From the 22nd to the 25th January Tuscany's capital city will host one of the sweetest and most tasty fairs in Italy, the ideal both for chocolate professionals and for cocoa lovers. In order to permit everyone to discover the art of chocolate artisans, the event has become free since a couple of years, and in this way everybody has the possibility to visit a number of stands and to taste many delicatessen. There will be a big range of products: exhibitors coming from all over Italy will be in Florence to amaze and delight people, offering traditional products, like chocolate bars, but also out-of-the-ordinary, and in some case bold combinations: for example, you will have the chance to taste chocolate with teas and distillates, but also with artisan beer and various kinds of spices., and in some of the stalls you will also find chocolate spirits and wellness products having cacao as the main component.
Visitors will therefore have the chance to know something more about artisan chocolate, which has always been an important feature in Italian food tradition, and to taste products coming from Tuscany (Italy's second more important region as far as chocolate production is concerned and the first for historical tradition), from other regions which are well-known for chocolate production (let's think about Perugia's chocolate and Turin's gianduia), and from all over Italy. However, the fair is not to be considered as a celebration of Italian chocolate tout-court: the event, indeed, will host also international ma?tre chocolatier. The only rule to be respected is that they produce chocolate using artisan procedures.
To highlight the fact that working chocolate is to be seen as a form of art, and not as a kind of industrial production, the last editions of the fair have not been organised in an aseptic exhibitory space, but in one of the most beautiful and famous Italian squares: Piazza Santa Croce. Thanks to this wonderful location too, the fair will attract a number of visitors (around 140,000 people, according to last edition's estimate) wishing to taste various kinds of chocolate while some experts will explain them their organoleptic properties, but also to enjoy a feast featuring music shows, buskers? performances, and other cultural events (last editions hosted, for example, photography and art exhibitions, all having as a common feature chocolate and its possible transformations). Because of the variety of events that it hosts, the fair attracts every year both families and young people, both school-children and professionals, all wishing to learn how to appreciate real, artisan chocolate.
Florence is a city of art, but it is also the capital city of a regions where artisan chocolate tradition is particularly deep-routed. If you wish to visit the city, and at the same time, to enjoy the Artisan Chocolate Fair, book now your cheap hotel in Florence.
