The Pantheon used to be the temple for All (pan) Gods (theo), now it's used as a church for part of the day. Like most of the major sites in Rome, it has a square in front of it with a fountain and shops and restaurants. And of course the always ubiquitous egyptian artifact with cross attached. We spent one afternoon making our way from one side of the square to the other following the shade. It's not a bad place to sit and have a bottle of wine, or two.
When there isn't a service going on, you can walk in. The dome at the top isn't closed in. Apparently this was pretty common. The marble floors under the opening have holes cut into them to allow them to drain out. Also, they said that if the half dome was completed as a full sphere, it would be tangent to the floor. It's all ingenious for someone to have come up with 2000 years ago.
I'm not really sure what's going on here. Like I said we did spend the afternoon sitting around the square. This made complete sense at the time. When in Rome...
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