A Brush With Immortality . . .

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On the way back home toward France from central Italy this past weekend, we had planned in advance to spend one night in Genoa, so as not to have too long a drive at one go. To my shame, I admit, I had not given much thought to the overnight stay in that ancient city, other than to reserve a hotel for the night not far from the port and the old city center. It was only when we got there fairly late in the evening on Saturday that I took the time to peruse the guidebook a little more closely to see if there might be something of interest to visit on Sunday morning before heading back into France. So it was with considerable amazement and surprise that I discovered a paragraph in the book about one of the largest and most distinguished cemeteries in all of Europe, the Staglieno Monumental Cemetery, situated right on the outskirts of Genoa. After reading the glowing description in the guidebook of the 160 hectare (395 acres) site of the Staglieno Cemetery, there was no question about where we were heading on Sunday morning.
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And all I can say is, if you are ever in Genoa for any reason, do not miss this cemetery ! It is simply stunning. Out of this world. If you want a little bit of an idea, just go to Google and peruse the images section for Staglieno Cemetery. There are hundreds and hundreds of images already on line. This may be one of the most memorable and astonishing cemeteries in the world for the quality and quantity of the incredible artwork contained within. Writers like Mark Twain and Evelyn Waugh devoted their attention to this unforgettable graveyard. Evelyn Waugh went so far as to say that "If Pere Lachaise and the Albert Memorial were obliterated, the loss would be negligible as long as this great repository survived".
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Without further ado I will let you contemplate my humble contribution below to the already massive number of photographs of the Staglieno Cimeterio on the web. I only wish I had weeks to spend in further exploration of this extraordinary museum of funerary art. I have never seen anything like it, even in Pere Lachaise in Paris, which by comparison is only 43 hectares (106 acres) of land. Everywhere one looks in this mind boggling site one encounters works of art of the highest quality. And the organisation of the place is phenomenal as well, there is a bus service internal to the cemetery to shuttle people around, and as can be seen in one of the below photos there are public urinals for the male visitors, which left me wondering what the female visitors in need were supposed to do... I just hope that one day some effort will be made to give all of the statuary a serious cleaning. It looks as though nothing has been cleaned in the last 160 years or so since the cemetery opened. There are heavy layers of grime on every possible surface. But that does not prevent the underlying beauty from radiating brightly.
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