The English Cimetery

This is the graveyard where foreigners have traditionally been buried in Florence.  The diversity of monuments is amazing. The best is perhaps this one for the wife of the 19th century English poet, Walter Savage Landor, the one who wrote: "I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart."

We got a very funny explanation of this monument from the person in charge of opening the graveyard gate, a plump Anglican nun. I told her the woman looked very sad. "Well, not for her husband's death," she said. "She had thrown him out of the house and, as you will notice, she is buried at the opposite end of the graveyard from him and with her back turned to him."



There are some celebrities like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, another British 19th century poet.

There is a Prussian king ( Friedrich Wilhelm III) whose epitaph is in French. This is surprising as I see on Wikipedia that his army was destroyed by Napoleon at the battle of Jena.

You can see the whole monument below, at the end of the alley, between the cypresses.

I of course noticed the plants, including what seems to be a pomegranate (on the tomb of  the English poet and friend of Matthew Arnold, Arthur Hugh Clough).

and something like golden marguerite (Cota tintora) which is obviously at its best at this time of the year. We also saw it in a private garden.

Rightly or wrongly, you get  the impression you can imagine the story of some of the people buried there. This  l9th century woman was born in Liverpool and married an Italian aristocrat, Count Mario Gigliucci. Did she bring in a substantial dowry to become a contessa?

Here are a couple more monuments.