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The meeting point is in Perugia’s historic centre, at the corner of Via dei Cartolari and Via Alessi, in front of the elegant Palazzo Ansidei di Catrano. One’s imagination immediately drifts to the luxurious life of Luisa Spagnoli, a pioneering entrepreneur in the food and fashion sectors. She became wealthy, but she started in the basement of that...

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Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is a medieval gem of a hill town. Known for its excellent universities, rich architectural history and Umbria Jazz, one of the great music festivals of Europe, it’s also nurtured a vibrant sister-city relationship with Seattle for more than three decades. There’s another area where Perugia shines: as a center of fash...

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In the teeming markets and cobbled streets of Ancient Rome, where the thrum of the empire pulsed strongest, two women carved their names into the annals of commerce and industry, challenging the era’s traditional gender roles. Back then, societal norms largely confined women to private spaces, where they were expected to be custodians of the home b...

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Baci Perugina must be the best-known Italian chocolate in the world: with their silver wrapping covered in blue stars, they look like a precious stone and they are pretty enough to be gifted just like that, on their own and out of your hand. Then, when you open them, you don’t only find a delicious chocolate, but also a tiny piece of white wax pape...

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Luisa Spagnoli left her mark in the fashion world, but little do people know that she was the woman who invented the “Baci Perugina,” the famous little chocolate with the whole hazelnut surrounded by gianduia and wrapped in a short love poem.  A favorite for Valentine’s Day, the “Bacio” or Kiss, is today one of the best-known Italian chocolates, ea...

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A blue box of silver-foil chocolates wrapped with a note is a failsafe on February 14. But there’s actually a real-life love story behind the Baci. When Perugia-born clothing designer Luisa Spagnoli first invented the hazelnut-centred chocolate in 1922, she called it a cazzotto because it resembled a fist. The name didn’t ring right to Giovanni Bui...

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