Allison's Wonderland

After our trip to Cuneo, Simona had a meeting in Mondovi. It was my duty to pick up little Mattia from school (escuela). For the past several days Mattia has been wanting to go to the cemetary. Don't ask me why. Kind of a morbid thing to want to do for a five year old. Anyway, I was excited to go because Simona told me I would be really surprised how Italians bury their dead.

Instead of me walking to pick Mattia up, Gianluca drove us to the school in his Audi. Riding in style. I was grateful because it was cold out and our walk from the school to the cemetary was a tad bit far. After we got Mattia, we pull up to this place that just looks like a little walled in area of houses. I step out of the car and am perplexed. As I get up to the gate I see that there is just a huge wall of marble. Instead of taking up the space on a huge plot of land, the Italians bury their dead in marble walls. Each family purchases a "wall" or house looking thing. You will have to view the pictures to see what I'm talking about because it's a little difficult to explain. What I like about Italian cemetaries is along with the name and date of birth and death, each wall slot has a picture of the deceased. I wish we did this in the states, because it goes to show that these people were actually alive and living at one point and time. They're not just a name with a bunch of dates.

We went and checked out the gravesite of the Auraldi's. Gianluca's family plot. His Dad recently passed away in September of this year, so it was very sad. As a foreigner it was extremely interesting though. I couldn't believe the amount of marble, pillars and granite in this one little space. I want to know how much they cost because it seems like they would be hundreds of thousands of euros. Maybe I'll ask. It just seems kind of rude. Anyway, that was my second field trip for the day. Very enlightening for sure.