Perugia

I arrived in Perugia in the early evening of a cold March day, just as the annual chocolate festival was getting into full swing. For my convenience the entire city centre was closed to traffic so I was forced to park at the foot of the hill a good half hour's walk up to my hotel, dragging suitcase through a quite surreal series of tunnels and stairs, emerging suddenly into the twilight once more. The trouble with hilltop towns...they are always at the top of hills!

It is surprising how quickly you can go off chocolate; the all pervading smell of heated chocolate quickly turning from a delightful fantasy into a simultaneously acrid and sickly taste, cloying at the back of your throat. Even the kids seemed to tire of such an indulgence of chocolate and were being dragged whining through the increasingly cold night air, their parents somehow determined to get their full ration of choco-fest.

Braving the bitter cold once more after dinner, I discovered a maze of alleys and fantasy buildings worthy of Piranesi, made even more fantastic by the atmospheric sodium lights.

So impressed I dedicated a whole page to Perugia by night