I know someone who has thought real hard and often about that offer of looking at it.

I started with a Castagnari in C and later I bought one in D and you're absolutely right about the quality, playability, sound .........
Funny is that the buttons on the right side are further from eachother and the box is smaller. If you open the box you only see craftmanship inside just like the outside. All reeds are standing up in two reedblocks and that's a different with the LA-boxes which have the same reeds configuration as the old Monarch, Globe, Regal and Sterling boxes. People who have any knowledge of this instrument says that the sound of the Castagnari is a bit different than that from the boxes from LA. I play a Junior Martin(C) and a Falcon(D) and I prefer them. I own my Castagnari (D) still and I can't say any negative about it and Peer is right about the use in other styles of music and for the two and three rows it's the same quality. But they costs some money, but you get a lot for it.
Evil Emil and the King Kong Cobra's play only Castagnari with an internal mike. Link#2

Never heard of Evil Emil before - a most excellent Zydeco groove!