Catacombe dei Cappuccini

Palermo's Capuchin monastery outgrew its original cemetery in the 16th century and monks began to excavate crypts below it.

[citation needed] Bodies were dehydrated on racks of ceramic pipes in the catacombs and sometimes later washed with vinegar.

Among the final interments was Rosalia Lombardo, then nearly two years old, whose body remains remarkably intact, preserved with a procedure performed by Professor Alfredo Salafia.

[citation needed] The final burial was that of Giovanni Licata di Baucina, the count of Isnello, in 1939.

The project is led by anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity in Palermo, and is backed by the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano[14][15] The mummies are X-Rayed and CT scanned to collect information about them, along with other anthropological and paleopathological techniques to confirm their age and gender.

Now, given the scientific importance of what's emerging with these mummies, people are understanding that in Sicily, death has always been part of life.

However, some bodies have been shown on film in Francesco Rosi's Cadaveri Eccellenti ("Illustrious Corpses"), and television programmes such as the Channel 4 series Coach Trip, BBC TV series The Human Body in 1998, Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe, Ghosthunting With Paul O'Grady and Friends on ITV2 in 2008 and The Learning Channel in 2000.