Monday 19th March 1883
Went to St. Peter's the first thing and was much delighted with the beauty of its proportions and the lightness and elegance of the internal decorations. Its size from the outside does not appear very great but within you realise how large it is. It took Tadie 80 seconds to walk round one of the pillars which support the dome. The colossal monuments strike one with wonder and yet they are quite in character with the building. There is no stained glass but the colour of the various marbles supplies all want of coloured light. After lunch in the P[iazza]. S Pietro went by omnibus to St. John Lateran, the second finest church in Rome and the former house of the Pope, from the porch of which he used to pronounce the benediction. 12 marble statues of the apostles of colossal size surround the nave. The chapel of the Corsini is very handsome and beneath it is a vault in which is a beautiful marble pieta by Bernini. Walked home by way of the Coliseum which is of wonderful size and must have been a grand place when covered with marble and adorned with statues. Thence our way lay along the Forum which is full of remains of Roman arches of Constantine, Titus and Sep[timius] Severus being almost as perfect as when first erected.
