July 16 Tuesday – Sam, Jackson, and Slote left Genoa by train, arriving in Milan that evening. Toward dusk we drew near Milan and caught glimpses of the city and the blue mountain peaks beyond. But we were not caring for these things—they did not interest us in the least. We were in a fever of impatience; we were dying to see the renowned cathedral! We watched—in this direction and that—all around—everywhere. We needed no one to point it out—we did not wish any one to point it out—we would recognize it even in the desert of the great Sahara [IA, Ch. 18].

July 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Genoa to his mother and family.
“We sat in a great gas-lit public-grove or garden till 10 last night, where they were crowded together drinking wine & eating ices, & it seems to me that it would be good to die & go there” [MTL 2: 74].

July 14 Sunday – QC arrived at Genoa at 6 AM.

July 13 Saturday – QC departed Marseilles at noon.

July 12 Friday – Sam and friends arrived in Marseilles in the morning. Sam wrote from Marseilles to his mother and family.
“Oh, confound it, I can’t write–I am full of excitement—have to make a trip in the harbor—haven’t slept for 24 hours” [MTL 2: 72].
Jackson, Slote, and Sam again stayed at the Grand Hotel du Louvre et de la Paix [72n1].

July 11 Thursday – Sam and friends left Paris for Marseilles on a morning train.

July 7 Sunday – Alta California printed Sam’s article “FOR CHRISTIANS TO READ,” which Sam had dated May 20 [Schmidt]. Camfield lists this as “Letter from Mark Twain” No. 20 [bibliog.]. Sam’s article “First Interview with Artemus Ward” (alt. Title: “A Reminiscence of Artemus Ward”) ran in the Sunday Mercury [Camfield bibliog.].

July 6 Saturday – Sam and friends arrived in Paris in the evening. The next morning we were up and dressed at ten o’clock. We went to the commissionaire of the hotel —I don’t know what a commissionaire is, but that is the man we went to—and told him we wanted a guide. He said the national Exposition had drawn such multitudes of Englishmen and Americans to Paris that it would be next to impossible to find a good guide unemployed. He said he usually kept a dozen or two on hand, but he only had three now. He called them. One looked so like a very pirate that we let him go at once.

July 5 Friday – Sam, Jackson, and Slote left Marseilles for Paris on an evening train.

July 4 Thursday – At sunrise on the Quaker City, 13 guns saluted the day with blowing of steam whistles. Lucius Moody recorded the event in his diary published in the Canton, Ohio Plain Dealer for July 25, 1867. Clemens could not have helped to hear or have been on deck for the goings on.

QC arrived at Marseilles, France at 7 PM.