Saturday, October 17, 2009
My name is Cara McMenamin and I am a chocaholic. In fact, I am so obsessed with the rich, dark, sugary sweet that I am willing to wake up at 4:30am on a cold fall morning, walk twenty minutes to a train station, and then take three separate trains and one bus just to spend the day feeding my addiction.
Today I traveled to the annual Chocolate Festival in Perugia for a full day in Chocolate Paradise. Having foolishly waited until Wednesday to reserve my seat on the one bus from Siena to Perugia, I was truly devastated to learn that it was sold out and that I might not be able to get to the one festival I had been looking forward to since my arrival in September. Thankfully, I was not the only procrastinator in my group and soon learned that the two Mollys and their Italian roommate, Serena, were also chocolate fanatics willing to go to almost any lengths to foster their addictions. Thus, the decision was made to buy the very last tickets for the bus ride back from Perugia and then purchase train tickets for a 6am departure to the festival on Saturday.
At 5:15 I met the girls on the deserted streets of Siena and we booked it to the train station to catch our first ride. Three hours and three trains later, we arrived in Perugia where we took a bus to the city center. During the trip, our mutual discomfort with the reality of growing up resulted in the collective consensus that marriage and other signs of maturity are in fact, still light-years away. So, while the idea of ever having real children was shooed off as something to be considered only decades in the future, Serena suggested that we instead work on creating chocolate babies today because, as she said, “for this I am ready.” Thus, we left the train station with the full intention of stuffing ourselves enough for two.
As we rode up the elevator on to the main street our eyes lit up and we knew that rising before the sun was absolutely worth it. Left, right, up, down – everywhere you looked vendors stood behind elaborate displays of chocolate towers and hot chocolate stations offering you the delectable treat in every form you could possibly imagine. From the conventional bars of dark, milk, and white chocolate to the most innovative creations like chocolate pasta (picture #2), chocolate with olive oil, and chocolate beer, the Perugian vendors offered the mob-like crowd an endless selection of sweet. Because we had arrived so early, we decided that it was worth purchasing a 5euro choc-card which got us samples at a variety of stations throughout the festival, including the thickest dark chocolate hot chocolate I’ve ever drunk/eaten, a wine tasting, and a package of “chocolate medicine.”
First we taste-tested and then we bought and then we taste-tested some more. In between our sugar highs we even managed to enjoy some of Perugia’s beautiful architecture, landscape, and history. We walked inside the city’s first well fed by warm springs, found a fresco by Raphael, and took a peek into the impressive duomo. By the time the bus arrived at 5:30, we were cold, exhausted, and quickly crashing from our day-long sugar rush, but the ride back was significantly easier than the one going and much more satisfying now that we were lugging bags of goodies.
Oh, and my chocolate baby’s name is Charlie (who I hope may one day own a chocolate factory).
My name is Cara McMenamin and I am a chocaholic. In fact, I am so obsessed with the rich, dark, sugary sweet that I am willing to wake up at 4:30am on a cold fall morning, walk twenty minutes to a train station, and then take three separate trains and one bus just to spend the day feeding my addiction.
Today I traveled to the annual Chocolate Festival in Perugia for a full day in Chocolate Paradise. Having foolishly waited until Wednesday to reserve my seat on the one bus from Siena to Perugia, I was truly devastated to learn that it was sold out and that I might not be able to get to the one festival I had been looking forward to since my arrival in September. Thankfully, I was not the only procrastinator in my group and soon learned that the two Mollys and their Italian roommate, Serena, were also chocolate fanatics willing to go to almost any lengths to foster their addictions. Thus, the decision was made to buy the very last tickets for the bus ride back from Perugia and then purchase train tickets for a 6am departure to the festival on Saturday.
At 5:15 I met the girls on the deserted streets of Siena and we booked it to the train station to catch our first ride. Three hours and three trains later, we arrived in Perugia where we took a bus to the city center. During the trip, our mutual discomfort with the reality of growing up resulted in the collective consensus that marriage and other signs of maturity are in fact, still light-years away. So, while the idea of ever having real children was shooed off as something to be considered only decades in the future, Serena suggested that we instead work on creating chocolate babies today because, as she said, “for this I am ready.” Thus, we left the train station with the full intention of stuffing ourselves enough for two.
As we rode up the elevator on to the main street our eyes lit up and we knew that rising before the sun was absolutely worth it. Left, right, up, down – everywhere you looked vendors stood behind elaborate displays of chocolate towers and hot chocolate stations offering you the delectable treat in every form you could possibly imagine. From the conventional bars of dark, milk, and white chocolate to the most innovative creations like chocolate pasta (picture #2), chocolate with olive oil, and chocolate beer, the Perugian vendors offered the mob-like crowd an endless selection of sweet. Because we had arrived so early, we decided that it was worth purchasing a 5euro choc-card which got us samples at a variety of stations throughout the festival, including the thickest dark chocolate hot chocolate I’ve ever drunk/eaten, a wine tasting, and a package of “chocolate medicine.”
First we taste-tested and then we bought and then we taste-tested some more. In between our sugar highs we even managed to enjoy some of Perugia’s beautiful architecture, landscape, and history. We walked inside the city’s first well fed by warm springs, found a fresco by Raphael, and took a peek into the impressive duomo. By the time the bus arrived at 5:30, we were cold, exhausted, and quickly crashing from our day-long sugar rush, but the ride back was significantly easier than the one going and much more satisfying now that we were lugging bags of goodies.
Oh, and my chocolate baby’s name is Charlie (who I hope may one day own a chocolate factory).
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