This is a large city. As we arrived in good time I spent three hours in visiting every part of it, and found the streets muddy and unpaved, and the houses mean. The piazza contains the chief buildings of the place, the palace of justice, and the prison; it is, moreover, the meeting-place of the citizens. It has a few poor shops. I saw the castle, which is now in the hands of King Philip, who keeps there a guard of three hundred Spanish soldiers, and these, according to their own account, are very ill paid. Morning and evening they play the _diana_[121] for an hour on instruments called hautbois in France, and here _fiffari_. The castle has a large establishment, and in it I saw some fine pieces of artillery. The Duke of Parma[122] never comes near it now, but has lodging, whenever he happens to be in the city, in the Cittadella, a castle in another quarter, thus avoiding the castle, which is in King Philip’s keeping. In short, I saw nothing noteworthy except the new church of S. Augustino, which King Philip was building in place of another which he had pulled down and used in the construction of the castle. Moreover, he still kept possession of part of the income of the same. The new church is not yet finished, but the beginning is very handsome.[123] The friars’ lodgings, seventy in number, and the double cloisters, are finished; indeed with regard to corridors, dormitories, cellars, and other conveniences, this edifice seemed to be the most sumptuous and magnificent I had ever seen, if my memory does not deceive me, dedicated to the service of the Church. At table here they serve the salt in lumps, and the cheese in large pieces without a dish. The Duke of Parma was awaiting in Piacenza the visit of the Archduke of Austria’s eldest son, whom I saw at Insprug; and the rumour was that this prince was on his way to Rome to be crowned king of the Romans.[124] Here they bring you water for hand-washing at table, and also for mixing with your wine, using a large brazen spoon therefor. The cheese they eat is the same Piacenzan cheese which is sold all through the district. Piacenza is exactly half-way from Rome to Lyons; but I was obliged, in order to take the direct road to Milan, to go on and sleep at Marignano, thirty miles distant, from which place it is ten miles farther to Milan.