On my return to the hotel I found a card from Countess Marcello, saying that the Queen had suggested our going to the Scala Theater, and that we were to occupy the royal box. She has just left Monza. She is lady in waiting to the Queen, and, her duties having finished for this month, she is replaced by the Princess Palavicini. She told us that there were at present no guests at Monza. She said that there are three categories of toilets: "good, better, and best" (as she put it), besides the unexpected which always arrived in the shape of court mournings, and one must be prepared for them all. When the King's sister (Princess Clothilde) is there, only severe, sober, and half-high dresses are worn. For the Queen's mother (the Duchess of Genoa) the usual evening dress, décolletée, with a train. But when the Queen of Portugal comes everything must be extra magnificent, with tiaras and jewels galore and the last things of modernity.
We arrived in the theater just as the curtain was going down on the first act. The audience stared steadily at us with and without opera-glasses. I suppose people thought that we were members of some royal family. As the performance was not interesting and I was tired, we left at an early hour. I scribble this off to you just before going to bed.
MONZA, November 3d.
You see that I am writing on royal paper, which is a sign that we are here. Now I will tell you about things as far as we have got. At the station in Milan, Count Gianotti met us and put us safely in the carriage, which bore a kingly crown; Princess Brancaccio accompanied us. On arriving at Monza station we found Signor Peruzzi waiting for us, and an open barouche drawn by four horses mounted by postilions from the royal stables. We drove through the town and through the long avenue leading to the château at a tremendous pace, people all taking off their hats as we passed.
THE PALACE, MONZA (FRONT)
Occupied in the summer by the King and Queen of Italy.
PALACE AND GARDENS
Here the King and Queen entertained their friends. Apartments in the second story, the entire right half as seen in the picture, were occupied by the De Hegermann-Lindencrones.
In the courtyard (which is immense) the carriage stopped at the entrance of the left wing, and we entered the château, where the Marquise Villamarina met us and led the way to our apartment, telling me, as we walked along, that her Majesty was looking forward with much pleasure to seeing us, and said that we were expected at five o'clock for tea in the salon and that I was to come dressed as I was, adding that she would come for us to show the way.
I had time to admire our gorgeous set of rooms, which is finer than anything I had ever seen before—finer than Compiègne, and certainly finer than our apartment at Fredensborg.