f Metastasio, Rafael Mengs,
Sacchini, Poussin, Winckelmann; the Phidias of modern days, the illustrious
Canova, has recommended the placing in the Pantheon of the busts in marble
of all the great men who have flourished in Italy, as the most appropriate
ornament to this temple. He himself with a princely liberality has made a
present to it of the busts of Dante, Petrarca, Ariosto, Tasso, Guarini,
Alfieri, Michel Angelo, Rafaello, Metastasio and various other worthies.
These busts are all the production either of Canova himself, or made by his
pupils under his direction; they are not the least remarkable ornament of
the place. In the centre of the _Piazza della Rotonda_ stands an obelisk
brought from Egypt, which belonged to a temple sacred to Isis in that
country.

I next repaired to the _Piazza di Navona_, a large and spacious square,
where there is a superb fountain representing a vast rock with four
colossal figures, one of which reclines at the foot of the rock, at each
angle of the pedestal that supports it, and it is surmounted by an Obelisk
which was brought from Egypt and was found in the gardens of Sallust. The
four colossal figures represent the four river Gods of the four great
rivers in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, viz., the Danube, the Ganges,
the Nile, and the Plata. The statue of the Nile has his head half-concealed
by a cloak, emblematical of the source of that river not being discovered.
In the _Piazza_ are frequently held fairs, shews of wild beasts, theatrical
exhibitions and sometimes combats of wild beasts.

I crossed the Tiber on my way to St Peter's at the _Ponte di Sant' Angelo_;
directly on the other side of the river stands the castle of that name, an
immense edifice formerly the _Moles Adriana_ or Mausoleum of the Emperor
Adrian. It is of a circular form and is a remarkably striking object. From
here there is a spacious street as broad as Portland place, which leads to
the magnificent _Piazza_, where stands the Metropolitan Church of the
Christian world, the pride of Christendom, the triumph of modern
architecture, flanked on each side by a semi-circular colonnaded portico,
which constitutes one of its greatest beauties and distinguishes it from
all the other temples in the world. On the Piazza, considerably in front of
this wonderful edifice and nearly in the centre, stands an immense Egyptian
Obelisk, and at a short distance on each side of the Obelisk two
magnificent fountains which sp