Chocolate Heaven in Santa Croce

So, one of the biggest perks of living around the corner from Piazza Santa Croce is the fact that there are always really cool concerts, exhibitions and...CHOCOLATE FAIRS. I have never seen so much chocolate in my life! It was crazy with rows and rows, booths upon booths of chocolate from all over the place. Mostly Italian and Belgian chocolate, some from Spain too. This fair is dedicated exclusively to quality confectioners' chocolate, all made by hand. Italy has been doing its best to preserve chocolate making as an art form since the E.U. authorized vegetable fat as a substitute for cocoa butter in chocolate. Traditional Italian chocolate is always made by hand with pure cocoa.

Many people from my school made multiple trips a day, however, I only made it once because A) It was soooo expensive and B) Let's be real, I'm not trying to gain 87938450 pounds. I did buy my favorite, chocolate covered almonds (one scoop=25 almonds) for 6 euros! I didn't realize how much it costs until after I had measured it out in the bag...oops. Oh well, after Seren and Sarah laughed at me for spending about 20 euro cents per almond, I kindly shared and made them last. They were my mini fortune haha. I also bought a chili pepper truffle; chocolate and chili powder. I always wanted to try one after seeing the movie Chocolat. It was definitely good, but spicy!

Truffles

More Truffles

Hot Chocolate: I thought this hot chocolate was going to be like the kind you would get at a fair you know, Carnation-esque, but it was literally so thick, it was like melted chocolate in a glass. Call me crazy, but I didn't like it very much and gave the rest to Seren and Sarah to share.

Chocolate tools and instruments

Chocolate Violins!

Chocolate Pasta

Shoutout to my mom: she would have loved this. Too bad it arrived a month late, after she had already visited. My mom lovessss chocolate! I would have bought some to bring her home, but chances are it wouldn't have made it back to the States. I have a slight inclination a little nibble bandit (aka me) would eat it.

New Little Tidbits

Just going to post a few photos to make for a quick update:

My roommates and I had a dinner date and came home for a little photobooth fun.

Seren and I took a little day trip to Siena. The weather was cold, but the day was so beautiful because the sun finally came out after so many gloomy days in Firenze. Our Italian friend, Andrea, came along with his handy tour book and proceeded to read us the history about each spot in Siena. It was sweet, but he read way too fast so we just sort of nodded along and smiled pretending like we understood everything he was saying.

Candle offerings inside the Duomo.

This is a picture of Siena's Duomo, one of my favorite churches I've seen yet in Italy; it's just absolutely gorgeous inside.

Andrea was laughing at me all day because I was taking pictures of everything I saw (flowers, cool graffiti, walls, buildings at different angles) he thought it was so funny because I found so many things to be so beautiful that he sees as ordinary, obviously born and raised in Italy, the gorgeous effect wears off apparently. So, at lunch I took a picture of our delicious pizzas and he was cracking up.

Exploring the town, we found this really cool well and decided to make wishes. I'm sure many of you who know me well know what I wished for. However, this task proved to be a little difficult for me; standing right in front of the well, I missed it completely while throwing in my coin. How that happens, I don't know. I suppose well-wishing is not for the uncoordinated, but I didn't let that get me down, I just leaned over the second time and dropped it in. Still wished for the same thing; hopefully it will still come true the second time around. Hmmm keep your fingers crossed.

In Siena's main square. There were so many people out having lunch in the center of the Piazza, feeding the pigeons and taking in the sun. It was really beautiful out.

Girls night in. We did apricot moisturizing masks and watched The Bachelor (we had a marathon including 4 episodes), which didn't end until 430a.m. No big deal. We take that show pretty seriously I would say.

Well, there is definitely more to come in the next few weeks. Finals are next week, which I am dying for them to be over. I feel like this semester has dragged on forever, and I have my sights set on my next vacation. My friend Shawn and I are going to Belgium, Scotland and England for a week during semester break. I'm definitely so excited and can't wait for all the beautiful things we're going to see! Until then...buonanotte, it's late and time for me to catch some ZzZz's.