Wednesday 7th May

We had a hard time getting Charlotte out of bed today, until I suggested that we might go in search of a Chocolate Factory that I had heard of on the Slow Travel sight. Charlotte soon jumped out of bed like it was Easter Sunday!

Apparently the Amedei chocolatiers were a few miles from Pisa in the tiny hamlet of Cascina. So with the promise of sampling delectable chocolates, we punched in the address of the Amedei gourmet shop that I had taken from Slow Travel into the GPS and looked forward to our scrumptious outing. We arrived in Cascina after about a 40 minute drive and searched for the Amedei shop, now this we thought would be simple as I had a photo of the Tuscan home which housed the shop and it looked quite unique with Cacao beans frescoed all over the exterior. But after driving around Cascina, which to us did not look like a tiny hamlet but a major town, we had no luck in finding the shop.

It was now time to rely on the locals and god forbid ask for directions. Lunch time was drawing near so Leon went into an inviting looking delicatessen, bought some cheese, prosciutto and panini then enquired as to where the chocolate shop was. Apparently after the helpful owners had a heated discussion between themselves ( Italians just won’t ever agree on anything) and then a few phone calls later – they very kindly rang the chocolate shop to get exact directions, Leon came out very satisfied as to where the shop was. As per usual it wasn’t in Cascina but the next town along.

We decided to find a park to eat our lunch and then headed on to find the Amedei chocolate shop. Our new directions took us to an industrial estate that didn’t look anything like the area of my photo! But after more endless driving we came across an Amedei chocolate warehouse that didn’t look at all inviting. A couple of factory workers were outside smoking and pointed us into the direction of the actual gourmet shop.

This time we were sent off into the picturesque Tuscan countryside and things started to look promising. The area was looking like my picture and we were truly ready to eaatttt chocolate!!! Regrettably after another long search we still hadn’t found the shop, now it was time to ask a Nona who was walking along the road. As soon as Leon mentioned the Amedei name she became very animated and with lots of pointing and gestures, which we understood only a little of, we resumed our quest.

Driving along a narrow country laneway we came across quite a few cars parked on the edge of the lane and knew at last we had found our chocolate shop, yey!! But could this be right, there was huge gates closed in front of the property and looking at our watches, it was *@#! Siesta time. Nooooo…… we parked the car and noticed people still inside the shop and there was also an intercom on the gates. So Leon spoke into the intercom and the gates opened. Hooray we were in luck!

Leon entered the shop to ask if we could park within the gates and if they were still open for chocolate tastings. Returning to the car with a smile on his face, Charlotte and I were already salivating ready for our tasting, but soon realized this wasn’t to be as you wouldn’t believe it *@#! They no longer did tastings or sold chocolate from their property anymore but only sold them in an outlet in Pisa, Florence and a in a small café in a village near by-Pontedera!!!! Okay I was ready to give up and eat a whole jar of nutella instead, only Leon wouldn’t give up and continued on our quest to eat Amedei chocolate- Amedei chocolate incorporates flavours of Tuscany using the flavours of lavender, olive oil, balsamic, pistachios and rosemary in some of their unique chocolates.

We did find the tiny café and had to wait for siesta to be over before completing our mission. When the café finally opened we were greeted with an array of chocolates down one wall and enticing sweets on the other, they also had an amazing looking coffee machine in the centre. Unfortunately you couldn’t taste or sample the chocolate before buying some. So $30 dollars later for 260 grams of chocolate( this was equivalent to two small blocks of Cadbury chocolate) we exited the shop a little disappointed – especially Charlie who had been very patient in our quest of chocolate tasting, to be told she could only have one small square a day as it was so bloody expensive!

Our chocolate quest ended up taking the whole day and we have never let a box of chocolates last so long in our lives, he he. Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you it didn’t taste any better than Lindt , it just seemed to be another Italian designer label! Another interesting fact is that Lindt and other premium chocolate brands in Italy are very cheap the equivalent amount of Lindt chocky would have cost about $4.00. I guess we were sucked in by the hype and very good marketing or it could have been the quest that made us do it ?????