You cannot help feeling, in the Coliseum, some little of the influence of the scenes that have been enacted there, even if you know little about them; you must remember that the vast numbers of people who have been within its walls for ages have not been common minds, whether they were Christian martyrs or travelling artists....
"I think if I had never heard before of the reputation of the pictures and statues of the Vatican, I should have perceived their superiority.
There is more idea of _action_ conveyed by the statuary than I ever received before--they do not seem to be _dead_.
"January 25.

I have finer rooms than I had in Paris, but the letting of apartments is better managed in Paris.

There you always find a _concierge_, who tells you all you want to know, and who speaks several languages.

In Rome you enter a narrow, dark passage, and look in vain for a door.

Then you go up a flight of stairs, and see a door with a string; you pull the string, and a woman puts her mouth to a square hole, covered with tin punctured with holes, and asks what you want.