Having found our _lascia passare_ at the gate, we were permitted to drive to the hotel directly, and were not first conducted to the custom-house, as is the case with those who enter Rome without having procured, through some friend, the permission to pass, which is only given by the secretary of state.
At Serny's _Hôtel de Londres_, on the Piazza di Spagna, a large and open square, we were extremely well accommodated. It is a very large and grand establishment, occupying three different houses, and of course every thing is in the first style. What most strikes a stranger in the streets of Rome, are the numerous shops of mosaics, gems, and trinkets in marble and bronze, and a month and a fortune might be spent by those who have nothing better to do with their time and money, in admiring and selecting such objects. The Corso, or high street, the theatre of all the festivities during the carnival, is every afternoon thronged with carriages, which drive up and down in two lines, the one going, the other coming. This seems to be one of the principal amusements of the higher classes of Rome, and a senseless enjoyment it appears to me, for the greater part of the street is narrow, badly paved, and dark. The number of spectators from four till six o'clock, however, is very great. French is spoken in almost every shop, and the number of English is so great, that one hears nearly as much of that language spoken in the streets as of Italian.
_21st._ This afternoon I went to the colosæum, where I sat for some hours under the last of the upper arches of the outside circle, looking towards the magnificent church of St. John Lateran, over part of the ancient walls of Rome, and the remaining arches of two old aqueducts, and down upon gardens and vineyards, in many of which are the ruins of ancient buildings and temples; whilst the view over the surrounding _campagna_ is bounded by the blue Appenines, and on the right by the Alban Mount. From the inner wall I looked down from row to row over the dark and ruined arches of the seats, now picturesquely overgrown with shrubs, ivy, and grass, and which were then beautifully tinged with the rays of the setting sun, into the vast arena beneath, formerly the scene of many a savage sport for the amusement of a cruel people, but now only ornamented by the broken shafts and capitals of pillars which once adorned it; and disfigured by the many altars erected by pious devotees, breaking the harmony of the whole, and only serving to shew the magnitude and beauty of the ancient pillars, contrasted with the smallness and insignificance of the modern ones. In the centre of the arena, a large wooden cross has been erected, which is devoutly kissed by the lips of every pious Catholic who passes by. Immediately opposite to me the circle of arches was broken, and let in the view of the near and distant country, where many a tall cypress and pine rose amid the foundations of the old palace of the Cæsars, to the left of which, amid the trees, appeared the pyramidal monument of Caius Sestius. From another side I looked down upon the triumphal arches of Constantine and Titus, upon the colossal remains of the baths of Caracalla, and upon the ruins of temples and palaces, and over modern Rome, to the distant cupola of St. Peter's.