June 9th, 1830 {p.397}

Saw Torlonia's house; very fine, and the only one in Rome which
is comfortably furnished, and looks as if it was inhabited. A
great many good pictures, and Canova's Hercules and Lycus, which
I do not admire. In the evening to the Convent of SS. Giovanni e
Paolo, which is remarkably clean and well kept. There are
forty-five friars (Passionisti), whose vows were not irrevocable,
and, though the cases do not often occur, they can lay aside the
habit if they please. They live on charity. In their garden is a
beautiful palm, one of three which grow in Rome. They have
several apartments for strangers who may like to retire to the
convent for a few days, which are very decently furnished, clean,
and not uncomfortable. They were at supper when I got there, so
I went to look at them. They eat in silence at two long tables
like those in our college halls, and instead of conversation they
were entertained by some passages of the life of St. Ignatius,
which a friar was reading from a pulpit. Their supper seemed by
no means despicable, for I met a smoking _frittura_ which looked
and smelt very good, and the table was covered with bread, fruit,
vegetables, and wine. But they fast absolutely three times a
week, and whip themselves (_la disciplina_) three others. They
teach theology and _la dogmatica_, and there is a library
containing (they told me) books of all sorts, though their
binding (for I only saw them through a trellis) looked desperately
theological. At night to a very fine _feu d'artifice_ in the
Piazza San Lorenzo, which ended the festivities in honour of San
Francisco Caraccioli, whose name appeared emblazoned amidst
rockets and squibs and crackers, and the uproarious delight of
the mob. Afterwards to the Pantheon to see it by moonlight, but
the moon was not exactly over the roof, so it failed, but the
effect of the partial light and the stars above was fine with the
torches below half hid behind the columns.

June 10th, 1830 {p.398}

I thought I had seen everything here worth seeing, yet, though I
have been several times to the Capitol, I have somehow missed
seeing the Palazzo dei Conservatori, containing the famous wolf
that suckled Romulus and Remus, in bronze, said to have been
struck by lightning (of which it bears all the marks) the day
Julius Caesar was killed; the boy picking the thorn from his
foot; the statue of the first Brutus; the geese of the Capitol
(which are more like