E strano, vero?

Leaving to go to Italian class tonight, I ran into yet another funeral crowd milling around the Catholic church next door, with the strangely glossy hearse inching its way through. I swear there's at least one of these things every week here! Not to mention morning mass several times during the week.

Now, I've never lived next door to a church before and certainly never next to a Catholic church. Actually, I now live next to two churches, one Catholic and one (much less attended) Church of Ireland. There are definite perks, the sound of bells ringing in the mornings and some very cool cemeteries primarily. But some major drawbacks as well, namely cars parked up and down every surrounding street, blocking your vision at a very iffy intersection when trying to come out of your driveway.

Is it just that there are a lot of people dying here, do you think? Or, that there aren't enough churches to go around?