In Milan, Castruccio meets Galeazzo Visconti, the son of Matteo Visconti. Castruccio first notices the wealth of Milan: "It was a scene of gaiety and splendour. The young nobles were preparing to attend on the emperor in a royal hunt. They were attired with the utmost magnificence, with full dresses of embroidered silk, cloth, or velvet, and cloaks of precious furs; some were accoutred in short gowns with trowsers tied in the same manner as that of Pepi, but made of fine linen and embossed silks; their collars were ornamented with strings of pearl" (117).

"Then coming nearer home, they climbed the Euganean hills, and penetrated their recesses. Guinigi had an ultimate object in view; he wished to impress on the mind of his pupil a love of pease, and a taste for rural pleasures" (80).

Given Guinigi's persuasive tactics were not working on the young Castruccio, he was hoping witnessing the beauty and simplicity of the hillside would convince him that the pastoral life was not as terrible as Castruccio believed it to be.

The Gates of Somnauth are significant geographically in both The Moonstone and British colonial history. Indeed, the gates itself reflect the entrance to the Somnauth temple which has more significance considering it is likely the site where the Moonstone was stolen, but the gates still radiate a sense of mystery.

(Photo credited to Tate UK originally from Joseph Mallord William Turner)

Castruccio marches with the emperor. The two towns prior (Crena and Lodi) yield immediately, but Cremona puts up a slight resistance at first, and is punished for doing so. Custruccio is dismayed at the way the towns people are treated by the conquering army. He "sent men to the protection of several of the palaces, while he and Arrigo rode all night around town; and, having the watchword of the emperor, they succeeded in rescuring some poor wretches from the brutality of the insolent soldiers" (123). 

On his way back to Italy, Castruccio goes through a dangerous passage through the Alps. It is here that he meets and rescues Benedetto Pepi, who afterwards becomes a reaccuring figure. (Page 107).

After fleeing England, Castruccio finds himself in Ostend, where he meets Alberto Scoto. He fights for Alberto Scoto, and the lessons he learns under him contributes to the manner with which he seeks power and glory. As Shelley describes it "Scoto's was an evil school; and, if his pupil gained from him a true insight into Italian politics, he at the same time learned the use of those arts which then so much disgraced that people" (100). 

Pisa is the home city of the tyrant Uggucione. Uggucione is a staunch Ghibeline, and a sometime ally of Castruccio in his attempt to return to Lucca. He is very active in his campaigns of war against the Guelphs in Florence and Lucca.

Castruccio accompanies King Edward of England to Chelsea on a hawking party. Castruccio and another noble get into a quarrel over their birds, and Castruccio stabs him with a stiletto, leading to his exile from England and Alderigo's brief imprisonment.

Beatrice's trial takes place "in a large square of Ferrara, under the walls of the garden of the convent of St. Anna, and before the gates of the monastery to the care of whose monks the Judgement was intrusted" (217). This is the convent where the true life Beatrice moved into in 1257 and lived until her death in 1264