Rome: The Pantheon at Night

On our second night in Rome, Ryan and I went to hang out by the Trevi fountain after dinner and generally wander the streets. We were walking down an alley when we were struck by the sight of this:

Photo taken from my iPhone

“Well this is neat,” Ryan said as he took out his camera. “Um, I think we just found the Pantheon,” I said standing awestruck. “Neat,” he replied, walking away to take photos.

Now for some history. This building is astonishingly old. It was originally built as a temple for ancient Roman gods and commissioned by the Roman statesman and general Marcus Agrippa (63 BC – 12 BC). The inscription you see above reads, “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, having been consul three times, built it.” It was then rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in 126 AD. It’s hard to fathom, say, a building that has been here for 20 centuries. And we would later return to see architecture from the inside and learn more, but here it was on our evening stroll.