Chocoholics... there is a festival in Pisa next weekend , a preview for the big Eurochocolate in Perugia October 11-13. Then in Perugia the 19th through the 27th.
For those not into crowds or festivals. The wrapped chocolates in Italy all disappeat during the summer, it is too hot and are remade and reissued fresh in September. Wait until you have had a fresh Baci!
Judy Divina Cucina Florence Everyone should try being Italian at least once a day!!
oh dear, this may be very bad news - and I had been doing so well on my diet.
We are going to be in Pisa next weekend and had hoped to be able to go up the tower (it was closed last time we were there). Do you think that will mean the place is teaming with people more than usual?
Posts: 1954 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 09 September 2002
How come no one ever suggests a get together at a CHOCOLATE glut? Hey, expats, how about it? Perugia? Little train? Sounds like a natural. I wondered why I couldn't find Pocket Coffee.
Posts: 2774 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
Judy - That would explain why we had such a hard time finding Bacis when we were there in July! We did manage to find a small store on a side street in Perugia that had some along with terrific fruit-filled hard candys. I managed to get them home (resisting them for the rest of the trip) but wonder, now, how the 'fresh' ones are compared to what I had!
Nancy
Posts: 265 | Location: Massachusetts | Registered: 09 June 2002
quote:Originally posted by decobabe: How come no one ever suggests a get together at a CHOCOLATE glut? Hey, expats, how about it? Perugia? Little train? Sounds like a natural. I wondered why I couldn't find Pocket Coffee.
Well, sadly, I'm not an expat -- YET! But I'd love to meet up with some of you guys in Perugia!
We've planned our October trip around the fall festivals we want to visit. SAT, 26/OCT will be the morning in Gubbio for the Truffle Market & Festival then on to Perugia for the afternoon at EUROCHOCOLATE.
Aren't you in CdiC? We will be just outside Umbertide and plan to head east to Gubbio on the S219. Perhaps you could meet us at the intersection of E45 and S219. There is a restaurant there called Poggio Manente. We were planning on having a late dinner there on our way back from Eurochocolate, anyway. So you could leave your car there. There are four of us, but I have requested a larger car, so I'm betting we could squeeze 3 in the back seat from the trip to Gubbio and then on to Perugia. How does that sound?
Deborah, all I can say is that if you are planning on having dinner after attending the chocolate festival, you must be doing something wrong!!! Not that I'm dissapointed or bitter that I won't be there too!!
Posts: 4917 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
Casa dei sogni may also want to join us. I have a policy of doing all truffle things, usually, but we have our big show in early November, so I don't need to. I don't know that restaurant, but it's just a few minutes away to check on. I can actually take the little train to Umbertide, too.
Posts: 2774 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
quote:Originally posted by decobabe: Casa dei sogni may also want to join us. I have a policy of doing all truffle things, usually, but we have our big show in early November, so I don't need to. I don't know that restaurant, but it's just a few minutes away to check on. I can actually take the little train to Umbertide, too.
It would be very cool if others come, too! We will have to think out the transportation thing, but where there is a will there is a way, right? Why don't you e-mail me privately with your telephone number? Then when I pick up my rental car in Sorrento on the 25th, I'll call you to let you know how much room it has.
Now, about Poggio Manete --- If you are pulling off the E45 at the Umbertide exit it sits on the side of a bare hill up to the right. It has one of those big crossed fork and knife symbols on the side of the building. I've never thought of it as a gourmet destination. Although it is very nice. It has become our own local "comfort spot" where we feel the trip isn't complete if we haven't visited Franco at least once. In truth it is really more as a truckstop/local "guy" joint that just happens to have a very nice dining room in the cellar. <grin> You walk up a flight of stairs to the terrace (which is usually unoccupied) Inside you must fight your way through a packed dining room dominated by a blaring big screen TV. The all male patrons in this dining room are probably the truckers whose rigs are parked outside. Then you go down a flight of stairs to a beautiful brick vaulted dining room with fine linens etc. Franco runs the downstairs dining room with a decided flare. I don't think I've ever seen tourists there. The only non-Italians seem to be from the contingent of mostly British expats who live around Umbertide. During the day it appears to be mostly business lunches and the occasional "older man, younger woman" rendezvous.
Okay, I guess it's not too soon for me to start the countdown....in 25 days, we too will be in Italy!!! Guess I'd better email the Perugina factory to make sure they have plenty of my chocolate bananas!! Be sure to have a cup of hot chocolate at the Eurochocolate festival...it was so thick it might have just been melted chocolate! I'll be thinking of all you lucky ones during the week of the 20th!
Posts: 4917 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
You will be here for our big truffle show and San Florido, and both are very good! There's always a reason for being here. I think Amy wants to come with you.
Posts: 2774 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
I have been to Eurochocolate... and almost all the large food festivals.. I must admit.. it is all a little overwhelming for me..and too much all together. Rather like a Stendhal's sindrome with chocolate! I am hoping that the Pisa event will be smaller.. but when you talk about free tastings.. everyone comes out of the woodwork.
I am also going to go to the Slow Food event in Torino, which the last time I went, I found the food stands badly arranged.. but will try again!
