San Michele cemetery in Venice, Italy. Part One

When you stroll along Fondamenta Nuove you can see San Michele cemetery - an island so different from the rest of the Venetian islands.

It’s not very lively here, you know;-))

Nevertheless, it’s worth the short trip from Fondamenta Nuove.

The cemetery looks much smaller on the outside than it really is. Even when you enter it, you don’t realize the real size of the Cimitero, and the variety it has to offer a tourist.

When you go inside, what you see first on the right is… toilets. Well, I wouldn’t mention such a thing in such a serious story but the fact is that it’s not ordinary toilets at all! They are situated in a very nice building which fits the atmosphere of the island perfectly. Made of red brick, the building has one extraordinary feature. It has no windows (at least in the traditional meaning of this word). Instead, there are big, arched holes up the wall, circling the whole building. It’s good in the summer but tell me what happens when it rains?

Anyway, when you pass the toilets you find yourself in a circle-shaped courtyard, surrounded by family tombs.

What made us really sad and philosophic about the brevity of life and the overall sense of it was the condition of some of them.

Some were simply neglected but there were quite a few that must have felt the hand of some vandal.

(to be continued)