Home » Vatican City Italy » Rome & Vatican City

June & July 2005

Rome & Vatican City

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-05 11:48:59

Displayed times (last time: )

front of the Pantheon, hoping to entice you to part with your money. We ignored them and headed straight into the Pantheon. By now, we had gotten used to the fact that the interior of most churches in Rome were splendid and magnificent. This was no exception. The interior is decorated with colored marble, and lined with columns and beautiful paintings.

The unique thing about the Pantheon is the oculus in its dome. There was no glass or any form of covering over the oculus and I suppose when it rains, the rain will come through the opening. Fortunately it was bright and sunny when we were there. Anyway, back to the dome. It's the largest dome in Western Europe until the Duomo in Florence was completed. The construction of the dome was one of the most impressive engineering feats in its time. It's even more amazing considering that even today if you build a dome in these proportions using modern concrete, the dome would hardly stand the load of its own weight, since concrete has very low tensile strength. And yet the Pantheon has stood for nearly 2,000 years! You gotta take your hats off to these ancient Romans. We looked around the Pantheon for a while more, before we finally left the place.

By then, it was already getting late. We deliberated on whether to go to the Roman Forum, Trastevere or just wander around the immediate vicinity of the Pantheon. Eventually we chose the last option. After deciding not to use the map, we started walking around. We entered two lovely churches around the area (though I've no idea what churches they were) and then we walked on and on. Finally, we decided that we're lost. Looking at the map, we figured that we're pretty close to the Vatican City, and so we headed in that direction. Soon, we crossed the Bridge of Angels over the Tiber River and ended up near Castel Sant'Angelo. By then we were all tired out from the day's activities and we decided to sit down ...