ROME -- The two-minute silence fell following the sounding of the Last Post at the eleventh hour in the Commonwealth War Cemetery in Testaccio, as veterans and embassy representatives gathered in the Eternal City to mark a particularly sunny Remembrance Day.

 The service was led by the Venerable Jonathan Boardman, Chaplain of All Saints’ Anglican Church Rome and Archdeacon to Italy and Malta, assisted by clergy from the English-speaking churches in Rome, together with representatives from a wide range of other faiths.

 Commencing with the recital of John McCrae’s poignant poem ‘In Flanders Fields,’ envoys and military personnel from across the globe then stepped forward one by one to lay their wreaths at the tomb of the unknown soldier in alphabetical order, from the Embassy of Australia to the Embassy of Zambia.

 An excerpt from Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’ was then read out following the silence, finishing with the words, “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

 In a moving addition to the ceremony, children from St. George’s International school stepped up to the microphone to recite the Prayer of Saint Francis, also known as ‘Make me an instrument of your peace,’ before various representatives of world faiths read peace prayers from Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures.

 The Rome War Cemetery is situated within the Aurelian Walls of the city and contains 426 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. The Protestant Cemetery of Rome is found just down the road, where British romantic poets Keats and Shelley are buried.

 The service was followed by a reception at Villa Wolkonsky, the official residence of the British Ambassador to Italy.

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