​For context, by the time Twain and a few of his traveling companions made it to Italy, they were tired of all the supposed "wonders" that were being forced on them by the know-it-all local guides (whom they called Ferguson...all of them, no matter where they came from or which country they were in).

 

And, as a way of amusing themselves, they started treating everything their guides showed them with absolute boredom and indifference, to the point that one guide took it as a challenge to find something they would be impressed with...