On the morning of the second day Leo Colonna guided his friends down the Via di Ripetta, stopping at the Mausoleum of Augustus, which in the middle ages was used by the Colonnas as a fortress.  Then continuing down the left bank of the Tiber, the Ponte S. Angelo was reached.  This ancient bridge of five arches leads directly to the Castello S. Angelo, the citadel of Rome, which originally was a tomb erected by Hadrian for himself and successor.  The tomb is 240 feet in diameter, and must have been very beautiful, as it was once encrusted with marble.  Statues stood around the margin of the top, and above all a colossal statue of Hadrian himself.  Later the Goths, veritable iconoclasts, converted this tomb of the emperors into a fortress, hurling the marble statues down on the besiegers.  For centuries this castle-tomb was used as a stronghold by the party in power to maintain their sway over the people.  In 1822 Pius IX. refortified the castle.  In it was seen the gloomy dungeon where Beatrice Cenci and others were incarcerated.

The Harrises drove down the Borgo Nuovo to the church of St. Peter.  Its approach is through a magnificent piazza ornamented on the right and left by two semicircular porticoes of 284 columns, which are surmounted by an entablature, and 192 statues, each eleven feet in height.  It is claimed that the origin of the Cathedral of St. Peter is due to the impulse given by Pope Julius II. who decided to erect a grand monument for himself in his life-time, and the new edifice was needed to shield it.  St. Peter’s was begun in 1506 and dedicated in 1626.

Bramante’s wonderful plans were accepted, and both Michael Angelo and Raphael aided in its construction.  From a Greek cross rises a gigantic dome, which is one of the boldest and most wonderful efforts of architecture.  Lucille recalled Byron’s description,

  “The vast and wondrous dome,
   To which Diana’s marvel was a cell.”

Entering this mighty cathedral, Colonel Harris was bewildered with its grand and harmonious interior.  The height from the pavement to the cross rivals the height of the Washington monument.  The nave is 607 feet in length, and the transept is 445 feet.  St. Paul’s at London covers only two acres, St. Peter’s five acres.  The cost of the former was $3,750,000, the cost of the latter from $60,000,000 to $80,000,000.

The Harrises visited St. John Lateran, the mother-church of the Eternal City, where Popes were crowned, and where on Ascension Day, from one of its balconies, the Pope’s benediction to the people is pronounced.

They also visited the restored St. Paul’s Church outside the walls.  Its interior is of vast dimensions.  It was built of valuable materials, and the whole is very imposing.  Especially was Lucille impressed with the long series of portrait medallions of all the Popes from St. Peter to Leo X. worked in mosaic above the polished columns.