The food and music, the architecture and emotions, Italy's operatic qualities; each offering unique pleasure. And then there are the cemeteries. They are full of flowers, full of color in contrast to the charming black and white photos engraved into the stone. When I go to San Michele in Venice, the boat trip alone is surreal. Then the flowers, the photos and monuments, the space, surrounded by water...and you are in Venice.
When I visit the cemetery of Staglieno,in Genoa, it provides another kind of pleasure. It is extensive, there are hundreds of statues, it is an open air museum. I took videos for a project, and found each figure, each collection of men, women and families in mourning, each colonnade more amazing than the last. These grand statues are life-like, they are stunning, full of emotion, intense, making this Europe's most beautiful cemetery.
When Mark Twain visited the cemetery he wrote "We shall continue to remember it after we shall have forgotten the palaces..."
There's a reason Genoa is called ,"La Superba" (the proud one); it's messy, romantic, sad, still grand and the cemetery alone makes this city well worth a visit.
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