Baci (kisses)

"When I was young, I kissed my first woman, and smoked my first cigarette on the same day. I have never had time for tobacco since."

Arturo Toscanini

Once upon a time King of the Mountain, Jim, and Princess Susan followed a double rainbow from their palazzo (palace) to Candyland (aka Perugina Chocolate Factory.) How sweet, you say? - You have no idea!

After a tour of the museum lead by the lovely (princess material) guide, Eugenia, they had to put away their camera and enter the sacred (no photos allowed) factory area. They didn't need Eugenia to take them there, they could have found the way blindfolded with their noses. Imagine, if you will, about a two acre area filled with the aroma of baking brownies. The memory brings tears to their eyes and a desire for a couple of glasses and a gallon of cold milk.

Remember the old I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are trying to keep up with the ever-faster conveyor belt speeding by with chocolates to be wrapped? Now picture nine Lucy and Ethels, hair netted and gloved, doing the same with chocolate eggs being wrapped in colorful foil and tied closed with ribbon.

The Perugina company is now part of Nestle and produces a variety of candies. The most famous continues to be Baci - (Italian for kisses). Each piece is topped with a hazel nut, wrapped in silver foil with blue stars and contains (much like a fortune cookie) a love note. Here are two examples:

"Love is the pastime of the leisurely and the leisure of the active."

"I saw you smile - the sapphire's blaze beside thee ceased to shine; it could not match the living rays that filled that glance of thine."

As a thank you to Eugenia, Princess Susan gave her a signed copy of one of her books - an Italian edition, of course. Their guide was so delighted she filled a bag with different chocolate products and gave them to the Princess.
  
                                                                                                                                                                                               
The king and the princess are now back at their palazzo seriously considering joining Chocoholics Anonymous - or they might just scratch that idea and live happily ever after...with chocolate on their breath.

 

Baci to you all, 

Principessa (Princess) Susan