Pantheon and more

Pantheon and more by Ann Treacy

June 22, 2011, 6:30 am
Filed under: Rome

After the creepy but cool skeleton art, we went on a hike. We hiked up to Villa Borghese, which is posh park in a posh area – but we also went there the next day so I’ll save the details. Mostly we spent our time making our way back to the apartment from the Pantheon.

One thing about Rome is that there are surprises around every corner. It’s funny to think that the people who live there probably don’t even notice them anymore. (Except that so many cool things means about a billion tourists.) On our walk we went through the Piazza Colona, Piazza Rontonda, Piazza Navona – and purposefully we went to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon kind of rises above a regular neighborhood suddenly. A quick lesson on the Pantheon – it was built in the 120s AD, it’s larger than the dome of the Basilica at the Vatican and it still seems perfect. It’s perfectly round, there’s a perfectly round window cut out of the top and it’s so solid it looks like it will stand forever. It was very impressive in a sturdy kind of way!