Éclat Travel's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Italy’

When you think of Valentine’s Day you probably think of Flowers, Love and Chocolate. Well, I do, but not necessarily in that order. For the purposes of this blog we are going to concentrate on….chocolate! Here is a delicious custom Italian chocolate dream itinerary for people who love chocolate and travel.

Florence, Italy

Traditionally, when you think of Tuscany, you think wine. Amedei Chauo, chosen the top award-winning artisan chocolate by the Academy of Chocolate in London, is also made in Tuscany (Pisa).  A variety of other gourmet chocolates are made throughout Italy as well. Meander through the Chocolate Valley between Pisa and Florence, sampling the creations of chocolate makers such as: Luca Mannori; Federico Salza; Simone de Castro; Andre Slitti; Corsini; Paul de Bondt; and Roberto Catinari along the way.

Once in Florence, a trip to  Vestri and Hemingway (there’s an interesting story about the connection between the American writer Ernest Hemingway and Italian Chocolate) are in order.  Spend an evening or two in a Tuscan villa and devote a day to learning how to make delectable chocolate treats. A visit in February would include Florences’ Chocolate Festival and in November a side trip to Bologna for their Festival of Chocolate should be added.

Then travel south to Umbria and stay in “the first hotel dedicated entirely to chocolate,” the Etruscan Chocohotel in Peruguia where you have your choice of the milk chocolate, bittersweet chocolate or gianduia chocolate floors. Enjoy a guided tour of “Augusta Perusia” (hand-made chocolate workshop) inside the Cloister of Santa Maria Nuova Church, chocolate tasting in the hotel bar, a rich buffet choco-breakfast with croissants, biscuits, hand-made Chocolate cakes, dark chocolate fondue, Nutella and more, and a chocolate gift bag.

And, finally, a trip to Italy is not complete if you haven’t experienced Rome. A chocolate tour in Italy must include the family-run Confetteria Moriondo e Gariglio, Rome’s finest chocolate maker. Create your own unique box of individually selected and wrapped treats before you head home.

Other sweet chocolate itineraries can be designed for France and Belgium, or both!

Ciao!

Cheryl

Spice up your next vacation by including attendance at, or participation in a special event. The more unique the better.

Machu Picchu

One of the most memorable trips I took was for a very unusual kind of a race in Ravenna, Italy. I wasn’t racing, but I was chaperoning the person who was, Rachael Scdoris.  Rachael is a professional sleddog racer from Bend, Oregon. Hers is an amazing story. I was fortunate to meet and get to work with Rachael and her dad Jerry, while I helped to coordinate a world championship sleddog race in Oregon, in a past life.

Mercedez Benz

Rachael was invited to participate in a different kind of race involving dogs, popular in Europe called dryland racing. It is where the dogs pull their racers along either on carts, bicycles, or on-foot (canicross). Rachael ran behind a dog along a course, much like a cross country race. She was tethered to the dog with a harness and they raced together. Obviously, this is not your run of the mill event, and Rachael is not your run-of-the-mill athlete. She is legally blind. 

Rachael’s participation in this event exposed us to not only a beautiful part of Italy, Ravenna, known for it’s mosaics, but also a new and interesting competition, that as Americans we hadn’t been exposed to.

I’ve put together a list of 20+ anniversaries of historical events that will be acknowledged in 2011 in a variety of ways. Some of the listed anniversaries will have events planned around them. Choose one or more of these to include in your next custom designed vacation.