Italian cemeteries are outdoor museums that nobody puts in guidebooks. Milan's Monumentale has Art Nouveau tombs that rival any gallery. Genova's Staglieno has marble angels so realistic Mark Twain said they were the finest sculptures he'd seen in Italy. Rome's Verano has Neoclassical mausoleums the size of houses. All free. All empty of tourists. All extraordinarily beautiful.
1. Staglieno, Genova. The most spectacular cemetery in Europe — 1km of marble sculpture on a hillside. The Tomba Appiani (weeping woman clinging to a tomb, marble so expressive she looks alive). The Tomba Raggio (an entire marble garden). Mark Twain visited in 1869 and wrote: it was the finest collection of marble sculpture he had seen. Free. Bus 12/14 from Piazza De Ferrari. 1-2h to explore. 2. Cimitero Monumentale, Milan. Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Brutalist tombs. Campari, Toscanini, a bronze Last Supper replica. FREE.
3. Cimitero Acattolico (Protestant Cemetery), Rome. The most literary cemetery in the world — Keats ("Here lies one whose name was writ in water"), Shelley (heart recovered from his funeral pyre by Trelawny), Gramsci (founder of Italian communism, buried in a modest grave). Cats everywhere (a colony guards the graves). Via Caio Cestio 6, near Piramide metro. Donation €3. 4. Cimitero del Verano, Rome. Rome's largest — Neoclassical, Liberty (Italian Art Nouveau), Fascist-era monuments. Film directors (De Sica, Rossellini), actors, politicians. Not beautiful in the Staglieno sense — magnificent in its SCALE. Bus 71/492. Free. 5. Cimitero di San Michele, Venice. An entire island-cemetery in the lagoon (vaporetto 4.1/4.2 from Fondamente Nove, 5 min). Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Ezra Pound are buried here. Cypress trees, red brick walls, the lagoon on every side. €0 (vaporetto fare only). The most atmospheric cemetery location in Italy.