The people there have no recourse to other foundations than the vaults and arches of the old houses, upon which, as on slabs of rock, they raise their modern palaces.
It is easy to see that several of the ancient streets are thirty feet below those at present in use." Sceptical as Montaigne shows himself in his books, yet during his sojourn at Rome he manifested a great regard for religion.

He solicited the honour of being admitted to kiss the feet of the Holy Father, Gregory XIII.; and the Pontiff exhorted him always to continue in the devotion which he had hitherto exhibited to the Church and the service of the Most Christian King.
"After this, one sees," says the editor of the Journal, "Montaigne employing all his time in making excursions bout the neighbourhood on horseback or on foot, in visits, in observations of every kind.

The churches, the stations, the processions even, the sermons; then the palaces, the vineyards, the gardens, the public amusements, as the Carnival, &c .-- nothing was overlooked.

He saw a Jewish child circumcised, and wrote down a most minute account of the operation.

He met at San Sisto a Muscovite ambassador, the second who had come to Rome since the pontificate of Paul III.