There was much to see in the Vatican Palace. We went from room to room admiring the immortal masterpieces. In the “Sixtine Chapel” we saw the famous picture of the “Last Judgment” painted by Michael Angelo. We could hardly get away from the place. Then we stepped into a long gallery all lined with pictures on Scripture subjects, arranged like a museum and leading to the private apartments of the Pope. Groups of Papal guards, the last remains of the Papal power, in their picturesque uniforms, with striped yellow and black legs, were walking to and fro with a rifle on their shoulder. After leaving the Palace we strayed down the wide stairs into the beautifully kept gardens which surrounded it, and saw wild deer and pheasants walking about freely. The Pope feeds them himself every morning during the voluntary prisoner’s drive in the alleys of the Park. On leaving the Vatican Gardens the head-gardener presented me with a splendid bouquet. On the great Square before the bronze gates of the Vatican, in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral, we saw the black statue of St. Peter, sitting in his stone chair under a golden baldaquin, holding in his hand the “Keys of Paradise.” Through the continual contact of worshippers lips, one of the Saint’s toes was almost completely worn out. After having admired the rich monuments of all the interred Popes, and the shrine containing St. Peter’s relics, we drove along the ancient “Latin Road” to Monte Palanchino, one of the most interesting reminiscences of past ages. A whole army of workmen, under the superintendence of a group of engineers and archeologists, continue to excavate making splendid discoveries. A whole street intact has recently been dug out. The pavements and houses with their mosaic floors are marvellously preserved. We stood on the roof of one of the newly excavated houses watching the workmen who were destroying—on the mountain side over us—a splendid villa which had belonged to Napoleon the Third, in order to continue to dig out the street under its foundation.