The 17 contrade

The Legend of la BEFANA

Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday

The Grassina Passion Play

Gothic Dream

The Race or Bravio of St. Reparata

Wish upon a star

Halloween

Bacco Artigiano at Rufina

And who was St. Zenobius?

A home from home through the year

More Tuscan history

The Scottish market

Genuine, hand-made...and not just for kids

A whopping great Easter egg
[Susan Glasspool]

When in Florence, you can hardly help noticing all the wonderful displays of handmade sweets, confectionary and chocolates that fill the windows and display cases of the bars and pastry shops. Decidedly decorative, original - at least compared with abroad - and very definitely delicious. When Easter comes therefore you must perforce buy yourself an Easter egg! A good idea, but how very difficult...

The choice is amazing thanks to the unlimited variety of shapes, types of chocolate available and the beautiful hand-made decorations on the outside of each egg. Each egg seems to be trying to outdo the next! Then there is the problem of size... Should you limit yourself, and the intention of keeping to a diet, to a tiny, beautiful, but still tiny, egg? Or should you be a little more daring and go for a medium sized one? Or perhaps go mad and buy a really big one? Apparently there are no limits!

The Florentines could compete for a Guiness record with the biggest Easter egg in the world for some of the eggs are truly enormous! Eggs abroad may be very nice, depending on the chocolate used, but the eggs are empty. In Italy the eggs come with surprises inside them! These can range from silly little gadgets or toys to quite expensive gifts. Most shops that make their own Easter eggs will also personalise the eggs for clients by putting a specially chosen present inside. Hand-made hand-filled chocolates, pieces of jewellery, even wrist-watches or cell phones, are classics for the more refined.

There have been mix-ups occasionally, to the desperation of the sender and the astonishment of the recipient, but this is rare, especially as one can often watch the gift being placed inside the egg. We therefore warmly advise you to buy yourself a genuine Florentine Easter egg. Make the most of these mouth-watering delights and not only buy one, but eat it too! After all, Easter only comes once a year, so why should children bag all the eggs? Let us be fair! The almost child-like fun of smashing open a chocolate egg to discover what is inside, followed by a real gorge - yes a gorge - on chocolate is after all part of Easter! And who knows what you may find in your own particular egg?


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