San Sisto

Everyone knows them.

I love them.

They are instantly recognizable, and each one carries a brief message of love.

And so, our time in Perugia would not have been complete without a visit to the home of the Perugina Baci.

Because we had time on our hands and it was a beautiful day, Brenda and I trekked the 6.5 down and up kilometers from Perugia to the Perugina factory in San Sisto. Of course, knowing full well the factory tour ends with a chocolate tasting, the hike also burned off a portion of the hundreds of empty calories we'd soon be enjoying.

Our tour was scheduled to start at 3:00, but in true Italian fashion, it didn't really get underway until almost 3:20. But it was worth the wait.

The group was ushered into a small auditorium where one of the firm's master chocolatiers explained the science and importance of tempering chocolate when making confections. He then quickly produced enough ganache filled treats to serve the 35 people in the group, with a few leftovers that were quickly devoured.

We then viewed a film on the history of the company, that originated in 1907, and quickly grew in popularity, so much so that Nestle acquired the firm for $1.6 billion in 1988.

After a quick tour of the museum, and production facility (which unfortunately was not operating due to Easter vacations) we were brought to the tasting room where all the plant's products were available to sample.

Oh, and sample we did! From the 85% bar to the 70% single source bar, the 70% blended source all the way down to the white chocolate, which, by the he way isn't really chocolate at all.

And of course, there were the Baci. So many bonbons, so little time!

All of them had the gianduia filling, a dreamy blend of milk chocolate and hazelnut purée topped with a whole roasted hazelnut.

But some were coated in milk chocolate, some with the 70% cocoa dark chocolate, some with white chocolate and some with the new pink chocolate. Decisions, decisions. What the heck, let's try 'em all.....TWICE!

But it wasn't all just about stuffing our faces. We also learned that the Perugina team once spent four days constructing a 6000 kg Baci for Perugia's annual chocolate festival, and then, in only four hours, fed the entire thing to the hoardes of people that came out to see it.

And, more importantly, we found out that more Baci are shipped to Canada than to the USA.

It makes me proud to be a Canadian!🇨🇦Read more