Just before Easter, you can smell chocolate in the air outside of Vestri in Florence. I don’t think I’m imagining it.
Vestri is a little artisan chocolate shop that you might miss (at Borgo Degli Albizi 11R). But how could you not stop in your tracks at the sight of this…
Baskets by the front door are laden with beautifully wrapped chocolate eggs filled with surprises. Some eggs are the size of footballs or bigger. Some are almost too pretty to eat – swathed with colorful foil and elegant ribbons, perched on satin pedestals.
At this time of year, elaborately packaged Easter eggs abound in the confectionery shops around Florence, which has had a love affair with chocolate that dates back to Cosimo III de’ Medici, who became the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1670. Cosimo instructed his court chemists to formulate exotic recipes for chocolate, in a sweet game of political one-upmanship against Spain, which had brought cocoa beans from the New World and mastered the art of chocolate-making. Cosimo’s chemists created a jasmine-flavored chocolate drink that wowed the courts of Europe and whose recipe was a state secret until the end of the Medici reign. Vestri has reproduced the Medici recipe with a drink called Cioccolata del Granduca.
Who could pass by…
this corner of chocolate heaven?
NOT ME! 
I should also mention that Vestri’s gelato is divine, too.
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There is a fascinating book about chocolate entitled “The Emperors of Chocolate”, which is about Milton Hershey and Forest Mars. They also look at the history of chocolate in Europe. It is making my mouth water … Happy Eastertide.
Must read that book! Does it come with samples??? Happy Easter to you!
I am a chocoholic, the darker, the better! Living in Switzerland, of course, I am spoiled with some of world’s best chocolate. Like your little shop in Florence, I am astounded by the window displays of chocolate that looks ALMOST too good to eat! Happy Easter!
Yes, dark chocolate is the best. Swiss, French, Belgian, Italian, Mexican – I’m open-minded about the source. 😉
I must admit I wouldn’t have put Florence alongside chocolate, thanks for the piece.
Apparently Cosimo was a chocoholic!
Nice article. Fun to read. Great pictures and I love chocolate! The darker the better! Best wishes! PCB
Good to know – I’ll tell the Easter Bunny!
Alas…as I sit here eating my Hershey’s morsels (truly, I am – they’re a client of ours!), I dream of Vestri and Florence!! Thanks for the chocolate fix, Rebecca!
As I was writing this post, I was nibbling chocolate, too! 😉
FYI – you might add Spain to your list. There is a little bakery and chocolatier in Seville that is absolutely fantastic … I would go back to Seville just for this shop.
And what would this little shop be called? Do tell.
Enjoying your blog and now you know where I live !!! Right up the street from Vestri.