Time to get organised for a "chocotravelling" vacation to Italy, this is how the organisers of the most important chocolate related event in Italy would probably like to remind us about the upcoming annual Eurochocolate festival taking place in Perugia from the 16th to 25th of October.
The festival has been held since 1993 and is now one of the largest chocolate festivals in Europe, drawing nearly one million tourists and Italians each year and distinguishing itself for the creative approach to chocolate with new original themes, slogans and events every year.
Each year, the festival has a different theme - previous editions had themes like “City of Chocolate,” “Chokolate Revolution,” and “Chocolage”. This year the sixteenth edition of Eurochocolate Perugia has an interesting slogan "Rompete le righe!", the military order "Break ranks!". This could not be farther from a military approach and is actually an invitation to think outside the box and promote new ways to enjoy chocolate in all its complexity, creativity is the most important ingredient this year.
The indispensable "chocotools" for this sweet, peaceful revolution are a hammer, which symbolizes the “act of breaking”, and a ruler named “Golosimetro” (sweet tooth meter) both made of chocolate and branded Costruttori di Dolcezze.
Map of the Eurochocolate festival in Perugia
As in previous editions, the festival includes conferences, labs for adults and children, cooking demonstrations, chocolate art exhibits (chocolate sculptures), theatre and music performances and various tasting opportunities. The programme includes also two conferences dedicated to the relationship between chocolate and health, the first one on “Chocolate and women's health” and the second one on “Acne and Chocolate”.
This year marks also the fifth edition of Chocoday, a day dedicated to the celebration of good quality “pure and fair-trade chocolate” made exclusively with cocoa butter and cocoa mass, without any added fat or vegetable oil, produced respecting ethical and social values tied to its production and monitored throughout each production phase in terms of biodiversity, transparency and traceability. Everybody can contribute by signing the Chocoday Manifesto at www.chocoday.com!
To organise your visit you can find all the necessary information on the Eurochocolate's website, on FaceCiok, the festival's page on facebook, or on MyCiok - on Myspace. And if you cannot make it to Perugia, you will be able to follow the events on-line on Choco Live or catch up on YouCiok, a dedicated channel on Youtube.
Whether you will make it to Perugia for the festival or will follow the event on-line we can only wish you "lots of chocofun"!
The following videos - full of images of hot chocolate, delicious chocolate bars, chocolate eggs - may help you to resist until you will book your own trip to Perugia and enjoy this choco-paradise:
