Umbria ( Perugia - Eurochocolate 16th - 24th Oct )

Around autumn, Perugia is busy welcoming the arrival of Eurochocolate Festival. This annual event usually lasted more than a week and is filled with lots of interesting programs and exhibitions. No only the kids are exceptionally excited, the adults are also indulging in this festival. Perhaps losing weight will be the focus after the event and meanwhile it is time to savour some of the world’s finest quality chocolates during the festival.

There are four major cities who are hosting the Eurochcolate Festival namely: Perugia, Turin, Rome and Naples. Perugia is the home of Perugina that produces millions of lovely baci each year. Besides Perugina, there are other chocolate makers like Sandri, located in Corso Vanucci and Augusta Perusia found in Via Pinturicchio that are always packed with locals and tourists.

On a normal day, one can breeze through Corso Vannucci, one of the main street of Perugia’s historical centre. During the festival, you can probably take at least 5 minutes to walk to the garden (Giardini Carducci) from the grand fountain (Fontana Maggiore). There are booths located in various location of the historical centre such as Via Fani, Mercato Coperto, Rocca Paolina and Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria.

There are various publicities by the various chocolate makers like the vintage car display by Gay-Odin. One of my favourite chocolate is from Augusta Perusia. Perusia is the ancient name of Perugia. Augusta Perusia has a long history of making chocolates and ice-cream (gelato). One of the best way to share my experience of the festival is to send home some dark chocolates of Augusta Perusia that have low sugar content but high concentration of cocoa.

On the second day of the festival, Perugina showcased her excellent sculpturing skills. Each skilled sculpture will curved various icons from the hard chocolate blocks. They may require less strength than on hard marble. However, they required more skills to ensure that the intricate features of their artworks were brought to life. As usual, everyone crowded around the sculpture and seeing small blocks and tiny bits of chocolates that were chipped off being flown onto the platform. The helpers would gather the chipped pieces and distribute to the public. After patiently waiting for 20minutes, I was rewarded with a packed of the chocolates.

At Loggia dei Lanari, near to mercato coperto (covered market), La Scuola del Cioccolato di Perugina (School of Chocolate of Perugina ) had a chocolate making demonstration. While the chef was busy melting the blocks of white and dark chocolates in a microwave, the kids were already waiting anxiously to savour the chef’s creations.

One of my favourite is the chocolate that is made of caramel, white and dark chocolates. It took the chef nearly an hour to create this pain-staking creation. Firstly, he poured dark chocolate across the mould and drained off the excess melted chocolate. After the dark chocolate has solidified, he added some melted white chocolate into the mould and drain off the excess fluid. The crust of the chocolate looked like a piece of Italian marble with white and dark brown natural trimmings and patches. Once the crust is done, the chef filled the centre with caramel and white chocolate mixture. Finally, he sealed it with a thin layer of fondente (dark chocolate). And the moment has finally arrived for the kids to come forth to sample the chef’s creation. The chef built good rapport that the kids were so reluctant to leave even though the chocolates were all distributed. Even though the chef was perspiring throughout the demonstration, his efforts were appreciated after seeing the delighted and satisfied faces of the audiences.

On the last day of Eurochocolate Festival, it ended with a big bang as La Forza dei Baci is the most popular event. There were three starting points with the finishing point at Fontana Maggiore. The three points each have baci tubes of different length. At each starting point, the tubes are all filled with silver wrapped baci that were to be distributed to the public who were waiting patiently. By the time all the baci were distributed, the youths will dash for to the gathering point at Fontana Maggiore. Along the way, there were policemen ensuring the safety of the crowd and also the excited visitors and locals cheering them continuously.

As the saying goes “ In Rome, do as the Romans do.” I joined the Perugini crowd at Piazza Fortebraccio, near to University for Foreigners at Palazzo Gallenga to queue for the free baci courtesy of Perugina. Kids, adults and even the senior citizens were all ready to sample the first baci. The organizers from Perugina were indeed generous to distribute each person with 6 to 8 baci each time. There are folks who queue for umpteen times and some came prepared with big plastic bags. There is no need to feel ashamed for being greedy as there seemed to be continuous flow of baci to be emptied. To my amazement, I collected 82 baci and filled them into my pockets and waist pouch.



At the festival, everything circles around the theme of chocolates. There are numerous products made of chocolate other than the usual chocolate bars. There are chocolate pasta, chocolate pizza, chocolate crepes, chocolate pastries, chocolate fondue, hot chocolate beverages and chocolate liqueur. The crepes were filled with ample amount of Nutella chocolate spread and the nutella melted with the hot crepes that tasted so good while walking in the streets with temperature around 17-19 degrees celsius.

At Palazzo dei Priori, the booth set up by Caffarel had an interesting slogan. The Italians like sweet or bitter? (Gli italiani amano dolce o amaro?) However, it is not limited to Italians only as anyone who likes chocolates can try this survey. Each visitor to this booth will be given a survey form to be filled at the end of the exhitbition. Next, each visitor will stand on a weighing scale to have their weight measured. I was surprised that I have lost 6kg during my three and a half months stay in Perugia. It must have the endless slopes and steps in Perugia that has given me a slimmer build. For those who realized that they have gained weight, perhaps they will be feeling guilty whether to take more chocolates. There were three rows and each visitor can choose whichever row to queue as each row will feature different products from Caffarel. Finally, each visitor is rewarded with a sweet and bitter chocolate from Caffarel. After sampling both the chocolates, simply cast your vote into the chocolate box provided.

It will be hard not to gain some extra kilos after the Eurochocolate Festival.