Rome - Romans don't have to wait for Halloween to enjoy the macabre.
The spirit of Halloween stalks the city's myriad churches, from skeletons galore to mummified monks, embalmed papal hearts to a purported piece of John the Baptist's head.
A good place to start is the Church of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Via Veneto.
The ghosts of La Dolce Vita are quickly forgotten when the visitor enters the church's crypt, elaborately adorned by the earthly remains of hundreds of Capuchin monks.
Vertebrae create a floral effect, while shoulder blades suggest the wings on the hourglasses symbolising the inexorable flight of time for us mortals.
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Clavicles also make up the Grim Reaper's scythe held by a skeleton attached to the ceiling.
Decorated by the monks themselves using the bones of their departed brothers, the sanctuary is a series of alcoves dubbed the Crypt of the Skulls, the Crypt of the Pelvises, the Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones, and so on.
Mummified monks in their brown robes lie in niches or stand, heads bowed in prayer, against the wall.
Here the Capuchins would come to pray before retiring for the night, contemplating the message that "Death closes the gates of time, and opens those of eternity," the church says on its website.
Most chilling are three skeletons, displayed in the final alcove, of small children, said to have been members of the noble Barberini family that produced Pope Urban VIII and built the friary.
Those who may be more shaken than stirred by the omnipresent reminders of death need to put things into perspective.
Centuries ago, the Grim Reaper stalked the Eternal City in the form of famine, violence and diseases, notably malaria and tuberculosis.
Whether their souls were headed for heaven or hell, Rome's legions of unidentified dead had a home at Santa Maria dell'Orazione e delle Morte, built by a charity, the Company of Good Death, that buried abandoned corpses or those of the poor.
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