{"id":402,"date":"2010-07-06T05:21:34","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T09:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/tuscany-umbria-cooking-vacation-blog\/?p=402"},"modified":"2019-04-23T22:54:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T22:54:50","slug":"mummies-ferentillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/blog\/culture\/mummies-ferentillo\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mummies of Ferentillo"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
24 years ago on the Monday that followed Easter, we were boating on a beautiful lake in southern Umbria with a friend.  He asked us if we had ever heard of “The Mummies”.  Mummies?  Naturally Egypt and King Tut suddenly popped into mind.  No, not those kind of mummies\u2026. So we went.<\/div>\n
We drove to a tiny village that was so small and seemingly deserted that I was sure the tiniest of villages called it tiny.  We walked up to the little church, and through a door into the basement.  Laying on the dirt  throughout this basement area were\u2026  yeah, mummies.  LOTS of them.   They were in excellent condition.  These were neither the King Tut style mummies, nor the classic horror movie mummies.  Instead, they were bodies that were buried here up until the 1800’s.<\/div>\n
It turns out that there is a certain microfungus in the dirt here.  That, in combination with the ambient temperature and lighting, has caused most of the bodies buried here to naturally mummify.  I’m not going to lie\u2026 it is a little spooky!<\/div>\n
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