Chocolate, chocolate, and some more Chocolate!

When you think chocolate festival what do you think of first? You probably think chocolate fountains and copious amounts of chocolate everywhere. Well your in luck that's one way to describe Perugia's chocolate festival held every fall. Perugia is known for their chocolate and chocolate factory. So every year this festival has been growing and becoming a place for chocolatiers (love this word) to introduce new and different kinds of chocolate and see if people like it. I happened to be very fortunate because for my food and culture class we took a fieldtrip to the festival!

 This is Spicy Chocolate with Chili Pepper in it! Very hot but interesting.

When we arrived we all got these chocolate cards that give you discounts and some free stuff from different stands. With our cards and our map be began our scavenger hunt of finding the stalls that gave away free stuff! Several streets and Piazza's have stands or stalls of different kinds of chocolate. You think of it and they probably had it. Our first sampling was of this chocolate coffee strong drink which was a little too potent after just one sip. From their we got hot chocolate (cioccolata caldo), which we ended up having 3 times because it was that delicious. You could buy so much chocolate in some many different ways- bars, truffles, blocks, on a banana, on chestnuts, and in fun shapes! I don't think I have ever eaten that much chocolate in one day.

After filling up our card and making several laps around the stands, my friend Nina and I went in search of real food! We ended up stumbling upon a pub called Joyce's. (I was excited because I lived in Joyce freshmen year...J4 <3>  The trip was a success and I got to try new chocolates making it the best class field trip so far!

I am off for the next week and a half to London and Spain for my fall break. I will update ya'll on my travels immediately once I return!


Ciao for now,

Beth

dolce far niente

"Sweetness of doing nothing "

I stumbled across this Italian saying today and thought how perfect it is to apply to my life especially while living in Florence. Italians like to live life simply and enjoy every aspect of their day. Whether they are walking around town or eating with friends and family.

So today, after chatting with some friends from home and listening to my friends radio show on WWPV 88.7 which is the schools radio station. I headed out with this saying fresh in my mind and some good songs running through my head as I went in search of the public library. Why the public library? Well, my program, API, constantly e-mails us about fun and interesting places and events going on in the city. In a recent e-mail, they suggested two places to visit, one was the public library the other a cafe. In Florence the library is a place where locals like to go as an escape from everything. I had a big chunk of reading to do and decided why not. The library was a very cool place, where you could sit outside on a porch that wrapped around the interior courtyard or inside on a couch. So, I found a couch and began my extensive amount of reading on the history of Italian food and culture.

The other place that they recommended is a cafe/bar that is named after Hemingway. I haven't ventured their yet because it opens later in the afternoon and I haven't gotten the chance, but when I do I will tell you all about it!

The sweet and simple life

Greetings everyone! So in my last post I mentioned how I was going to volunteer this Thursday and help out this 87 year old women. Well it is now Friday and I wanted to tell you about my amazing experience.

Thursday morning my one class, Food and Culture, got moved to 8:30pm because we were going to a restaurant for dinner! The food was amazing and atmosphere was quit enjoyable. Well, that morning I woke at a descent hour (9:30) had a kiwi, Clementine, and some coffee for breakfast and headed out to explore. My destination was the Piti Palace and Boboli Gardens.

The Piti palace is where the Medici family lived and is on the other side of the Arno river. Since, I have this pretty awesome museum cards I got to see everything for FREE ! (props to API for giving us it). The Palace is perched on this incline so walking up to the gates is a little bit of a steep walk. Also the pavement in front of the palace is a nice place to relax and people watch in the afternoon (which I have done while journaling!!) Entering in I toured the apartments and corridors taking in all the Renaissance art and beautiful ceilings. This palace is connected to the Uffizi Museum which was where the Medici family kept their private art collection which nows makes up the museum. The Medici's didn't want to have to walk in the streets and pass by all the vendors so they built a corridor connecting the Piti Palace on one side of the river to the Uffizi. This bridge is known as the Ponte Vecchio. Today, this bridge consists of mostly all jewellery stores lining either side of the bridge.

After walking around and trying to read the signs under paintings in Italian I ventured outside to the Boboli gardens which is the palaces backyard! This was my main reason for the trip so I wandered around (hiking uphill as the incline continued for some time). At the top, I got an amazing view of the city and countryside. Reminding me yet again why I love it here so much! The gardens are not flower gardens what more trees, statues, and a big fountain. I meandered around exploring and taking some beautiful pictures. I also enjoyed pretending that I was one of Jane Austin's characters in her books going for my morning stroll ( Jane Bennett is my favorite). I really like the book Pride and Prejudice, and secretly wish I lived during that time.

Anyways, after taking in the beautiful and surprisingly warm day, I ventured home for some leftover potato leek soup that I made the night before. I was an experiment, but turned out to be so delicious! After my quick lunch and some time consulting my map I ventured out of my apartment to try and retrace my way to the Signora's apartment. (Yes, I am a terrible person and I forgot her name in all the chaos in our first meeting. So I will refer to her as Signora which is Mrs/Miss and is formal and respectful). I managed to retrace and get to her house at three on the dot now knowing how to get to another part of the city, yah for me! Inside I told her a little bit about myself and then we headed out for a walk with the promise of chocolate! Walking with Signora gave me a new perspective to the city and allowed me to enjoy my surroundings a lot more as we slowly walked.

Every few minutes she would stop in the middle of the side-walk and ask me a question or tell me how to prepare a certain dish before walking on. I am usually one of the people walking and trying to get around others conversing in the middle of the sidewalk so it was pretty funny. Walking a 87 year old women around also drew different attention to myself. Especially since I am American walking this lovely little old Italian lady around. (She held my hand and my arm the whole time which was precious). Italians do not acknowledge personal space much and will definitely touch and be closer to you. During our walk with a few breaks sitting on benches and people watching we ended up at this delicious chocolate store. There she shouted in asking if they had hot chocolate that day, which they did, and proceeded to get us a bench while I waited on our drinks. Now, let me say that I'm not a huge hot chocolate lover, but this hot chocolate was fabulous and put the packets of Swiss Miss to shame. After finishing and paying we moved to a better bench so we could people watch! (We were just destined to meet and spend time together).

I almost forgot to mention that Singnora does not speak any English so all of our conversations are in Italian which really helps me. My Italian is a work in progress, but I am trying to make large efforts in speaking and reading Italian. I am part of the Cinema club with my school that watches Italian moves every week (with English subtitles). At the end of our walk I promised her I would come again Monday afternoon. I am trying to go twice a week before I get too busy with Midterms and Fall break. I left and journeyed back now knowing the way and was in such a good mood. It's funny how the simplest things in life like spending the afternoon with someone can really mean so much.

My Thursday, ended up being very successful and well spent with my Piti Palace adventure, followed by my afternoon with Signora, and finally rounded off with a delicious meal that counted as class! Tomorrow I am off bright and early to Bologna to sample Balsamic vinegar and taste the delicious cuisine Bolgna offers!

Ciao for now!