When Mary Lou and yours truly went to Rome in November (yes, I am still writing about this 2 day trip), visiting the non-catholic cemetery was one of our priorities. Well, Mary-Lou threatened to drag me there whether I wanted or not, but thankfully I am one of those people who are pretentious enough to include graveyards in their to-do list whenever they visit somewhere.
As its name subtly indicates, the non-catholic cemetery is one where no catholics are buried. Wow, this was a great explanation. As you can imagine, Italy has a Catholic majority, so the cemetery is almost exclusively for foreigners. Among the (many) famous people buried there there were two that, being English majors, we couldn’t really miss. Shelley and Keats. Apparently when Shelley visited he said:
“It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place”
Little did he know that he would end up there after drowning in a storm.
Goethe’s only son is also buried there
Shelley’s tomb
Gregory Corso
Some Romans mourning
the young English poet is Keats
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water
Keats’ name doesn’t appear in his grave, but it does on his friend’s
This is more or less like kissing a dead man, right?
Mary-Lou on her way to Egypt
Rome obviously has a lot of world famous sights that shouldn’t be missed, but if you have a morning to spare or you’re a literature lover, this is a morning well spent. You can read more about the cimitero acattolico here.