Cimitero della Parrochietta Rome

Wandering around cemeteries is one of my favorite activities: these places are always very quiet and peaceful, which allows me to indulge in a meditative state of mind. Besides the monumental cemetery of Rome “Verano”, which is an open-air museum itself, and the lovely Protestant cemetery where Keats and Shelley are buried, I really like this tiny cemetery under the viaduct of Via Portuense: it is -without a doubt- the cutest cemetery in Rome! 

Located under Via Portuense’s huge concrete pillars by the intersection with Via Isacco Newton, this hidden, little cemetery was built in 1855 when the epidemic of cholera necessitated the extension of the graveyard of the nearby church of Santa Maria del Carmine e San Giuseppe al Casaletto. It consists of just one square of grass with a line of graveyards in the middle and more tombs aligned on the surrounding wall.

This cemetery is very tiny and peaceful, and it looks more like a private garden rather then a burial site. Each graveyard is different, but none of them is monumental like at the main cemetery in Rome: they all are beautiful in their simplicity. Since the beginning of 1990s, the cemetery doesn’t allow new burials, and so it is pretty rare to find someone else wandering around.