A Sweet Ending
Can there ever be too much chocolate? Until my visit to Perugia for Eurochocolate 2024 I would have said, “Never!” But as I wandered among the seemingly endless booths lining every street and piazza in Perugia’s historic center, I came close to changing my mind.
Eurochocolate 2024 in Perugia- the theme ( with the colorful mouth full of multi colored lips) was “Sulla Bocca Di Tutti”- on everyone’s lips!
I love chocolate, especially deep, dark chocolate. When I saw that Perugia was hosting the 30th anniversary event of this world classic celebration of my favorite food group I had to check it out. I’d wanted to visit Perugia and the timing was perfect. The festival was the week before I was scheduled to head back to the US for the holidays. What a sweet way to wrap up these seven months in Italy.
Without a second thought, I booked a train from Florence to Perugia and made an overnight reservation for a small hotel within an easy walk of the historic center. (Hotel Signa, recommended by my fellow Italophile cousin David., was a perfect base! Thank you, David!)
Perugia reminded me a bit of Ostuni. “Up” seemed to be the only way to get anywhere!
Stairs and more stairs!
Smiling hosts offered treats from every international fine chocolatier- of course Baci, based in Perugia and others whose names I knew ( Lindt, Venchi) and even more I’d never heard of. If you can think of something you might like dipped in chocolate - someone there had the same idea- every variety of dried and even fresh fruit, nuts and baked goods. I had to pick up a sampling of a few of the 10 varieties of dipped potato chips for my chip loving friend Pam. Of course there were truffles. And crepes, pancakes, kabobs and even churros covered in chocolate!
Chocolate covered chips.
Shoes, purses and a very large cinghiale (wild boar) fashioned from chocolate adorned the booths.
How could I decide what to try? I was overwhelmed! Instead of the day long feast I had imagined, I roamed among the booths with only a cone of fresh roasted chestnuts in hand. My only indulgence was one small piece of a spicy dark chocolate. On the walk downhill back to the hotel, I sipped the very best hot choclate ever. It took the chill off the brisk November evening.
Three varieties of hot chocolate- the extra fondante tasted like a cupful of melted chocolate!
Willie Wonka and friends from the Chocolate Factory
Characteristics of chocolate
This cinghiale won’t end up in a ragu!