Spoleto. Sunday. Dearest Mother. You see I have begun my travels and I wonder if there is anyone more supremely contented. I got here at 3 in the afternoon, deposited my luggage at the hotel (in an immense room with a tiled floor) and went out to see the town with the help of an excellent little guide book given me by Delbrück. As it is great festa, things are apt to be shut, so I did not go very far afield, but contented myself with learning the town by heart and knowing where things are for tomorrow. There was indeed enough to satisfy anyone - Roman arches, city gates, a polygonal wall going back to Etruscan times, a heavenly duomo with a Lombard front, a Renaissance porch and frescoes by Filippino Lippi in the apse - and then the delicious little town with steep and narrow streets climbing up to a splendid 15th century fortress where I sat at sunset and saw the light fade from valleys and close encircling hills. The most interesting churches are outside the town - I shall go out with the lark tomorrow and work at them. It was a heavenly morning in Rome [Roma]; Eugenie and I, to console ourselves for my departure, drove out together to see the Arch of Constantine, after which she took me to the station, bless her! Yesterday I had an active morning seeing churches - fortunately with Mme de Filippi and in her motor. We took with us Haseloff and Sir F. Pollock who had turned up and I got some interesting problems with regard to the Emperor Constantine finally solved. Sir F. and I lunched with the Filippis and at 2 o'clock we met Eugénie and a charming Italian archaeologist called Pinza at the Palatine and to our immense delight he altered the whole disposition of the palaces and temples and nothing stands where it was before. Miss van Demen (who was also there) and I were well pleased, for Pinza's views coincided with some curious facts we had observed. Then I returned to the Pension where Uncle Frank and Sybil picked me up and we drove onto the Janiculum, whence the view was even more lovely than when Father and I were there, because the trees were coming out. His Ex. was delighted, dear old thing. Then I went to tea with Percy Loraine. Nor was that all, for after dinner Eugénie and I went to the Baths of Caracalla, by special invitation from Ricci (who is the head of all antiquities in Italy) and there met him and a few other people and looked at the Baths under a full moon. They were superb. I think I never saw anything so large, nor yet so solemn. One of the invités was a charming Italian soldier called Colonel Morris (Father will perhaps remember meeting him at the Filippis) whom I like very particularly, so that it was all delightful. On Friday I saw churches with the usual party, heard an interesting lecture of Delbrück's and had some talk with him at the Institute (very valuable) and after lunch walked by himself in Campagna looking at tombs - heavenly it was. There now, goodbye. I must dine. Your affectionate daughter Gertrude
I was dreadfully sorry to leave Rome.