Funerals are
expensive, but a final resting place next to Marcello Mastroianni can cost up
to 100,000 euro. Rome’s Azienda Municipale Ambientale (AMA), the municipal body
that manages the city’s waste disposal and cemeteries, was stunned by the price
fetched at auction for a covered tomb in Verano cemetery, the Eternal city’s
most prestigious. With a starting price of 150,000 euro, the mausoleum, which
is located next to the final resting spots of some of Italy’s most illustrious
figures, including the novelist Alberto Moravia and the movie directors Roberto
Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica, went for close to a million euro. ‘We
certainly weren’t prepared for the sale of a tomb for €938, 000,’ said AMA’s managing director, Franco
Panzironi.
