Chocolate Festival and Brandon's Visit

  Perugia, Umbria, Italy
Saturday, October 18, 2008

Perugia for the Chocolate Festival and Brandon's Visit!
 
            On Saturday there was a chocolate festival called Euro Chocolate 2008 in Perugia.  It worked out perfectly that Perugia is about half way between Rome and Florence.  We decided to take the regional train that takes four hours total and just have it take two hours to Perugia and then two hours to Florence that night.  We got to the train on time but the train was completely full! We had to sit on the floor for about an hour of the trip because the train was so crowded.  I got a little worried that the festival would be too crowded but it did not matter too much once we got there.  We were able to store our bags for the day and were off to the Chocolate Festival!
            My roommate Sara had gone with her class so the first thing we did was find her once we go there.

chocolate sign

Then we spent the day going around to different chocolate booths and trying free chocolate!  I was in heaven.  I never thought I would say that I have had too much chocolate in one day but I actually did!

Toblerone mmm

My favorite booths were the Toblerone booth and the Milky booth that was a log cabin that you could go in and take a picture with a chocolate cow.

Chocolate Cow

The festival was in the middle of the town and there was a game of chocolate chess and a giant chocolate key at the end of the tents.  Our train was not until around 5:30 so we had time to explore Perugia a little bit as well and of course buy some chocolate.  Perugia, like many of the little towns near Florence, had a beautiful view of the countryside that we spent some time admiring as well.

Perugia!

 
            We were back in Florence by Saturday night and since Brandon stayed until Tuesday we had a few days in Florence together.  It was nice just to get to spend time together and Brandon got to meet my roommates.  I cooked Brandon a lot of Pasta because he missed having it in Spain and he cooked me dinner one night too.

View of Florence

We went up to the Piazza Michelangelo and got a beautiful view of the city. 

Piazza Michaelangelo

We went up there during the day and then Brandon had the idea of going back at night for the sunset too and it was very romantic.  I took Brandon to the San Lorenzo market and we bought gifts for people there.  On Monday after I had class we went and climbed the Duomo.  

Duomo!

I had done this with my parents but wanted to show Brandon the church and the view at the top.  That night we went to dinner at Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant here.  We both mixed Mexican food and it was fun because we go to Mexican together a lot at home so it was familiar.  Afterwards we walked around Florence at night and Brandon bought me roses from one of the guys who walks around selling them 

Pontevecchio and Roses

 We ended the night at the Ponte Vecchio and it was very romantic.  The next day Brandon went to Pisa (where he was flying from) early to see the Leaning Tower before he left.  It was really fun to get to show Brandon around Florence and I was happy because he said I picked a good city!
*To see the rest of the photos go to these links*
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073055&l=9ca82&id=35805139
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073308&l=725ee&id=35805139