Weeping relatives hugged each other and reached out to touch the simple wooden coffins at a state funeral on Saturday for some of the 291 people killed in an earthquake this week.
Amongst the 35 coffins laid out in a sports hall were small caskets holding the bodies of an 18-month-old baby and a nine-year-old girl, two of the 21 children who are known to have died when the quake hit central Italy early on Wednesday.
Even as the funeral Mass was being held, rescuers kept searching through the rubble of the worst-hit town, Amatrice, but acknowledged they had little hope of finding more survivors from Italy's worst earthquake in seven years.
Nine more bodies were recovered from the town on Saturday, including three pulled overnight from the crumpled Hotel Roma, bringing the death toll in Amatrice alone to 230 residents and tourists.
Authorities said 387 people were still in hospital, with one patient dying of his injuries during the day.
One of the last people to be plucked alive from the debris was a girl called Giorgia, who turned four on Saturday. Her sister Giulia's small coffin lay in the center of the sports hall for the funeral Mass.
"Hello little one," said a handwritten note left on her coffin by one of the rescue team that retrieved her body. "I am sorry that we arrived late. You had already stopped breathing, but I want you to know up there that we did all we could to get you out of there."
