Terni: A Chocolate Lover's Dream

Wow, I haven't written in forever! I've been so crazy busy - but that's a good thing, right!? I suppose it's time to do a little update on here.

Last Friday was Valentine's Day, obviously. Two of my roommates here both have boyfriends back home so we made a girls' day & night out of it :) We started our day off with cioccolato calde [hot chocolate, which is more like a pudding here. It's seriously like a melted chocolate bar in a cup! And steaming hot.] for them and a cappuccino for me in these adorable mugs. They took me as a surprise since they saw them the day before. How sweet. And the boy making the cappuccino was pretty sweet too.

There's a restaurant we always pass on the way to school that's in the building attached to the train station called "Bisteccheria & Pizzeria Quattro Venti" which translates to "Four Winds" restaurant specializing in meat & pizza. I went for a run with a resident student here and asked for a good restaurant suggestion. She lives close to me and said it's one of her and her roommates' favorites! I looked up reviews online and people raved about it. Naturally we had to go.

Alayna, Alyssa, and I got all dressed up [sort of] and headed up the road starving for dinner. Quattro Venti did not disappoint! We had to wait for a table since the place was packed, not to mention decorated with balloons and flowers and full of adorable couples. That's always a good sign. We were waited on by the owner himself - we're not sure if it's because it was busy or he was the only one who spoke English. Regardless, we loved him! His name was Enzo, he treated us so well, and even gave us a chocolate mousse for free [since he brought it by accident]. We loved him! The sparkling vino della casa was our absolute favorite so far and the bread was perfectly soft and chewy. I had a fried zucchini flower that I did not care for. I think it had an anchovie in it. I decided to branch out from pasta and pizza, however, and try something new! Enzo said I'd like it and I definitely did - I got a dish with prosciutto over baked slices of mozzarella. We finished the night off with some creme brulee, tartufo, and [free] chocolate mousse! For it being a girls' date, it was a pretty lovely Valentine's Day.

The festivities continued into Saturday as we had booked train tickets to Terni, just an hour outside of Roma. I'm really putting my new Trenitalia membership to good use! Terni is the home of Saint Valentine and hosts an epic chocolate festival called "Cioccolentino" every Valentine's Day weekend. We hopped off the train and followed some other girls we ran into speaking English whom we discovered also go to AUR.

[this was the view]

Strolling down the street, we walked into what can be best described as chocolate heaven. Well, first there were stands with meat, cheese, and apple pastries. Those free samples were still good. Then we reached the chocolate! So many stations were incredibly generous so we filled up on tastes of chocolate covered almonds, chocolate bark, pastries, candies, and all sorts of other glorious sweets. My sweet tooth has never been so happy :)

[a chalkboard wine bottle]

[chocolate tools]

[chocolate shoes]

With so much sweet, I needed some pizza! After grabbing a slice, we figured out that bus 7 would take us to the famous waterfall also calling Terni home. How we figured out where to go? A little bit of practice dealing with Italian transportation, a lot of guesswork, and a really nice French man who translated in English to the bus driver who dropped us right off, even though we didn't have tickets. I have no idea how some things end up working out for us, but I'm definitely not complaining.

Cascata delle Marmore was at the top of a big hill we wound up on the bus with breathtaking views of the countryside out the windows. Once at the top, we purchased tickets to climb the wooden stairs to get a better view of the falls. It was such a nice, warm day, but by the falls we were getting soaked! People even had worn raincoats and ponchos. Not everyone was prepared, though. There were a lot of adorable little Italian kids stumbling up the slippery steps with their parents. What a fun way to spend your Saturday - at the largest man-made waterfall in the world! Alayna and I hardly even consider it man-made since it was actually constructed by the ancient Romans.

Heading back down the hill, the chocolate festival was crazy! So many people came out for the night and were walking around. Lots of kids were dressed up and throwing confetti. There was even a fair section with slides, rides, and activities. In a piazza, there was a concert going on.

It was so fun to be in the midst of. Our feet exhausted from the day, we walked to a side street for a cappuccino. We met the owner of the bar [The Italian word for "cafe" is "bar" - you drink coffee there!] and he suggested a restaurant for us. Sadly, we had to grab our second slice of pizza and head back to the station as our train was coming to take us back to Roma.

After a fun filled weekend with two of my lovely roommates and a belly full of sweets, I definitely slept well :)

[lots of love in Terni]