The catacombs in Palermo

 So another full day (so far) today started with a 40-minute walk up to the Franciscan Friary on the other side of town where the Catacombs contain several thousand bodies, 'naturally mummified', it says, but all standing or lying and wearing the clothes they were buried in. 

You aren't allowed to take photos, so I've used ones from the Friary's own website or from Wikipedia. The website is very interesting as it describes how mummification became popular for ordinary laypeople, having started just with the friars themselves. Eventually the great majority of the mummies were not clergy at all, and until the end of the 19th century you could still have your mother or father (or child!) interred in the catacombs so that you had a very permanent reminder of their earthly presence ( and could go and visit them as some people did). I did though particularly note that those interred made a generous contribution to the friars, which may have focused their willingness to extend their catacombs so much.

Now I think I should make clear that all the mummies do look very dead and have gone the way of all flesh to a much lighter, drier and less intact state. They do look very dead, and decayed ( though the clothes are often in a surprisingly good state). But on the other hand, here, in contrast to the Parisian catacombs where hundreds of thousands of skeletons are organised with skulls and tibia and other bones arrayed like an armoury, here you are actually looking at the entire remains of a real person, with the remains of the clothes they wore, be it cassock or suit.

And the great majority of the visitors were Italian and, I suspect, Sicilian. And plenty of them came with family and children. And there were a surprising number of stylishly dresses young couples. Not most people's idea of a date.

But overall, I didn't find it unpleasant or intrusive. The dead had probably been happy with the prospect and it is a connection of a kind with the land of the living. 

But I have seen several dead people (and have seen two of them die). And to me it mainly made me think of the epitaph which to my mind both warns us against thoughts of immortality and encourages us to enjoy this life:

Remember, friends, as you pass by,

As you are now so once was I.

As I am now, so you must be.

Prepare yourself to follow me.