To the Chekhovs, April 1891. Rome.

Written the day the party reached Rome, following directly on the Florence dispatch of 30 March (11 April) and the companion letter to M. V. Kiseleva of the same date, during the well-known spring 1891 European tour with Alexei Sergeyevich Suvorin.

Chekhov reports finding no letters waiting for him in Rome, while the Suvorins received several – he threatens, in his usual teasing register, to stop writing home altogether, then immediately undercuts the threat by admitting travel without news is unbearable, and asks after the dacha arrangements and the mongoose. He lists the sights seen (St. Peter’s, the Capitol, the Colosseum, the Forum, even a caf\’e-chantant) but says the pleasure has been dampened by changeable, chilly-then-warm weather. He reflects that Italy is cheap to see on a modest budget, but that traveling with Suvorin means grand hotels instead – in Venice "like doges," in Rome "like cardinals," in a suite of the Hotel Minerva that was once a cardinal’s palace, at 40 francs a day. He complains of an aching back and burning soles from all the walking, remarks that he finds it strange Levitan disliked Italy since he himself would happily winter there as a solitary artist with money, given how the country convinces one that art is the ruler of everything. He closes with brief health wishes and general regards, and signs "Your A. Chekhov."