"There are more tombs than dead in this city. I imagine that the deceased, when they feel too warm in their marble resting places, glide into another than has remained empty, as a sick man is moved from one bed to another. One would believe he hears the skeletons pass, during the night, from coffin to coffin."

— François-René de Chateaubriand
Letter to Madame Récamier from Rome, 1829