The entrance is so crowded with statues, carved work, and gilding, that several hours may be spent in examining its wonders.  The traveller’s attention is particularly attracted by the gigantic gates of bronze.

I cannot adequately describe the splendour of the interior, nor have I seen any thing with which I could compare it.

The most beautiful mosaics, monuments, statues, carvings in bronze, gilded ornaments, in short every thing that art can produce, are here to be found in the highest perfection.  Oil-paintings alone are excluded.  Every thing here is in mosaic; even the cupola displays mosaic work instead of the usual fresco-paintings.  Immense statues of white marble occupy the niches.

Beneath the cupola, the finest portion of the building, stands the great altar, at which none but the Pope may read mass.  Over this altar extends a giant canopy of bronze, with spiral pillars richly decorated with arabesques.  The weight of metal used in its construction was 186,392 pounds, and the cost of the gold for gilding was 40,000 dollars; the entire canopy is worth above 150,000 dollars.  The cupola was executed by Michael Angelo; it rests on four massive pillars, each of them furnished with a balcony.  In the interior of these pillars chapels are constructed, where the chief relics are kept, and only displayed to the people from the balcony at particular times.  I was in the church at the time when the handkerchief which wiped the drops of agony from our Lord’s brow, and a piece of the true cross, were shewn.

The pulpit stands in a very elevated position, and was executed in bronze by Bernini; 219,161 pounds of metal, and 172,000 dollars, were spent upon its construction.  In the interior is concealed the wooden pulpit from which St. Peter preached; and immediately beside this we find a pillar of white marble, said to have belonged to Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem.

The lions on the monument of Clement XIII., by Canova, are considered the finest that were ever sculptured.

I was fortunate enough to penetrate into the catacombs of St. Peter’s, a favour which women rarely obtain, and which I only owed to my having been a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  These catacombs consist of handsome passages and pillars of masonry, which do not, however, exceed eight or nine feet in height.  A number of sarcophagi, containing the remains of emperors and popes, are here deposited.

The roof of St. Peter’s covers an immense area, and is divided into a number of cupolas, chambers, and buildings.  A fountain of running water is even found here.  From this roof we have a splendid view as far as the sea and the Apennines; we can descry the entire Vatican, which adjoins the church, as well as the Pope’s gardens.

I ascended to the ball in the great cupola, where there is nothing to be seen, as there is not the slightest opening, much less a window, left in it.  Nothing is to be gained by mounting into this dark narrow receptacle but the glory of being able to say, “I have been there!” It is far more interesting to look down from the windows and galleries of the great cupola into the body of the church itself; for then we can estimate the grandeur of the colossal building, and the people who walk about beneath appear like dwarfs.