“LET THEM EAT CHOCOLATE,” was the kind proclamation of Madame Reale. There she was, thirty years old, widowed during her first year of marriage, with a three-year-old boy to raise and the Piedmont region to rule from her palazzo in Turin. This was back in 1678 when the French House of Savoy governed the region.
Chocolate came to Italy through the Spanish explorer Cortez, who found it in South America. In Madame Reale’s day it was a precious novelty served only to royalty and priests. When a Turin baker asked her permission to make chocolate for regular folk, I imagine she figured, “Why not?” She probably frequently needed the seritonin fix to deal with the hassles of being a female ruler and wanted to pass on the high to keep her popularity ratings up with her underlings.
The baker began making hot chocolate—a drink called bicerin that’s still “what to order” in Turin caffès today. A love affair with chocolate began and Turin became Europe’s top producer, even inventing a machine that made the world’s first candy bars.
Italy’s chocolate-making tradition has continued ever since, and you can thank Madame Reale as you visit these establishments:
This fairy tale-styled shop near the Pantheon was founded by a family from Turin over a hundred years ago. Sales signorine wear old-fashioned lace caps and box up bon-bons, marzipans, or fruit glaces into beautifully crafted boxes at an old world pace…so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
There’s a lively energy at this tiny shop where molto bello owner Leonardo doles out treasures that include chocolates made with flavors like Earl Grey and chile, along with thick hot chocolate. The gelato here is fantastico, which you should order affogato, topped with to-die-for chocolate sauce. Candies are packaged in Tiffany-blue boxes and make great gifts.
The most exciting developments in Italy’s chocolate scene are happening in an area bordered by Prato, Pisa, and Pistoia, where since the 1980s artisans have taken on chocolate production like meticulous Tuscan winemakers. It all started with Roberto Catinari in Pistoia (www.robertocatinari.it), and now includes Andrea Slitti (www.slitti.it) in Monsummano Terme, Simone de Castro in Montopoli, Luca Mannori (www.pasticceriamannoriprato.it) in Prato, and Paul De Bondt, who teamed with Cecilia Iacobelli to create a success story in Pisa. The most well known among them is Amedei (www.amedei.it), whose factory outside Pontedera has become so successful it sells to specialty food shops worldwide.
The creators behind Amedei are Cecilia Tessieri, a brilliant chocolate maker, and her brother Alessio, who takes care of the business side. They were children of Tuscan candy makers with no chocolate experience, who decided to give it a go over twenty-five years ago, experimenting with great dedication. In 1991, they brought their findings to the pinnacle of the chocolate world, Valrhona in France, and tried to partner with them. Valrhona flatly turned them down.
Insulted but not discouraged, Alessio set out to find the best beans he could to make Amedei chocolate. In Chuao, Venezuela, where a perfect microclimate supports excellent cacao, Alessio took a risk. He offered the farmers three times as much as what Valrhona had been paying them. Now all of Chuao’s cacao goes to Amedei. It’s what’s called Sweet Revenge.
Award-winning Mariangela Penzo is the master chocolatier of this shop that opened in 2005. Her scrumptious artistic creations include chocolate flavored with pumpkin, artfully designed candies, and hot chocolate, which makes this a fun place to snuggle into on a chilly Venice day. Tastings and chocolate workshops can be arranged.
This artsy town in Umbria is home to the famous Perugina chocolate company that’s now owned by Nestlé. Perugina goodies abound around here, and hard-core types may want to head out to the suburban factory for chocolate-making classes, along with tours, a gift shop, and museum.
Baci, Perugina’s most famous chocolates, were invented in 1922 by Luisa Spagnoli, and were an immediate hit when first introduced that Valentine’s Day. Luisa, the wife of Perugina’s founder, fell in love with the much younger Giovanni Buitoni, who also worked at Perugina. She’d write secret love notes on the chocolates she sent to Buitoni for inspection. When she died he renamed her chocolates Baci (which means kisses) and had them packaged with romantic musings, in memory of those notes. Which is why when you unwrap one, you’ll find such Luisa sayings as: Non esiste salvaguardia contro il senso naturale dell’attrazione (There is no safety-net to protect against attraction). Luisa was also the inspiration for those beautiful Luisa Spagnoli clothing stores you’ll find all over Italy.
This pretty baroque town in southeastern Sicily is famous for its Aztec-style chocolates that are granular, like what you’d find in Mexico. Its origins go back to seventeenth-century Spaniards who brought over the tradition of grinding cocoa beans to a paste that’s mixed with cane sugar, cinnamon, or other spices. Top shops are Bonajuto (Corso Umberto I 159, www.bonajuto.it), that’s been around since 1880, and Casa Don Puglisi (Corso Umberto 1, www.laboratoriodonpuglisi.it), a newer place created by former pastry chef Lina Lemmolo. Don Puglisi is in a building that was a casa di accoglienza, in other words, a house for women with criminal records. Lemmolo staffs her shop with these gals, and their lives have been turned around by chocolate-making, giving them focus, a sense of dignity and accomplishment.
Grace Kelly loved gianduiotti, the chocolate-hazelnut candies of Turin, so much she used them as her wedding favors when she married Prince Rainier. The creamy candy was invented during a nineteenth-century recession, when cocoa imports were limited. Clever candy makers figured out how to blend the little they did have with the plentiful nuts that grow all over the region. The Caffarel company patented it in 1865, and the rest is delicious history.
Peyrano (Corso Moncalieri 47, www.peyrano.com), near Turin’s train station, has been around for almost a hundred years and serves up fantastic gianduiotti and dark chocolate that’s roasted in olive wood. The award-winner in the new generation of chocolate artisans is Guido Gobino (Via Lagrange 1, www.guidogobino.it), whose small shop with a sleek tasting room offers the master’s inventions of mint or orange chocolates, and cremini al sale, a new hit on gianduiotto, perfectly blended with sea salt.
Eurochocolate, the world’s largest international chocolate festival, is held in Perugia every October. For details and other chocolate events in Italy: www.eurochocolate.com
RECOMMENDED READING
The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz