The pictures in this photo-essay are from three different locations in Le Marche. The altar and the shadow image are from an old abandoned cemetery down the road from La Tavola Marche; the majority are from a cemetery in the north-west section of Le Marche close the border with Umbria; and the last two are from a cemetery north of Pesaro.

The most personal image is the second one in the first row. One morning I took the car and drove towards Piobbico with the intention of stopping at the small country cemetery. What I found that had me laughing was the empty champagne bottles on the shelf in the above-ground crypt. Whoever said that Italians are different from Americans, obviously doesn’t know that kids, the world over, go to cemeteries to drink. The difference is that in an American cemetery beer cans reveal the revelers, in Le Marche I found empty champagne bottles in the stipetto. (I want to drink with the guys from Le Marche. Forget the cheap beer, give me the good stuff even if I have to drink out of filthy, plastic cups.)

The last picture in the first row is typical Italian and bizarre in American terms. The image is a death-picture taken of the young girl in her coffin. (The only picture my family has of my paternal grandmother is her death-picture.)

This photo-essay uses Christina Rossetti’s poem De Profundis (1891) and Psalm 130 as the common threads.

(The thumbnail links to a large image.)