Italian Funeral

From time to time I receive these questions: how are cemeteries in Italy (read: Italian Cemetery), how are the funerals. Sincerely, I don't like to write about it, even if I understand this interest is perfectly normal. It's a part of the culture, and in this case of the Italian Culture.

The funerals I partecipated at were so:

The deceased remains in his/her bed,
the workers of the funeral agency take the coffin in the room before they have to take the deceased out of the house.
He/she has to be burried next day after the death. There are 1 or 2 cars with garlands, than the third car is the catafalque, after it there are cars of those who accompains the deceased.
They take the closed coffin first in the church, than to the cemetery. The coffin remains one day more open in a special room to control that the person does not sleep (I think, it comes from Middle Ages when they could not understand, if the person is dead or asleep). It is not obligatory to make autopsy.

If the cemetery is not far from the church and the house, relatives and friends can go at feet there. Sometimes the catafalque is not a car but a carriage with black horses.