Rome in 1860

The book shows us the papal city as it would appear to the eyes of a stranger who entered for the first time, caring nothing and knowing nothing of the past, its narrow, dingy, dirty, ill-paved streets, with no light of any kind at night, and gloomy even at midday; flanked by houses that one and all look as if, commenced on too large a scale, they had ruined their builders before their completion, had been left standing empty for years, and were now occupied by tenants too poor to keep them from decay; with here and there a desolate-looking piazza or square, each one like the other, emptier, quieter, and cleaner than the street, but that is all; in its center a broken fountain, moss-grown and weedy ; on one side a church, dull and bare without, gaudy and dull within; on the other side some grim old palace, which bears a striking resemblance to New gate gone to ruin.