In this lively, noisy Italian city, nearly all there is to see may be comprised in four things:  the Duomo, the triumphal arch over the Simplon, La Scala and the Picture Gallery.  The first alone is more interesting than many an entire city.  We went there yesterday afternoon soon after reaching here.  It stands in an irregular open place, closely hemmed in by houses on two sides, so that it can be seen to advantage from only one point.  It is a mixture of the Gothic and Romanesque styles; the body of the structure is entirely covered with statues and richly wrought sculpture, with needle-like spires of white marble rising up from every corner.  But of the exquisite, airy look of the whole mass, although so solid and vast, it is impossible to convey an idea.  It appears like some fabric of frost-work which winter traces on the window-panes.  There is a unity of beauty about the whole, which the eye takes in with a feeling of perfect and satisfied delight.

Ascending the marble steps which lead to the front, I lifted the folds of the heavy curtain and entered.  What a glorious aisle!  The mighty pillars support a magnificent arched ceiling, painted to resemble fretwork, and the little light that falls through the small windows above, enters tinged with a dim golden hue.  A feeling of solemn awe comes over one as he steps with a hushed tread along the colored marble floor, and measures the massive columns till they blend with the gorgeous arches above.  There are four rows of these, nearly fifty in all, and when I state that they are eight feet in diameter, and sixty or seventy in height, some idea may be formed of the grandeur of the building.  Imagine the Girard College, at Philadelphia, turned into one great hall, with four rows of pillars, equal in size to those around it, reaching to its roof, and you will have a rough sketch of the interior of the Duomo.

In the centre of the cross is a light and beautiful dome; he who will stand under this, and look down the broad middle aisle to the entrance, has one of the sublimest vistas to be found in the world.  The choir has three enormous windows, covered with dazzling paintings, and the ceiling is of marble and silver.  There are gratings under the high altar, by looking into which, I could see a dark, lonely chamber below, where one or two feeble lamps showed a circle of praying-places.  It was probably a funeral vault, which persons visited to pray for the repose of their friends’ souls.  The Duomo is not yet entirely finished, the workmen being still employed in various parts, but it is said, that when completed there will be four thousand statues on the different parts of it.