking around, we passed some old ladies (60+) chattering and they got quiet as we passed and stared. The people there made us feel a little creepy, the town itself was a little creepy (albeit beautiful). We had intended to take the nature trail down the side of the city towards the schools (between the castle and the schools) because I spotted a fig tree down there, but we decided to sleep in and had problems with checking in for our flight, so we had to call Delta, iron everything out, etc. and never got the chance to walk.
On the way to Madrid, we were so tired at this point I sort of stopped looking. I will say, though, that I was not as impressed with Madrid, and after the poor experience with Madrid's airport (wife strip searched twice, me stripsearched once) and the poor cab driver on the way from the train station to the hotel, bad traffic and problems with the hotel itself (a very nice, well-rated one), I will probably never return to this city again. Out of all the places we went, we had more problems with/in Madrid. We did not explore a lot due to all of those problems, so I have no idea if you will find figs within the city or not...
I had several times when I wish I would have had some clippers with me to take cuttings, and I wish I would have taken more pictures to share, hindsight is 20/20.....
I want to go back to San Sebastian and raid Monte Igueldo (ok, and to eat the food, holy crap! Arzak was amazing!)