The Himalayan Cedar of the Cimitero Monumentale

Perugia's monumental cemetery opens at seven every morning, costs nothing, and holds a Himalayan cedar with a trunk 496 centimetres round and 23.5 metres of tree above it. Italian monumental cemeteries are built to be walked in. Milan's and Genoa's draw visitors for their sculpture and their planting as much as for the graves, and this one, out on Via Enrico dal Pozzo in the Monteluce district, is the same kind of place: gravel avenues, cypresses, and this cedar over the top of them. The Templar church of San Bevignate, with its thirteenth century frescoes, stands next door. What the tree does not have is a story of its own. No newspaper, history page or municipal notice found so far names it; the register measures it and the comune's page confirms the cemetery and its hours, and that is the whole documentary record, which means its age is unknown rather than approximate. Deodar was a standard cemetery planting across nineteenth century Italy, an evergreen brought down from the Himalaya and chosen for the obvious associations, so a nineteenth century date is likely and unproven. Opening runs to half past five in winter and half past six in summer. It is a twenty minute walk from the centro storico, or a short bus ride.