Real-life Willy Wonka

Yes, you read that subject line correctly. And yes, the above picture is a delectable chocolate creation. This weekend, I went on a trip with my cooking class to Eurochocolate, which is often described as the Oktoberfest of chocolate. Chocolateers (is that a word?) from all over europe come to Perugia, Italy to show their best work to the world. Needless to say, I sampled many types of chocolate and spent the day participating in fun, chocolate-oriented games and activities to win prizes. (Most of the prizes were silly hats, right up my alley.

I also got a chococard through my class which entitled me to several free goodies including a chocolate hammer, chocolate vitamins, a tasting of a local wine, among other things. The chocolate hammer, which was the symbol for the festival this year for some reason, is a great example of how they had everything you could possibly imagine made out of chocolate. We saw chocolate fish, cell phones, ipods, turtles, jack-o-lanterns and even the Personal Chocolate, a laptop made entirely of milk chocolate. The above picture is of a chocolate kabab, a play off the favorite European fast food item.

My favorite part of the day had to be when we went to the Ciobar (brand of Italian hot chocolate) booth and discovered that they were filming people for a commercial. Needless to say, my friends and I donned the ridiculous costumes and sang the Ciobar jingle with pride. When I figure out how to do so, I will post a video I took of our taping.

This will be the last post for a while as I am heading out on fall break begining on Thursday. In case you've forgotten, we are visiting Dublin, Galway, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris. SO EXCITING!

Ciao for now!
Liz

Romeo, Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice

Well Hellllooooo everyone!

I have some very exciting news to report: As many of you know, my hard drive crashed a few weeks ago leaving me without a computer. This will explain the lack of photos and blog posts. I am happy to tell you that I have gotten a new hard drive and am back to using my own computer! Let the good times roll!

Anyway, now for the juicy part: This weekend my study abroad program sponsered an excursion to two cities made even more famous by William Shakespeare: Venice and Verona. Although the Bard never travelled to Italy himself, he must have heard great things about these two beautiful cities. We started the trip off in Verona, which I must say was wildly anti-climactic (probably because it was pouring and I was cranky) but we were able to have a delicious lunch and see what they claim to be the actual Juliet's Balcony. Apparently the two families in the play existed in real life (although their names were anglicized for the play). After our morning in Verona we were off to a lovely countryside villa where we were given a tour of the vineyard and villa and treated to a real wine tasting! This wine tasting was very interesting because they truly explained to us how to appreciate the subtle flavors in the wine.

The next day, we travelled to Venice (by boat, supposedly the best way to enter the city). Venice is absolutely beautiful. Although many people are turned off by the amount of tourists and the smell, I really love how there are no cars or vespas (so different from Florence!). I really felt like we saw the true Venice on our tour, which took us through many back streets before dropping us at the touristy center.

We were given 6 hours of free time during which my friends and I opted to get lost in the winding streets and do a little shopping (window shopping for me, because I am cheap.) It was truly an amazing day. To top it off, as we were getting on the bus back to Florence there was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. Picture is below.

Hope all is well with everyone!

My middle-aged weekend :-)

Photo Credit Christine Amoresano

Hey everyone!

I would like to apologize for the lack of posts recently; my computer crashed a little over a week ago and I have not been able to get on a school computer for long enough to write a blog. But now I have 2 hours until my next (and only) class today so here we go!

This past weekend was jam-packed with activities that really kept me quite busy. My program, Academic Programs International, sponsered an excursion to Bologna for the day on Saturday. We toured the city, which is absolutely beautiful and has great shopping, which I didn't know until I got there and only had enough cash on me for lunch... but perhaps that's for the best because I didnt end up spending anything on shopping! :-) In addition to great shopping the city is home to bolognese sauce, which obviously I had to taste while I was there. Delicious and cheap, just the way i like my food! Bologna also lays claim to not one, but two leaning towers-- clearly architecture is not their strong point! We climbed the taller of the two towers (499 steps.. I guess they just got too lazy to make that 500th...) and were rewarded with beautiful views of the city and surrounding hills. I promise that once I get my computer working again I will post pictures galore!

After Bologna we took a trip to a balsamic vinegar farm where we recieved a tour explaining how it is made and a sampling of their products! This was really neat because the farm has been in the same family for at least 4 generations and they are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They were even willing to let us sample balsamic vinegar that has been aged for 50 years! Clearly I am keeping my taste buds happy this semester.

On Sunday my friends and I decided to go horseback riding through the Chianti region, because we had heard that the program through which we had discounts was absolutely phenominal. And it was. We got 2 hours of horseback riding through the most beautiful country I have ever seen, tasted wine from the vinyeard through which we had ridden, a full 4 course traditional tuscan meal on a secluded lake, and a wine tasting at a larger vineyard that explained the different types of wine so that even the uninformed (read: me.) could enjoy.

Not only did we recieve all this, but because apparently we waited longer than they usually have clients wait (we didnt notice a thing) we were offered a second day of horseback riding for free. Obviously we went back the next day.

When I told my friends from Stonehill and home what I had done this weekend, I got a few snide comments about how my chosen activities were something thier parents would do. I know they're just jealous, however, as clearly I had one of the best times of my life.