There's lots of great food to taste in Europe--food the big conglomerates haven't quite succeeded in obliterating--like Italian chocolate, one of the purest chocolates in Europe by law, according to Kyle Phillips. And Cory Doctorow, writing for the popular blog Boing Boing about his experience in Florence's Hemmingway seems to agree: I have seen God in a cup of chocolate.

Will Italian chocolatiers succumb to the EU bureaucrats' insistence on allowing chocolate to be doctored with cheap oils like palm oil? Giancarlo Torta of Barbero di Cherasco gave me a defiant "No!" when I asked. Giancarlo still breaks hazelnuts the expensive, old fashioned way--with soft wooden rollers instead of stainless steel so the essential oils stay with the nut. If you're in Piemonte, stop by Barbero and leave some money there, you'll be supporting the hand-crafted goods that EU bureaucrats seem to loath in their present state. (See: It's the cheese, stupid. Why the French snubbed the EU bureaucrats in Brussels.

James Martin

Europe For visitors