Recently I mentioned that fall was arriving in Perugia.  Since I’ve been crossing hemispheres lately, I haven’t had fall since May of 2008.   Obviously, at the time, I was in Argentina.  After the winter, which was June/July/August 2008, I went on to pass the spring and summer there, before heading up to Seattle for another spring and summer.  While not intentional, I must say that this was very enjoyable.  I’m not a cold weather person.

When I arrived in Italy a month ago, it was the end of summer.  I’m having my first fall in a long time.  I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle it, but I’m actually finding out how nice it is to go with the change of seasons, particularly in Italy.  Fall here is exceptional.

I forgot how wonderful it is to enjoy food that is in season, and they really take it to heart here.  The street vendors selling roasted chestnuts are appearing now, and there are numerous festivals in surrounding towns to celebrate things such as the truffle and the new olive oil.  Sandri, my favorite bar in Perugia, is making their hot chocolate that I love so much, so thick you need a spoon to enjoy it.  I always get it spiced with peperoncino – chili pepper.

To top off this beautiful fall experience, I’ve discovered my “place” for an aperitivo.  There is a bar near me that I have often passed, and wanted to enter.  Nobody ever seemed interested in going with me until I went with a friend who was visiting from Modena.  It was serendipitous.  It turns out the owners are wine producers – and we wound up tasting some of the best sagrantino I’ve had in a long time, while we nibbled on a beautifully prepared plate of salumi.  I think I’ve officially started a love affair with finocchiona – a gorgeous salame with fennel seeds.

Perugia is getting a little foggy at night, and the air is beginning to smell like olives and burning wood.  I fall in love every time I walk out the door.  I’m grateful to be experiencing the change of seasons in Perugia.

How do they welcome the seasons where you live?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site where you can also buy calling cards to Italy. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

My normally quiet town of Perugia has once again been inundated with tourists from Italy and beyond for the annual Eurochocolate festival. The usually pristine Corso Vannucci, which runs through the center of Perugia, fills up with big white tents, where Italian and European chocolate vendors set up their stalls each morning.

On one hand, this is a good thing.  I mean hey, it’s a chocolate festival, and who doesn’t like the idea of that?  It lasts a week and a few of the stands offer tiny cups of the thickest hot chocolate – sometimes spiced – for around a Euro.  As the season changes to fall, I can’t think of a better way to stay warm.

On the other hand, I don’t enjoy crowds of meandering tourists.  Since I live in the center of town, all of my practical shopping takes place in the center as well.  During Eurochocolate, this means that a grocery shopping trip is a slow, frustrating swim through people who ironically walk straight into you as soon as they see, with eye contact, that you’re in each other’s paths.  It’s one thing for a street to be bustling and full of local people, it’s another thing when it’s full of only tourists.  Add that to the music blaring from speakers throughout the Corso, just for the festival, and it’s not such a relaxing walk.  Of course, since none of the chocolate tourists actually live here, as soon as I get into the supermarket it’s business as usual (though the daily chaos of my small supermarket is another story).

Yet it’s actually worth it to walk outside, even during this chaos.  I can’t complain about the lingering scent of chocolate in the air, nor can I complain about that delicious hot chocolate.  The festival was also a reason for me to make a new friend – an American living in Florence who came down just to see what Eurochocolate was all about.  Not only that, at Saturday night’s milonga, I shared some beautiful tangos with a man visiting from Cesena, up north.  He came just for the festival.  And I got to dance with him.

Did I buy any chocolate at the festival?  Well, no.  While there are plenty of tastings and the chocolate isn’t TOO pricey (but still…), I feel like the festival is quite full of Nestle (who now owns Perugina), Milka and Lindt – brands I can find just about anywhere.  There are plenty of other vendors from Italy and the rest of Europe, but the chaos of visitors is again what deters me.  So I continue to buy my usual bar of dark chocolate in the local supermarket for half the price.

Does your city hold any events that attract a lot of visitors?

*This post was written for AffordableCallingCards.net, the expat community site where you can also buy calling cards to Italy. You can click here to read more posts about expat life written by myself and other bloggers.

Today, the wind was so strong I could hear it.  It would break my concentration as it howled and howled.  I spent the day working on a translation and contacting new potential clients. Thanks to the help of a very good friend (che si fa sempre in quattro per me – who always goes to a lot of trouble for me), I have a rocking new CV (that’s a resume for you non-European folks) and a new work e-mail address, and I really want this translation business to go well for me again.  It did once, and it can again.  I can look for work here, and I probably still will, but gosh – I really love translating.  I’m going to make this work.  Again.  I’m determined.

I’ve decided that I really like living in the center of Perugia.  Last time I lived here I was below the center, and had to climb uphill for a long time to get into town.  Now I live in a beautiful building in a quiet piazza, and while I still have to climb, it only takes me 5 minutes to get to the main street that runs through town, Corso Vannucci.  As soon as I walk out the door I’m surrounded by ancient beauty, and it feels good.

They are setting up the booths for this weekend’s chocolate festival, which will fill the center with tourists.  I remember, when I went to school here a few years ago, stopping at a particular booth for a tiny cup of the thickest hot chocolate for only a euro on my way home from class.  Now that I’m living here again and working, I hope to do the same thing between translations.  I also saw the first chestnuts for sale today.  In most European cities, you can find roasted chestnuts for sale on just about every corner in the fall and winter.  Here in Umbria, I’m sure there will soon be vino novello to accompany those chestnuts.

I’m so glad I came here.