To celebrate the festivals of All Saints and All Souls, Italians traditionally visit their family tombs; Cemeteries all over Italy fill with people carrying flowers for the graves and in Rome there are two days of guided tours at the most famous Roman cemetery, Il Verano.

On 31 October and on 1 November three separate walking tours will take visitors to see the monuments. The tours begin at the Quadriportico at the Verano cemetery at 10.00, 12.00 and 15.00. A second tour, again on 31 October and 1 November, will take visitors on a small train to see the tombs of famous Italians from the world of theatre and cinema. The tours will be at 11.30 and 14.30 and booking is necessary. Tel. 0649236331.

On All Souls Day, 2 November, there will be an appointment with Luoghi della memoria Places of remembrance. Twenty actors and musicians will take place in a series of recitals in eight different places in the city in the course of the day. The recitals begin at 12.00 at the Verano cemetery where Galatea Renzi and Eduardo Siravo will read from Dei Sepolcri by Ugo Foscolo. At the same time there will be a performance at the cemetery at Prima Porta entitled Rest in Peace, the mistake will not be repeated in memory of those who died at Hiroshima.

At 15.30 at the Protestant cemetery at Testaccio, last resting place of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the Italian actor, Giorgio Albertazzi, will read works by the Romantic poets and Pier Paolo Pasolini,

For information tel. 06 684000328 or see www.comune.roma.it