Easter

Buona Pasqua is the greeting here in Italy for Easter.  Pasqua or Easter is celebrated as the end of Lent.  Lent begins after carnevale, and typically some comfort is sacrificed until Easter, about 40 days.  Usually, a type of food, or smoking or the like is given up for Lent.   Easter here is somewhat commercial, but in our smaller town, not nearly as much as the US.   However, we did find all the supermercati here had chocolate eggs with surprises in them.  They range in size from a normal size egg to ones that are nearly as tall as I am.  There are even surprises for adults with jewelry or wallets in them.   There are several typical Easter desserts here, cassata, a cake topped with green and white icing and candied fruit with ricotta inside, and also columba, a cake in the shape of a dove.  I even got an egg to share with Shawn; it had a toy sword from the Narnia movie inside and the chocolate was delicious.  It was one of the smaller ones.  We decided not to buy the one that cost 65 euros, it was a little expensive for our budget.  Anyway we enjoyed the egg, and had the opportunity to eat cassata several times as well.  Mmmmm!!!