But little traffic was apparent.

Pierre only noticed some bare-headed women dragging children behind them, a hay cart drawn by a mule, a superb monk draped in drugget, and a bicyclist speeding along noiselessly, his machine sparkling in the sun.
* The Corso was so called on account of the horse races held in it at carnival time .-- Trans.
At last the driver turned and pointed to a large square building at the corner of a lane running towards the Tiber.
"Palazzo Boccanera." Pierre raised his head and was pained by the severe aspect of the structure, so bare and massive and blackened by age.

Like its neighbours the Farnese and Sacchetti palaces, it had been built by Antonio da Sangallo in the early part of the sixteenth century, and, as with the former of those residences, the tradition ran that in raising the pile the architect had made use of stones pilfered from the Colosseum and the Theatre of Marcellus.

The vast, square-looking facade had three upper stories, each with seven windows, and the first one very lofty and noble.
Down below, the only sign of decoration was that the high ground-floor windows, barred with huge projecting gratings as though from fear of siege, rested upon large consoles, and were crowned by attics which smaller consoles supported.

Above the monumental entrance, with folding doors of bronze, there was a balcony in front of the central first-floor window.