On Thursday, October the 12th, the Cardinal of Sens fetched me in his coach to visit the church of St. Giovanni e Paolo, from which he takes his title: he is, moreover, Superior of those friars who make distilled waters and perfumes at their house on Monte Celio, of whom I have already spoken. It would seem that the loftiness of this site is artificial, the whole of the space beneath being vaulted with vast corridors and apartments underground. Legend says it was formerly the Forum of Hostilius. From the garden and vineyards of the friars the prospect is very beautiful, for both old and new Rome lie open to the view. The whole place, from its precipitous height and the deep ravine at its foot, is cut off and inaccessible from almost every point.

ROME
From Civitates Orbis Terrarum

To face p. 170, vol. iii.

This same day I handed over to a carrier a well-packed box for transit to Milan, a journey which the muleteers generally make in twenty days. The box weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and I had to pay four baiocchi or two French sous per pound. Inside it were many things of value, notably a very fine neck-chain of the Agnus Dei, the finest to be had in Rome. This ornament had been made specially at the order of the ambassador of the empress, and a gentleman had taken it to the Pope so that he might bless it.

XV
JOURNEY HOME

On the morning of Sunday, October the 15th, I departed from Rome,[110] where I left my brother with forty-three golden crowns, which money he decided to spend by remaining in Rome for five months and learning the art of fencing. Before I set forth he hired an elegant little apartment for twenty giulios a month.[111] I was accompanied in the first stage by the Signors d’Estissac, di Montu, the Barone di Chase, Morens, and certain others. And if I had not started before the appointed time, so as to save them the trouble which this courtesy of theirs would have entailed, many more—to wit, the Signors di Bellai, d’Ambres, d’Alegra, and several others, would have also gone with me, having got their horses all in readiness. We went thirty miles and slept that night at Ronciglione, having engaged horses as far as Lucca at twenty giulios a horse, the vetturino paying all charges on the road.

PONTE MOLLE
From Piranesi’s Views of Rome

To face p. 172, vol. iii.