we made our way down to perugia this weekend, which is in the area of umbria, near tuscany. i heart perugia. it was really a beautiful town, and i think i liked the surrounding area even more than tuscany. plus, there was the biggest chocolate festival in the entire galaxy going on, so i could i not like it?

here's myself, claire and cinzia on the balcony of our hostel in perugia. if you ever have to stay in a hostel, make it in perugia -- it was completely amazing. we had our own private terrace! with a view of all of lower perugia and a valley below. look at the last picture -- you'll see more of the gorgeous view.

here's a man selling roasted chesnuts on the main street. just thought it was a nice picture.

here's a cool arch on some random street. perugia was a very medieval town, full of impassive walls and narrow walkways. i really liked the architecture.

and here is the glorious view from our hostel. i took this around 6 or 7 at night, when we'd definitely drank a bit too much wine on our private terrace.

overall -- great weekend, especially because we got there before the real hordes of crowds started coming. i'm talking thousands of people flooding this medieval town. but the free chocolate samples, crepes with nutella, cioccolato caldo con panna, 5 ton blocks (or something) of chocolate being carved definitely made for a memorable weekend. i hope to go back.