May 13th, 1873. Fine; the air felt hot.

At ten o'clock, officials from the Italian royal household arrived with four carriages, equipped with two horses apiece and grooms in splendid livery, to collect us and take us to the palace. There we had an audience with King Victor Emmanuel II. In the evening, we toured a park and went on as far as the Chamber of Deputies before returning home.

May 14th. Beautifully clear; we felt the heat.

At one o'clock, we boarded carriages and went to the museums at St. Peter's. They are spacious buildings with sculpted interiors and painted throughout with white lead, so they seem clean and fresh. The floor is paved with stone and richly ornamented with decorative inlays. Everything is thoroughly in the ancient style, so there are no annoyingly elaborate details. Displayed in the museums are prodigious numbers of sculptures in white stone, of exceptional quality. It would be no exaggeration to say that the art collection of any other European museum would barely amount to a fraction of what is displayed here.

Since Rome is naturally the fountain-head when it comes to the sculpture and antiquities of Ancient Rome, the items on display were of such exquisite beauty that we rubbed our eyes in disbelief. In the entrance hall there was a huge porphyry sarcophagus: it was eight feet high, nine feet wide and twelve or thirteen feet long, and all made from one piece of stone with no sign of any joins.