I have reached my ABC threshold (Another bloody church, cathedral, castle, cobblestone street). In fact Id reached it several minutes after arriving in this quaint little town. In true commiseratory fashion I have thus turned my attention to the Eurochocolate show. I first discovered a hot chocolate so rich, that it causes my heart to have minor convulsions. It was a most amazing cup of sugary ciocolatto lard that I have ever tasted. I felt every sip grow a centimetre on my waist. hmmmmmm chocolate.

But I stubbornly refuse to losen my belt in a viscious act of denial, no matter how much my belly discretly pokes over, or how much it chafes. To add to the matter, there are some rather imaginative chocolate minds here, the chocolate pizza I can understand, the chocolate ravioli is pushing it, but the ham centred chocolate is really pushing the boundaries.

Perugia is a town with significant history. Its long been warring with its neighbours, has the assasination of two popes to its credit and even imprisoned the somewhat chilled and peaceful St Francis of Asissi. There used to be an event known as the Battaglia de'Sassi an annual event with two teams stoning each other to death. Put me down as a goalie in that game, not. The other amusing tale I read was of the 14th century Order of Flagellants, a group of religious looneys taken to publicy whipping themselves, starting their order here.

I caught up with a friend 'eather (The Italians have a silent H). Studying Italiano here (and having done so for a few weeks, so in my eyes a local). She took me to and I quote "The best pizzeria in town" and in her capable hands I let the order flow. To her, and my surprise we got a very 'interesting' pizza, tomato paste, curried mince and chips the "Indiana". It somehow felt obscurely British, and not Italian at all. The pizzas here are a far cry from our Australian counterparts. Minimalism is the essence of pizza here. Tomato paste and cheese theres your stock standard margherita. Tomato paste and mushrooms theres your ala funghi (or something like that) its almost disturbing but I miss the ole hawaiin, and the bbq meat lovers supreme...

But the gelati more then makes up for it. So many flavours, so many notches on my belt to expand.

In a valiant cultural attempt I headed to a local town, Asissi the resting place of St Francis of Asissi. He deviated slightly from the somewhat opulent nature of the Catholic church and preached humility, abstinence, celebacy and all those good things that you preach when you have a bald spot and wear a long brown dress. Ironically on his death he became sainted, and a rather opulent church was built around his remains with amazing paintings by Giotto portraying his life and sainthood. Naturally the Catholic church ate up his order once he died ala popal pacman.

Its pretty cool seeing nuns and monks still bombing around the place. I was particularly taken by the electronic candles. Normally one would take a candle, light it and leave it as an offering, a tribute accompanied by a little prayer to a saint. This church is movin with the times, with a large bank of electronic candles (little white sticks with a light bulb on top) and a slot machine. Two euro and you get a bulb for a day.

I also found some of the tourist shops quite amusing, selling a hoarde of st Francis paraphernalia, crosses and rosary beads, next to replica crossbows, arrows and maces. Nice, 40 hail mary's and a flaying please.

The Italians know what to do with pork. So many variations, so many prosciottos, pancettas, boccones. The pig is indeed (In the words of Homer Simpson) "Some sort of magical animal". A friend in customs once told me the biggest offenders were the little old Italian grannies hunched over and smuggling under their dresses huge arrays of salamis, prosciottos, pancettas and the like. I can understand why.