accounts it is a very curious one.

As far as Sabbatarianism is concerned, Rome is the Glasgow of Italy. All
shops, except druggists', tobacconists', and places of refreshment, are
hermetically closed on Sundays. Even the barbers have to close at half-
past ten in the morning under a heavy fine, and during the Sundays in
Lent cafes and eating-houses are shut throughout the afternoon, because
the waiters are supposed to go to catechism. The English reading-rooms
are locked up; there is no delivery of letters, and no mails go out. A
French band plays on the Pincian at sunset, and the Borghese gardens are
thrown open; but these, till evening, are the only public amusements. At
night, it is true, the theatres are open, but then in Roman Catholic
countries, Sunday evening is universally accounted a feast. To make up
for this, the theatres are closed on every Friday in the year, as they
are too throughout Lent and Advent; and once a week or more there is sure
to be a Saint's day as well, on which shops and all are closed, to the
great trial of a traveller's patience. All the amusements of the Papal
subjects are regulated with the strictest regard to their morals. Private
or public gambling of any kind, excepting always the Papal Lottery, is
strictly suppressed. There are no public dancing-places of any kind, no
casinos or "cafes chantants." No public masked balls are allowed, except
one or two on the last nights of the Carnival. The theatres themselves
are kept under the most rigid "surveillance." Every thing, from the
titles of the plays to the petticoats of the ballet-girls, undergoes
clerical inspection. The censorship is as unsparing of "double
entendres" as of political allusions, and "Palais Royal" farces are
'Bowdlerized' down till they emerge from the process innocuous and dull;
compared with one at the "Apollo," a ballet at the Princess's was a wild
and voluptuous orgy.