Love vs. Hate #5

I haven't had written a Love vs. Hate entry in a while. You can't always force these kinds of things; they just come to you. Well, one has finally come. In the spirit of Easter (or Passover), I thought I'd include a little post about religion in Italy.

For the LOVE: I love getting TWO days off for Easter. Living in a predominantly Catholic country does have his advantages. We get Good Friday and Easter Monday off and I'm NOT complaining about it. Having a four day weekend is pure bliss. Perks that tag along with this is that everyone says "Buona Pasqua!" (Happy Easter!) without having to think twice about being "Politically Correct," something SO American. And, knowing that the Pope resides only two hours from your home is pretty p-i-m-p.

Now for the NASTY HATE: On the negative side, I really dislike having to explain your religion to those who have only been surrounded by mainly one religion and can therefore only understand or even be knowledgable about that particular religion. It makes for some real awkward moments for us who grew up with a variety of churches/synagogues/mosques/temples on every street corner.
In the months prior to our wedding here, C and I had to go through this probably more than you'd realize. When Italians would ask us where we were getting married and we replied with "Villa __," they would then continue to ask us why we weren't getting married in a church and why in the world (hand gestures and all) we would want to get married in a beautiful villa's garden overlooking the hills of Tuscany. (?!) I understand their concern, because for them if you don't marry in a church it's a sin. I can understand that they, in their own way, were looking out for us and were truly worried for us. I, in turn, didn't like having to feel like I had to defend our reasons.
Having these sorts of discussions with them only led us having to explain what a Presbytarian or Baptist or Episcopalian is. And sometimes you just don't feel like going in to all of that, especially if you aren't super religious to begin with. According to Wikepedia, (and we ALL know Wikipedia is THE resource!), only 88 % of Italians consider themselves to be Roman Catholic. (I swear it's more like 98 %).
After being here for almost four years, last week I finally met the first Jewish Italian I have ever met. I was actually very excited when I met her! Supposedly, (according to Wikepedia), there are only 45,000 Jewish followers in Italy. She was also the very first non-Catholic I have ever met here.

In all, I appreciate and have welcomed the strong historic ties that Italy has with Catholicism but I also value our diversity of religion in the U.S.
(Lastly, this post wasn't meant to offend anyone and I don't think it should). :)