You can tell a lot about a place from the local cemetery. I make a point of visiting them whenever I travel somewhere new. You’d never catch me reading a history book; I find them deadly boring. But the texture of a place comes to life in the dates, recurring family names and professions inscribed on gravestones. Highgate Cemetery in north London, for example, has many graves inscribed with Oxon or Cantab, meaning their owner graduated from either Oxford or Cambridge university.
And the plaques dedicated to the power players whose bodies reside in opulent tombs can tell so many stories: what the main industries have been, what the values of a place are, whether there have been major conflicts and in what era. The Monumental Cemetery in Milan, for example, has several ornate statues built to honour the legacy of drinks dynasties such as the Campari family.
