Oct 16 Day 12 Perugia

 

Who does not love a Chocolate Festival, especially when it is in the town that made Baci Chocolate famous? "Baci" means kisses and these chocolates are so sweet and delicious! For three days, the entire town was full of  tents with people selling all sorts of chocolates and chocolate liquors, bears holding chocolates, entertainers, etc.

Here are some of the Meredith students walking through the crowds of chocolate lovers.  It was packed, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Speaking of students, here is a link to their blogs, quite better than mine -

                                                http://www.meredith.edu/abroad/italy/journals/

Of course we could never just simply eat, drink, and people-watch, so we spent a couple of hours visiting the National Gallery, just above the famous fountain in the piazza.  There was a teacher or a docent  with about seven 5 year old Italian children in the Gallery and somehow that teacher was able to get those children totally excited about the artwork. It was precious, seeing them raising their hands and emotionally sharing - Italian style- their opinions about the art.  It was one of those (many) times that I wish I had at least some comprehension of the language.

Betty, John and I had more than our fair share of chocolate - along with their friends of 35 years from England - and we came back to a party with lots of ex-pats, followed by a delicious dinner with an expanding group of friends.