Il Viaggio di Marco a Italia

Rome: The Pantheon

The Pantheon is one of the best preserved buildings from ancient Rome. Raphael, Brunesseschi, and other Renaissance artists studied it in order to duplicate its splendor. It was the largest dome ever built in antiquity. Around the fall of Rome, the Pantheon became a shrine dedicated to martyrs rather than a church, so the invading barbarians didn't destroy it, and it wasn't looted for its marble.

Raphael and Italy's first two kings are buried here.



Too big to photo well. You just have to be there.




Here I am in front of one of the front columns. Each column is a single piece of granite that was brought over from Egypt.




The structure gets thinner as it gets higher and the top is made of volcanic pumice.
I didn't even try to photograph the inside. There was just no way. Once when we went by, there was a Catholic Mass going on. The singing and chanting echoed repeatedly making it seem like a whole choir was singing. In fact, it was just one priest.
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