'Peasants kneel on the marble pavement and tell their rosaries with eyes clouded with introspection; and nuns in blue robes and flat Dutch collars bend their heads reverently till only the enormous snowy wings of their caps are to be seen. The voices of the invisible choir thrill through the church, and clouds of incense float up between the purple columns of the High Altar and the purple-clad priests who stand before it. Contadini [peasants] come in at the east door and advance towards the High Altar one after another, when they have dipped their toil-worn hands in the holy water. Their skirts are full, and often blue, of the colour which is to be found in a hundred faded frescoes. They wear their green or red velvet stays outside their bodices, and their ear-rings glisten under their snowy tovagliette [head-cloths]. Thrown into relief against the dark group of worshippers near the chancel rails, they are like a chain of the gaily-coloured stones found in the tombs of dead Etruscans.'
from The Colour of Rome - Olave Potter
