The English Cemetery

My most recent cemetery visit brought me to the English Cemetery located just outside the walls of Florence. The real name of the cemetery is the Protestant Cemetery of Florence and is owned by the Swiss Reformed Evangelical Church. This had to be my favorite cemetery visit out of all the ones I went on for many reasons. The main reason I enjoyed my time at the English Cemetery had to be the cheerfulness and knowledge of Sister Julia Holloway, a 70-year-old English nun, now the cemetery custodian, who lives in its gatehouse. 

Sister Julia was lovely enough to take our group around the cemetery and gave us some wonderful background information about the history of the cemetery and those who were buried on the grounds. I learned that any Catholics, who died in Florence, before the cemetery was opened in 1827, could not be buried in the city limits. They had to be taken to Livorno. She also mentioned that she loved the fact that the cemetery accepted all different types of people from all different social classes. She mentioned that there were people who were from the lower class, all the way to royalty, as a former King of Prussia is buried there. She also told a story of a descendent of another one of the famous individual who is buried at the English Cemetery, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Barrett Browning was a famous English poet and was the wife of poet Robert Browning. The woman, who was actually a descendent of Elizabeth's sister, hailed from Australia. Sister joked about the fact that someone who is connected to the cemetery comes all the way from the "Outback".  The cemetery definitely has an English majority, but there is that international aspect that is a different sight in Italy. 

I truly did enjoy my time at the English Cemetery as odd as that sounds. Sister Julia Holloway was very enthusiastic with her understanding of the history of the cemetery.  He enthusiasm was infectious and made me not think of the cemetery as a place just to mourn the loss of a loved one, but almost like a museum with stories that make you think of the better times you had with the person you are visiting.  She gave me a new perspective to think this way that I will carry for the rest of my life, so that the next time I visit the grave of a loved one,  I will think of what they did and who they while they were with me, so I will not need to mourn as much as I used to.