What do you call a person with a strange fondness for cemeteries?

You call them a COIMETROPHILIAC and we qualify for that title!! 

We have always enjoyed visiting cemeteries and found the Verano Monumental Cemetery in Rome 

to be our MOST EXCITING discovery yet!!!

This massive cemetery is 20 centuries old and covers 205 acres of gardens. We could not begin to guess how many people are interred there, nor could we find any estimates online. It is fascinating to walk along  the paths, reading names and dates, and marveling at the unique artistic memorials.

 

There are literally hundreds of free-standing family mausoleums in every shape and design,...

...and hundreds of in-ground family graves. 

Some graves are cubicle in the wall stacked 10 shelves high!  

And the porcelain paintings are phenomenal!! This image of one-year-old Augusto Biondi ....

(The inscription is moving. In English is reads... "I fly to the sky to join my brother increasing the pain and desolation of the afflicted parents who painfully placed this memory so that one day they could unite with their deceased loved ones.")

...and these of the Petrangeli family are from the late 1800's. Wow!

The hundreds of sculptures adorning the monuments tell tender stories. Here a little boy peeks around the marble stone to see his little sister.

Here is a tender scene of a wife grieving for her departed husband watched over by her father. 

And this bust of "mom" is so life-like!! Since 1866 her stern look has probably kept her posterity in line!! 

Now it is your turn. Look closely at this monument and see if you can figure out the occupation of Donato di Veroli who died at age 21 in 1943. 

We took TONS of pictures and TRIED to choose just a few of our top favorites to share with you but, alas, our wander through this cemetery was so amazing and touching that it required a longer post to capture the wonder of it all!