One word: EuroChocolate

Yeah, that’s right, a festival that unifies all of Europe for the sole purpose of celebrating chocolate---sounds like a worthy cause if you ask me!

Crowds  of people charging the chocolate tents

It goes without saying that I have been obsessed with the idea of this chocolate festival since the first time it was mentioned. Obsessed. Thus, when Elisa* mentioned EuroChocolate as a possible group trip, I freaked the hell out.

Bright and early, Saturday morning, the Holy Cross crew boarded the train to Perugia: the location of Chocolate Fest and the birthplace of Baci, a famous Italian candy that consists of chocolate and hazelnuts. (Rather a bummer for us nut-allergy kids of the world.)  Anyhow, the city of Perugia is perched up in the rolling hills of Umbria, making it quite the picturesque locale for chocolate-lovers around the world to flock.

Though this looks incredibly fake, it is my actual photo of Perugia.

The chocolate festival itself is much how you would imagine it to be: stands upon stands of vendors selling chocolate everything.  We purchased Choco Cards which earned us a little chocolate treat from every vendor.  Quite a deal indeed.

What's up, Choco Cards?!?!

Unfortunately, as most of these things go, too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing.  After suffocating myself in chocolate for a few hours, I put myself over the edge with a  “Chocolate Kebab.”  This is going to sound rather disgusting in its description, but bear with me... it looked like a great idea at the time.

Good, old Italian puns.
Pericoloso: dangerous
Goloso: delicious

L'Adair and I practicing for the chocolate-filled day to come.

True kebab is a nasty, Middle-Eastern fast-food that, for some odd reason, dominates all of Europe.  (Disclaimer: I would include a photo of it, but it would ruin your appetite and the beauty of this blog post dedicated to all things chocolatey and delicious.)  A kebab is a wrap of sorts filled with meat, onions, vegetables, lettuce, spicy sauce, creamy sauce, and oftentimes french fries.  It is bizarre. To me, the worst part is the fact that the meat is not only an absolutely unknown specimen, but it is also hanging from the ceiling and spinning in circles all day long.  The person making the wrap does so by shaving the meat off of this unknown animal. Um ew. Clearly, I am not a fan and will never eat one of these ungodly creations.

Things that I will eat: Chocolate kebab.  In this case, the chocolate is the meat of the sandwich.  (In my opinion, the chocolate should always be the meat of the sandwich!)  The bread is a thick, sweet pastry that is doused in fruit syrup and stuffed with chocolate shavings--here, the chocolate spins around and the server shaves the chocolate. Nom nom nom.

Ahhh! Chocolate Kebab! I'm devastated that I don't have a close-up photo.
Sadly, this is an un-google-able item.

After a few chocolate bars, a few chocolate candies, a cup of dark-hot chocolate,** a gelato, and this chocolate kebab, I decided that I would never eat another morsel of chocolate for the rest of my life.

Obviously, this lasted all of a few hours, until I was back in Florence and reunited with my divine supply of Reese’s cups, product of Colleen’s American care package.  Oh the life of a chocoholic...

*Elisa is our adorable, little Italian friend.  In reality, she is a super-cute, cool, Italian university student that we pretend is our friend.  Let’s ignore the fact that Holy Cross pays her to hang out with us.

**In Italy, hot chocolate (or cioccolato caldo) is code for hot, chocolate pudding.  It is nearly impossible to drink the heavenly concoction because of its super-thickness thus it is generally accompanied by a spoon.  At chocolate festival, they upped the game with a wafer cookie straw and a perfect dollop of whipped cream. Pure perfection.