February 10

Fiera del Cioccolato: the annual chocolate festival held in Piazza Santa Maria Novella every year. Chocolate vendors come from all parts of Italy armed to the teeth with every chocolate concoction imaginable, filling an entire piazza with booths and drooling people. Most creative had to be a vendor offering shots of chocolate liquor out of chocolate shot glasses (Italy smirks at the US's laws about buying alcohol on Sundays). Kelsey and I mastered the "linger." We would linger around each vendor until the offer of a free sample. Basil chocolate was surprisingly refreshing! Don't even get me started on hazelnut fudge. I had my eyes set on a chocolate covered strawberry. After asking for "una fragola, per favore" from a kind-looking old man, he asked for what I thought was twenty cents. After a long stare down, he more clearly said "two euros and twenty cents, please." Thank goodness my chocolate coma kept me from a sticker-shock induced heart attack. You better believe I savored that single strawberry.