"For what I should have to pay for a bath of red marble, about one
hundred lire (twenty dollars)," said the Count B---- to me, "I could
buy a bath of Carrara."

"Baths of crimson marble and of Carrara!" I thought, and remembered
with an involuntary shudder my dear native zinc.

But to return to the Sacro Collegio. In one of the immense labyrinthine
cellars is a _botte_ for wine capable of containing five thousand
litri. There, it is said--I know not how truly--once a year, when the
botte was emptied, came four of the spiritual fathers of the college
above, with a table and chairs, and played a certain game of cards,
which was one of their simple amusements. Whether this meeting was
intended as an exorcism of any evil influences which might threaten the
new must about to be put in, or a mild bacchanalian tribute to the
empty space from which they had drawn so much comfort and cheerfulness
during the year, or whether the wine left some fine perfume behind it
which they wished to inhale, tradition saith not. Maybe the fathers
never went there, and the story is merely _ben trovato_.

In the school of design we admired a copy of some of the carving of the
choir of the cathedral of Asisi. The leaves were remarkably crisp and
all the lines full of life. My guide told me that this choir and the
famous one of St. Peter's in Perugia were designed by the same artist,
but that of Perugia was executed by another and more timid hand, while
this of Asisi was carved by the artist himself.

Our last visit in the college was to the grand _loggia_--finer than
anything of the kind I have seen in Italy except the Loggia del
Paradiso of Monte Casino, which is open, while this of San Francesco is
closed. The grandeur of this loggia, with its lofty arches and long
perspective, is in harmony with the magnificence of the view to be seen
from it. Seated there, on the stone divan that runs the whole length of
the colonnade, I listened a while to the very interesting talk of my
companion. This gentleman, Professor Cristofani, is said to be one of
the most learned men in Umbria, and has studied so thoroughly his
native province as to be an authority on all that concerns its history
and antiquities. A native of Asisi, he has devoted himself especially
to that city, and his _Storia di Asisi_ and _Guida di Asisi_ are
monuments of learned and patient research. He has written also a
history of San Damiano which has lately been translated in Englan