Buona Pasqua

Easter in Italy is always marked by the omnipresent giant chocolate eggs. No bunnies, no peeps, just big chocolate eggs. If you’re lucky, there’s an exciting surprise awaiting you inside your giant chocolate egg. These surprises can range from cheap plastic toys to fine jewelry, depending on where your egg came from. They’re kind of like giant Kinder Surprise eggs.*

Easter in Europe can be tricky, as Heather recently discussed. On one hand, it’s a four-day weekend. On the other, it seems like all of Europe is closed. It’s like having four Sundays in a row: no groceries, no shopping, and limited restaurants. That makes it a little difficult to pick a destination for the weekend. It would have been nice to go skiing, but we’re done with fighting the bad snow. Last year we went to Berlin, and the year before that we came to Zurich for the first time (having no idea that we would eventually move here). This year we opted to continue our success with ‘big’ cities, and head to Vienna. It turned out to be a good choice, as pretty much everything was open as if it were a normal weekend. Plus we got colored eggs and chocolate lamb-shaped cake for breakfast. What more could you ask for?

Speaking of religious holidays, an article about the recent marketing efforts of Swiss churches caught my eye this morning. As in many European countries, funding for churches (well, mainstream Christian churches anyway) is done through taxes collected by the government here.

* remind me to tell you a funny story about Kinder Surprise eggs.