Firenze Part II

I decided to split the posts up into to mainly because of how long it was getting, and this post deserving to have a dedicated page. Our favorite memory of Florence will probably end up being the chocolate festival we stumbled upon. The festival had chocolate companies from all over, but mainly from Sicily   All in the course of an hour I had the best milk chocolate I have ever tasted, and the best cannoli known to man. There were around 30 tents each with their own unique specialty. We ended up tasting something from almost every tent. We also had a few tastes of lindt truffles in the lindt store.

We thought Chris and Colleen would like this one.

And on to the festival!

Jazz in her self proclaimed heaven

Chocolate heels

Chocolate iphone cases

The festival

Chocolate tools

Candies

fruit and chocolate spreads

cakes

Hot chocolate

Chocolate shot glasses, with baileys and chocolate shots

prepared and ready to go

Action shot

Success

More cake, we are not quite sure what the writing on all of the cakes mean, but we assume its the company name

Chocolate covered mangos

bakery area

more bakery and chocolate covered waffles

the church at the head of the piazza

doughnuts

Packed

Sweet cheese filled pastry

Candied fruit filled with their original insides

"Futbol"  cleats as they would say

The best cannoli of all time

Truffles

One of the many truffles we tried (coconut)

More tools

Chocolate on sticks

Finished chocolate "kebab"

Man preparing our chocolate kebab

Chocolate and other flavored liquors. We tried a few of the flavors but did not  leave with a bottle

White chocolate

Sticks prepared for dipping

chocolate covered waffle on a stick, with sweetened coconut on top. 

Next up dark chocolate covered strawberries

And last but certainly not least in the food category. The best sandwich I have ever eaten. Spit roasted pork on crunchy toasted bread. This one is with mushrooms, but mine was with onions (I just ate it too quickly to take a picture). The stands specialty was tripe but we were not feeling quite that adventurous.

The stand it was served at

water fountain that dispenses sparkling water on left, and natural water on right

The antique market that we came upon on the last day was pretty special for me. I collect interesting coins here and there (an interest my grandpa shared with me) and I left with coins from early Soviet Union, and other soviet bloc countries (which I had never seen before). But in the end I always have loved learning about WW2 history and I found the best station. Covering the table was WW2 era hemlets, gas masks, and other artifacts. I left with a Nazi SS sterling silver ring, and a Nazi SS stamper.

antique market that we came upon

SS ring

All in all Florence was well worth the time and money, We spent 3 nights there and it really felt like a week. We enjoyed every minute and cannot wait until the day we eventually get to go back.