Tanti Auguri Alex

Cake for breakfast, cake for dinner and cake for tea.
If you’re still left wondering whose birthday that describes then you've obviously never met Alex.
To mark Alex's entry into the dirty 30s, we headed off to Italy's sophisticated north for a dose well.... wouldn't you know it ..... chocolate.
It doesn't matter that we already live in Perugia - Italy's capital city of chocolate - we also chose to spend our leisure time living it up in Italy's other premier chocotown - Turin.
Turin, or Torino as it’s also known, has had an amazing facelift in honour of the Winter Olympics earlier this year and as a result is now Italy's undisputed tourist friendly city (even better than Rome, Florence and Venice!).
Apparently people come here because they want to see the Shroud of Turin, but we came here because it is the home of the chocolate-hazelnut flavour marriage (famously commodified by Ferrero in Nutella), but also available for sampling in any one of hundreds of authentic Torinese cafes serving an amazing hot chocolate and hazelnut drink.
It's also the birthplace of icecream on a stick - called Il Penguino, which was invented in a Torinese cafe which still serves them.
In any case, there was no better place for Alex to spend her milestone 30th birthday.
And yes, it started with cake - a chocolate tart to be exact - followed by a custard filled doughnut (Italian style, none of that revolting American chain rubbish of course) for breakfast.
After that, the birthday gal (with sister in tow) headed off for some sightseeing - visiting the church housing the famous shroud (it’s not on display, so we had to take their word for it that it was in fact there), an exhibition of Rembrandt drawings and then the Palazzo Reale (for an hour long tour in ITALIAN!!).
Lunch was a French-inspired crepe accompanied by two pints of beer and followed by a very special white chocolate buona bar (an Italian staple).
Tonight, she's off to tuck into a seafood dinner, followed by pannacotta (I’m sure you’ve all had one, but did you know it was invented in Turin!)
So, chocolate cake, bombolone (that's Italian for doughnut), crepes, beer, chocolate bars, seafood and pannacotta. That's what I call a very Alex birthday.
Tanti Auguri!