Cimitero Delle Fontanelle

Lonely Planet review

The perfect place to sneak up on someone, this creepy underground cemetery heaves with the skulls and bones of some 40,000 Neapolitans. First used during the plague of 1656, it became the city's main burial site during the cholera epidemics of 1835 and 1974.

In the late 19th century it became a cult spot for the worship of the dead. Adherents would adopt a skull, pray for its soul and lavish it with treats in the hope of a little good fortune.

When condensation formed on the skull, it was seen as a sign of good fortune for its custodian. Dry bones, however, were seen as a sign of impending doom. Some custodians were so attached to their bony friend that they would encase it in a glass shrine for protection.

So popular was the cult that a tram line served the cemetery and its gift-bearing devotees up until the 1950s. In 1969, a fed-up Cardinal Ursi banned what was becoming an increasingly fetishistic practice and contrary to Catholic doctrine.