CHOCOLATE!!
So, off we were to the land of chocolate, Amanda Knox, and spectacular views! Perugia was a beautiful city and world famous for its annual chocolate festival.
We had decided to go to the chocolate festival a week before through the tour group EuroAdventures, but we were emailed the friday before saying that since only four people had signed up for the tour, they were cancelling it. So instead, we decided to take the train to Perugia and go from there. We got on the train at about 8 a.m. Sunday morning and the ride was about an hour and a half. It was beautiful to ride through Chianti and see the countrysides of Tuscany. Since Perugia is located in Umbria, a different region in Italy, it was cool to see that too on the train. We arrived at the Perugia train station around 9:30 and found a bus that would take us up to the festival! So, we hopped on and had about a 20 minute ride up the hill. I did not realize that Perugia would be so hilly! For the most part, Florence is pretty flat. So riding around uphill was a little different than normal. When we got the the last stop, we had to walk a little bit more up the hill, but by the time we got to the top, the view was breathtaking! You could for miles around in all directions! At this point, it was nearing 11 a.m. and we were all starting to get hungry. We found entered the festival, it was a little different than I had imagined; there were so many people! It was completely packed to capacity. Although it was outside, it was crazy busy and there were people everywhere. Out of the whole festival, there was one booth with "real" food, so we ordered some panini and started to walk around. Shortly after, we noticed the EuroChocolate Card, that got you free samples at some of the booths, and a cool picture frame made out of chocolate! And all for only 6 euro! We got our first sample from Lindt, and after, we tried the chocolate liqueur at another booth. That was interesting. For me, it tasted like cough syrup mixed with chocolate syrup... But regardless, chocolate!
The day was filled with chocolate in every shape, size and flavor that you could imagine! The one down side was the crowds... there were lots of people, probably because it was a Sunday, but it was difficult to get around everyone all the time. Other than that, we had a great day that ended back at the train station around 3 to catch the train back to Firenze!
