Nineteen flag-draped coffins on army trucks slowly made their way through Rome today as Italy began a national day of mourning for those killed in Iraq last week.
The wooden coffins were moved from the Victor Emmanuel monument, where they had laid in state since yesterday with more than half a million people filing by in silence. The monument was kept open all night to allow everyone to pay their respects.
Thousands more people lined the streets as the coffins, escorted by mounted Carabinieri military police, made their way past the Colosseum and headed towards St Paul's Basilica on the fringes of the city.
As the bodies passed, Italians crossed themselves and threw flowers on the street to bid a final farewell for the victims of last Wednesday's suicide bombings at the Italian Carabinieri base in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.
"Our hearts are as big as our heroes," read one banner held up along the funeral route that snaked through central Rome this morning.
Opinion polls show that the majority of Italians were opposed to the US.-led invasion of Iraq, but the Nassiriya bombing has united the country in its grief and pushed any controversy over the conflict to one side.
The Italian government sent some 2,700 troops to Iraq after the fall of Baghdad and has vowed to keep the contingent there despite the lethal suicide attack.
Although St Paul's is Rome's second-largest basilica after St Peter's at the Vatican, workmen have put up large television screens outside the basilica and in other squares so the overflow crowd could watch the funeral.