The city of Rome has its first Garden of Remembrance.

A large peaceful garden on a wooded hillside within the Flaminio cemetery at Prima Porta has been specially designed and equipped for the dispersal of cremation ashes. The number of cremations in Rome has increased by 10 per cent per year since 2001, with almost 5,000 taking place in 2004. Until now, Italian law has not permitted the dispersal of human ashes but a new measure permitting this is expected to pass through the upper house of the Italian parliament within the next two or three months and the garden will be ready for use. At the end of last year the Rome city council made it possible for families to keep the ashes of their deceased at home and 217 cremation urns have been released to family members in the six months since then.