CioccolandoVi

aka the Chocolate Festival. I heard about this festival within my first month of being in Italy, and was pumped. The vendors travel around to different cities for a weekend and d chocolate. They are stores from all over! I found a store in Venice and I can't wait to go find him on my next trip.

I went Friday night with a couple of girl friends, and no one was there! The weather had been awful all day long, but cleared up for a couple of hours...and then started pouring again. Here are some pictures from Friday night:

I got really frustrated trying to take pictures because I didn't have a tripod...lucky for me, I live within walking distance and came back downtown Saturday morning. Saturday was a wonderful day. I wandered downtown, sat in a cafe with a friend and read Little Women while sipping on my cafe latte and pane svizzero. Then we wandered around the chocolate festival tasting all the different types of chocolate and staring in amazement at all of the chocolate designs.

The square was lined with tents with vendors displaying their chocolate masterpieces. You could get chocolate crepes, hot chocolate (or chocolate pudding basically), chocolate covered strawberries, and chocolate liquor.

Let's just say people are c.r.e.a.t.i.v.e with their chocolate.

 This is what I walked away with:

Carmel, cafe, and hazelnut chocolate squares...some of the best chocolate I have ever had!

Chocolate salami...no meat involved. It is kind of like a chocolate wafer...I'm not sure if that description even does it justice. Once again...it's so stinkin' good.

Chocolate covered espresso beans. You can never go wrong with these!