It's time for a good bite of Torrone Fratelli Nurzia. Because it's winter in Holland. Days are darkening, the weather is unspeakable, rain and strong wind keep inside the lucky ones who can choose to, and I feel like a serious craving for a bar of Torrone dei Fratelli Nurzia. A 500 grams bar, not the small ones. Which means I am ready for that Christmas feeling, two months in advance. Boy, that's a serious problem.

And what it is, you might ask? It is the most deliciously soft chocolatey thing, with honey and whole hazelnuts, to munch and nibble under a blanket on the couch with a good book, or just without (and a huge jar of water next to you). One of these things that melt in your mouth (and I am not talking juicy sleazy sex here, god forbid). One of these things, you know, you just forget about calories and before you know you put 4 kilos extra all on your tummy. Which will stay there forever, and I cannot care less, because it is all worth it.

Which is what happens if I are just my usual piggy-self when it comes to torrone Nurzia (the only edible torrone in the world if you want my opinion, and anyway, I don't care if you feel differently, there will be more torrone all for me in that case). Instead of distributing around to family and friends all the good torrone (3 kg.) my mom sends me, I eat it all by myself with my beloved one - beloved one gets anyway less of it and he knows - well than the least you can expect is to move two clothing sizes up. And nobody heard me ever complaining about this.

Well, my mom got the hint by now. Last year we were discussing on the phone the yearly parcel, and I asked for small-bars packages, because easier to distribute. "Like it makes any difference", she said "you eat it all yourself anyway". She got a good point here, but I was surprised to hear she knew. How naive of me.

Now, if you look around and are a bit lucky, all you chance to find in Italy in the shops is Torrone Sorelle Nurzia. They are the part of the family gone commercial. While the real thing has forever been packed in a metal wrap and a paper box with Art Deco ladies on it, the Sorelle have lately chosen first for a plastic wrapping with at least a metallic goldicolour, and later went shamelessly transparent, logo-printed foil.

Shame, the whole experience of unwrapping an abducted bar, hidden under your bed and eat it before you are caught by cousins and brothers who did not manage to even get close the Christmas tree (were all the bounty was stored), is down the drain. They don't make that good old noise, no, it's all squaky-squeaky now.

Then the Sorelle got good deals with distribution, which means big production volumes and price consciousness and you don't need me to tell you what this all does to the taste of whichever good thing in life. For God's sake, you can buy the sorelle's Torrone at the highway supermarkets. Now, if this is not cheap.

But if I got you interested for the real thing, you go to L'Aquila, Piazza Duomo which is the big central square hosting a market every morning, you go on the lower uphill side of the square and you enter Bar Fratelli Nurzia, which is a coffee and bon-bon shop rather than a drinking hole, and there, just there, you find it. In all seasons. But Christmas time, is of course, the best time for it.

(And if you are there, and think of me, and wish to send me a little something from home, well, who am I to say no?) My mom wouldn't be happy though, she always told me to beware of strangers offering you sweets...