During my recent trip to Italy, I joined an Italian friend of mine at a trattoria for a late night supper. As we hungrily ate our overfilled plates of pasta Carbonara and Cacio e Pepe, a local specialty made with pecorino cheese and lots of spicy, freshly-ground black pepper, mingled with lots of Italian voices were plenty of Americans, making sure they were heard above the din.

But Americans aren't just famous for speaking loudly.

"Americans are the best!" my friend said,"You just get them drunk and you can have sex with them. Everyone knows that."

Who knew?
I certainly didn't. That was one reputation that I didn't know we Americans had to live up to (or live down.) So I suppose I've been a failure to my people, or maybe I just need to drink more and get with the program. But with all the young men with plucked, over-arched eyebrows and waxed chests I saw, coupled with the overdose of cologne, lots of extraneous zippers and buckles on clothing, phony Versace belts (though the knock-offs seem more restrained than the real ones), and a staggering amount of hair gel that would be more than sufficient for anyone except Chewbacca, I think it might take more than a few glasses of wine to get anyone to put out for one of those giovani uomini on the prowl in Rome.

So if you're American and you plan on visiting Rome, depending on the purpose of your vacation, you might want to watch your alcohol consumption, play it safe, and stick to gelato.
Or espresso.

Or chocolate.

Chocolate in Rome, you ask?
Although one doesn't normally associate Rome with chocolate, since chocolate normally finds its way into creamy-smooth gelalot due to the warm temperatures, but friend of mine, a native of Rome who didn't offer advice of the carnal nature, gave me directions to a chocolate shop that she swore, "Rivals anything in Paris." Hmmm. Thems fightin' words. (Sorry to non-native English speakers who are scratching their heads over that poor grammar...blame it on the south.)
So we wandered the streets of Rome, searching for the shop, until we came upon a small piazza where Confetteria Moriondo & Gariglio was tucked away in the corner.

Entering the velvet-lined shop, I smelled something delightful in the air, and saw in the small, well-lit backroom, a group of women sitting around chatting and peeling freshly-roasted chestnuts. Being naturally curious, some say a pain-in-the-butt, I wandered back there to take a look. Within minutes a large Italian fellow came lumbering towards me, thankfully without plucked eyebrows or Versace knock-offs (I didn't check out the chest hair 'situation'), he seemed to have no ulterior motives and offered to speak with me about his chocolates.

Attilio Procietti explained how Rome is a tough place for him to make chocolates, since anything chocolate dipped need to stand up to the heat of summer. To combat melting, he uses a harder chocolate with less cocoa butter than normal, which resist melting. In addition, he avoids soft or creamy centers high in milk fat, and indeed perhaps the best of his chocolates that I sampled were simply little dark chocolate squares embedded with crackly cocoa nibs. His shop, Moriondo & Gariglio is the oldest chocolate boutique in Rome, started in 1850 as the chocolatier to the House of Savoy, whose recipes have been handed down for generations and generations. Attilio also gave me tastes of his molded fruit gels, similar to the French pâte de fruit, and I was impressed by the bright orange apricot-flavored ones. I was quickly becoming high on sugar, finding myself swooning, as defenseless to the charms of Rome as a wide-eyed American college-aged backpacker lugging a copy of Let's Go on his first trip to Europe, falling prey to Roman lotharios right and left.

But maintaining my professionalism (and not wanting to give my blog readers the wrong impression about me...that's for my other, top-secret blog...) I was most curious about the candied chestnuts made from the castagni the women in the back were peeling, which are called Marrons Glacés, an Italian specialty that have because a favorite holiday treat in France as well as Italy during the holiday season. Most marrons glacés end up tasting like dry, starchy lumps of sugar, but these were moist and delicate, each one a perfect bite of woodsy, earthy chestnut preserved in a slightly-sweet sugar syrup.

I feel deeply in love with these marrons glacés, but I doubt anyone would use these candied chestnuts as objects of seduction, although maybe I should. With my brush-cut hair, which requires a bare minimum of gel, and the triumphant return of chest hair, I'm probably not the best candidate for launching an Italian-style romantic entrapment.

But I would imagine it beats all that waxing and plucking anyways, don't you think?

Confetteria Moriondo & Gariglio
Via del Piè di Marmo, 21-22
Tel: 06.69.90.856

(This post is part of Chocolate In Context's Food Destinations #3: Favorite Chocolate Shops world-wide round-up.)

Other favorite addresses in Rome:

Tazza d'Oro
Via degli Orfani, 84
My favorite espresso stop in Rome. Elbow up to the always-busy counter and be sure to try the Espresso Granita in the summer.

L'Albero del Cacao
Via Capo le Case, 21
Tiny, friendly chocolate shop with good selection of Italian chocolates from my friends at Domori, Amedei, and Slitti.

San Crispino
Via della Panetteri, 42 (near Trevi fountain)
Some of my favorite gelati in the world. Try the meringue-based flavors for a special treat.

Giolitti
Via degli Uffici di Vicario, 40
Near the Pantheon, the classic Rome gelato. A must!

Pizzarium
Via della Meloria, 43
Great stand-up pizza place a short hike from the Vatican (stop at food emporium Castroni on the Via Cola di Rienzo en route). The pizza topped with potatoes is the most popular, and with good reason.

Volpetti
(near Testaccio market)
Via Marmorata, 47
Amazing food store with everything Italian, including every conceivable salumi and cheese imaginable. Cafeteria-style restaurant just around the corner is great for lunch after visiting the market.

Biscottificio Innocenti
Via della Lucce, 21a
Really fun cookie shop, but how does one choose? Try brutti ma buoni, aka: ugly but good. If she's there, don't let the gruff older woman scare you away. As she barely waddled around herself, she complained about how fat Americans are.
I guess she was too big to see very far her behind, herself!

For further places and addresses, you can read my post from Rome last year. Johanna also posted a good list of places in Rome at The Passionate Cook.