Eurochocolate 2012!

Good news! You get lots of pictures today because we went to the Eurochocolate festival in Perugia.

The Eurochocolate festival is a commercial event to...sell you chocolate! But it is also a great excuse to visit a nearby city and an opportunity to see more chocolate varieties, vendors, and merchandise than you would ever see in a lifetime otherwise.

We traveled to Perugia by train. Here is our beautiful family in transit:













The scenery was like this until we got close to the city:




And then we were there and it was packed! The festival occupies several streets in the center of Perugia, probably two miles in total. This was the crowd on Corso Vannucci, looking towards Piazza IV Novembre:




And looking the other way down the street:




This festival is two weekends and so crowded that it is hard to walk around. Do you think people like chocolate?

Speaking of chocolate, I took those pictures standing next to a chocolate carving stand. Start with a big block of chocolate and start carving away with mallet and chisel:










If it works in the blog you can even see them in action:

This guy looked tired:




Now, carving chocolate creates chocolate shavings, chips, and dust. A lot of it:




So much that they put it up it in bags...




And give it away:




That was not the only chocolate sculpture. The tool in this sculptor's hand is a saw:




The inspiration for this one is in the foreground:




Perugia is another of those cities blessed with a long history. We peeked into the ground floor of a museum near that first chocolate sculpture. The building itself probably dates back to the Renaissance. We thought it was very cute that the original guard room still being used for that same purpose (those are security camera monitors):




Piazza IV Novembre is the center of historic Perugia, and is dominated by the cathedral:







An interesting thing about this cathedral is that it has an outward facing pulpit and crucifix, presumably for those events where only the piazza can hold the crowds:




From the steps you could see the crowds stretching into the distance:




But back to chocolate. Recognize these bears?




James loaded up on those bears. Here is what he scored for 4 Euro:




All the European brand names have to be there:




With lots and lots and lots of chocolate:



















Yes, that last one is a chocolate kebab. I really could not do the variety justice with a few pictures. There were hundreds of vendors from all the European brands to unknown artisan chocolatiers. Block after city block of chocolate.

Italians love chocolate, in everything from breakfast cereal (they use chocolate like Americans use raisins) to coffee. And they get imaginative with it. Some of the things I found in chocolate today: hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, salt, red pepper, lavender, rose petals, orange peels, lemon, strawberries, raspberries, coffee beans, cocoa nibs, candied fruits, gummy candies, cherries, blackberries, rice, wheat, faro, and "semi di canapa". After some searching for someone who knew the translation we established that those were cannabis seeds.

What wasn't there? American chocolate. I don't imagine Italians think much of Hershey's, but I know that M&Ms are an exotic imported treat.

Of course, not everyone wanted just chocolate. Here are some children you know returning from a side trip to buy sugar sweets:













Florence has one made to look like a fried egg. I assume it didn't taste like one:



Even the end of the outing turned out to be a very successful. Not only did we make it to the train station in time, not only did the anticipated train actually run, but there was even a city bus waiting in Ponto Rio for the trip up the hill to Todi. We didn't have to take two trips in Alexandra's little Fiat 500. Best of all was my wife's brilliance: she had bus tickets in reserve in her purse, ready for just such an event.

Michael