Judy Divina Cucina Florence Everyone should try being Italian at least once a day!!
quote:Eurochocolate in Perugia the 19th through the 27th....For those not into crowds...
We've been to this in the past, but never on a weekend. This morning was so beautiful, we decided to go to Perugia. We knew there would be a crowd when we saw the police had blocked off most of the exits into Perugia. But, after finding a parking place, we were overwhelmed by the 100,000+ people on the main street in Perugia.
It turns out they are also having a politically correct chocolate festival... presenting the other side of chocolate.. the way it is harvested.. treated.. and the workers too. Including Nestle, who have bought Perugina and laid people off!
It was such a nice day.. I stayed home and made some desserts! As Bill says.. nice weather brings out everyone from the woodwork. I attended a Food show, Boccacesca, in my own village of Certaldo, and there was a fabulous exposition by the the tourist board of the Lunigiana with fresh baked bread, between hot clays plates! and other goodies. halloween will be the Festa della Zucca in the medieval village-
Judy Divina Cucina Florence Everyone should try being Italian at least once a day!!
I'll be going to Gubbio tomorrow for a couple hours, with a stopover in Perugia for about 1.5 or 2 ... I'm not exactly looking forward to those crowds there around 11:00! Gubbio should be interesting to see though. Maybe I can find a place to walk around Perugia that isn't jammed with people to keep myself busy for a couple hours.
Maria When you know even for a moment that it's your time, then you can walk with the power of a thousand generations
[This message was edited by MariaV on October 22, 2002 at 02:10 AM.]
Posts: 1176 | Location: London area now! | Registered: 10 November 2001
Note to Maria...your cream of wheat is on the way, but I must say that mentioning cream of wheat in a thread about the chocolate festival seems a little strange to me! Last year we didn't arrive in Perugia until Monday, and altho there were not as many exhibits or shows going on, the streets were wonderfully clear so that we could see and eat and buy all the chocolate we wanted! Judy, how did the choclate festival in Pisa compare? And how was the Slow Food Festival in Torino, or is that still to come?
Posts: 4917 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
I was surfing the WA Post Italy news pages and saw a report on Eurochocolate. Here's the copy: -------------------------------------
Thousands Attend Chocolate Festival
By Kate Siber Associated Press Writer Monday, October 21, 2002; 10:13 AM
PERUGIA, Italy ââ Chocolate statues, cocoa-flavored pasta, even solid chocolate "Pinocchio" noses â these are some of the goodies on display at an annual, weeklong festival dedicated to the food of the gods.
An estimated 30,000 people converged on the Umbrian city of Perugia for the first weekend of the "Eurochocolate" festival, whose theme this year is chocolate and cinema.
To celebrate, Tuscan chocolatier Simone di Castro constructed life-sized characters from the newly released Italian film "Pinocchio" â all made of solid chocolate.
Visitors could marvel at the sculptures in a "Pinocchio" village, where di Castro sold "Pinocchio" cups and t-shirts, as well as "Pinocchio" noses: cone-shaped chunks of chocolate sold in weights from 60 grams (2-ounces) "worth of lies" to 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) "worth of lies."
"We can't make enough noses," assistant Pamela Fontana marveled. "People just keep buying them!"
At a special event Sunday, five sculptors on platforms sculpted huge hunks of chocolate into "Star Trek" characters and scenes from "La Dolce Vita," throwing the scraps to crowds that gathered to watch.
"For the baby!" some parents yelled, as they held up their young children over their shoulders to try to score a prized shaving.
One Perugian restaurant boasted an all-chocolate menu including chocolate flavored gnocchis, or potato dumplings, and cocoa tagliatelle with cheese sauce.
The "Eurochocolate" festival has been held every year since 1996 in Perugia, home of Perugina, maker of Italy's famous "Baci" hazelnut and chocolate candy.
Perugina, Lindt and Valrhona were among the vendors selling their sweets during the festival, which wraps up Sunday. Others were giving away freebies: dark chocolate shavings, breadsticks dipped in melted chocolate, and orange, white and dark chocolate disks.
While some visitors found prices for the top-name brands too high and the crowds too large, others relished in the extremes of chocoholism.
In an all-chocolate beauty salon, chocolate soap, marzipan body lotion and cappucino bubble bath were on sale. Saleswomen gave free chocolate baths, chocolate tattoos and even styled hair with chocolate paint and chocolate covered berries.
"Time is precious," a well-dressed man said after he had his hair styled with chocolate. "You need to spend it on beautiful things."
Posts: 7485 | Location: Edmonds, WA | Registered: 25 October 2001
quote:Originally posted by Barb: Note to Maria...your cream of wheat is on the way, but I must say that mentioning cream of wheat in a thread about the chocolate festival seems a little strange to me!
I know -- I really have no idea why I did that Maybe chocolate would taste good on ... okay maybe not. I think I was just excited about people coming, and other greets being planned Sorry about that! Although the Festival was still going strong in Perugia yesterday.
I'll just back to writing some more and working on my website
Maria When you know even for a moment that it's your time, then you can walk with the power of a thousand generations
Posts: 1176 | Location: London area now! | Registered: 10 November 2001
Topic Closed
Maybe chocolate would taste good on ... okay maybe not. I think I was just excited about people coming, and other greets being planned