Easter wouldn’t be Easter in Italy without chocolate eggs: yes, I know they are quite popular in other parts of the world, like Ireland and the UK, for instance, but we think that in Italy the art of chocolate egg making and exchanging reaches its peak!

Gifting eggs – real ones – was a common propitiatory gesture in ancient times, when the egg was considered a symbol of fertility, wealth, and renaissance. The Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans all embraced the habit; the Romans in particular would, during the winter, bury an egg painted in red wherever they planned to grow a crop, to ensure the soil would be fertile when spring came.