They visited the great mint, where the money was coined from large bricks of silver into the finished pieces. It was a wonder of machinery, being entirely water-driven, including the immense coin-stamp which, they were told, could mint 1,500 pieces of coin every hour! The coins were verified by weighing each on a balance that was so precisely constructed as to indicate a difference of one eight-hundredth of a grain. The coins, designed by Buonaparte, were perfect: appealing in their design, easy to distinguish, and of sufficient size as to present no impediment to use by the old, the young, or the blind. The Darcys were again grown weary of such a satiety of the senses, that the three were become nearly unable to distinguish one example of wonder from the next. However, the avocation of the traveller does not admit of such defeat, and they valiantly continued their inspections and educations with an increasingly forced enthusiasm.

On Sunday, there being no Protestant church, the Darcys sat for service at two of the Romish places of worship, before retiring to their own rooms for private devotion. At each church, an old priest, carrying a staff with a pouch at the end, pointed this rod at the face of each parishioner in turn, and, shaking the stick in a most offensive manner, demanded a donation for the services! The Darcys were torn betwixt amusement and offense, and even Mr. Darcy could not quickly formulate any response to such treatment; after the first such episode, they concluded that a small token would be sufficient to acquit both conscience and civility with credit.

Milan, despite being an handsome city, had the air of being somehow incomplete. This impression was settled more firmly in their minds ever since the Darcys had driven through the triumphal arch. The exterior of the magnificent Cathedral—one of the largest churches in Italy—like-wise remained in a state of progress, and despite the beauty and scale boasted by the city’s other fine buildings, including many theatres, libraries, and colleges, they felt a sense of disappointment with the city. The decay and dirt that over-spread the monuments of Milan detracted from their magnificence; it seemed to the English that the surfeit of antiquities and monuments had made them invisible to the Milanese, who seemed to care not at all for their condition.