For the ultimate in mortal kitsch, another catacomb demands to be visited, that of the Capuchin church in Rome, in Via Veneto. Here, some few monks (a few hundred years in paradise already) stand guardian in their habits; but a perverted sense of ingenuity led to the recreation of rococo stucco decoration in human bones. See that pretty pattern of swags on the ceiling? That’s pelvises and vertebrae; and there’s an altar made of thighbones, and pelvises like bony butterflies.  Other collections of bones display more order and less fantasy. The chapel of skulls in the basilica at Otranto, though gruesome, is almost bureaucratically regimented, with the skulls piled up in two great cases on each side of the altar. These martyrs were murdered by the Turks for refusing to forswear their religion; they add a macabre touch to a splendid romanesque basilica at the very ‘heel’ of Italy.