Today we took a little drive to Perugia. Have you ever had a Perugina candy bar? Or a Baci? Baci (kisses) are chocolate candy with crushed hazelnuts and an actual whole hazelnut in the middle. They also have a cool message inside (like a Dove chocolate) that is written in three different languages. Anyway, in all our research for this trip, we realized that Perugia was not far away from Assisi and that there was a Eurochocolate festival happening while we were in the area. We decided it would crazy not to check it out. The drive up to Perugia was really beautiful. We parked in a garage and began the straight uphill hike to the Piazza (town center). When we stepped out into the piazza, we were greeted by hundreds of tents full of chocolate from all over Europe. It was wonderfully overwhelming. They even had a giant chocolate shoe filled with little chocolate shoes! I love shoes. I love chocolate. Win win!
There was chocolate in a bottle. There was more chocolate than I’ve ever seen in one place. We walked up and down every street checking out all the different flavors and combinations. I wanted to try one of everything, but I refrained.
There were people making balloon animals, people dressed as clowns (shudder), and maybe scariest of all, a little clown baby thing which was an adult head somehow stuck in a stroller. His body was behind the stroller, but it looked like he was in it. He was talking in a weird high pitched baby voice and he was terrifying. Italian humor is odd.
We stayed in Perugia to have lunch and to take some pictures of the amazing views. We had pizza – go figure. It was delicious as usual.
We headed back to Assisi and wandered around for awhile and then sat in one of the piazzas and people watched. Assisi is such a beautiful, peaceful place. It was a wonderful, relaxing afternoon.
Later, we went to dinner at a restaurant that I had read about called Taverna de l’Arco, so we decided to try it. I am SO glad we did. It turned out to be maybe my favorite meal in Italy and that’s saying a lot. It’s one of the oldest restaurants in Assisi and it is beautiful.
This picture does not do it justice at all. The walls were stone, the tables were beautifully set, there was jazz music playing. It was perfect ambience. We started with bread and olive oil. We decided to share everything tonight, which was a great decision. Every meal here is bread, then a pasta dish, then a “secondi”, which is some type of meat, then salad and dessert. Anyway, we ordered ravioli stuffed with leeks, potatoes and truffles in a parmesan cream sauce. This dish was heaven. The flavors were perfect together. Our second dish was steak with a red wine/balsamic vinegar reduction and carmelized red onions. I’ve never carmelized red onions before, but you can bet I will be doing that as soon as possible. This dish was literally a party in your mouth. I still can’t get over it. Dessert was a house made chocolate lava cake with a ginger sauce. Perfection. If you’re ever in Assisi, you MUST try this place.
These pictures do not represent the food well, but I wanted you to get an idea. I didn’t get a picture of the steak. Just trust me on this!
And now, I’m hungry.
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