_Florence, June_ 20, 1847.--I have just come hither from Rome. Every
minute, day and night, there is something to be seen or done at Rome,
which we cannot bear to lose. We lived on the Corso, and all night
long, after the weather became fine, there was conversation or music
before my window. I never seemed really to sleep while there, and now,
at Florence, where there is less to excite, and I live in a more quiet
quarter, I feel as if I needed to sleep all the time, and cannot rest
as I ought, there is so much to do.
I now speak French fluently, though not correctly, yet well enough
to make my thoughts avail in the cultivated society here, where it
is much spoken. But to know the common people, and to feel truly in
Italy, I ought to speak and understand the spoken Italian well, and
I am now cultivating this sedulously. If I remain, I shall have, for
many reasons, advantages for observation and enjoyment, such as are
seldom permitted to a foreigner.
I forgot to mention one little thing rather interesting. At the
_Miserere_ of the Sistine chapel, I sat beside Goethe's favorite
daughter-in-law, Ottilia, to whom I was introduced by Mrs. Jameson.