This is the Untold Italy travel podcast and you're listening to episode number 200.

Ciao at all and benvenuti to Untold Italy, the travel podcast where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes, hills and coastlines of Bella Italia.

Each week your host, Katie Clark, takes you on a journey in search of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course, a whole lot of pasta.

If you're dreaming of Italy and planning future adventures there,

you've come to the right place.

Ciao, bonjourno, everyone.

Can you believe that today is our 200th episode of Untold Italy?

Hooray, pop the Prosecco. I'm actually pinching myself because I had no idea that when I started

this journey back at the end of 2019, that it would still be going to this day. So to celebrate,

I'm going to tell you all about Italian chocolate, my favourite brands

and styles, where to find and taste it, and all the things, because Italians do chocolate

very, very well, but somehow it flies under the radar compared with Swiss or Belgian chocolate.

I have no idea why. Probably marketing, but we'll get to that later, along with some gift ideas for the upcoming holidays

and tips on making the most of the Black Friday sales,

as there are always plenty of travel deals on offer.

But first a little background on this podcast

and why I'm so proud to reach this milestone of 200 episodes.

As I mentioned, the podcast was a little idea,

hatched with my friend Josie in late 2019. The first episode launched in January 2020,

just a few short weeks before COVID and everything that happened around that. And boy,

did it happen. And I guess travel abroad was the last thing anyone was thinking

of. At that time, Italy was right at the epicenter of the crisis and things really took a very

...