10/30/2025
Throwback Thursday —— Way Back, a couple thousand years! Rome’s Pantheon
*With all the $400s - $500s Roundtrip Flights we’ve been sending members lately - we wanted to feature a favorite spot in Italy: The Pantheon in Rome - and the Piazza della Rotonda (square).
Every now and then, when you travel, you happen upon a place or an experience that get’s to you. I don’t know what it is about the Pantheon in Rome that speaks to me - but it always does; it gets to me without even knowing why. I’ve tried to photograph it several times, and will admit to barely being able to hold my camera still. It’s just a place to sit, watch, listen, and breathe. It’s bigger than time… and the sense of place one gets there is humbling.
The square in front of the Pantheon is Piazza della Rotanda. There’s great food all around the rotunda (including an especially great salumeria that’s been at the corner for a few hundred years - Salumeria Antica! Go there if you’re ever in Rome; just follow the aroma of freshly sliced pastrami and Parmigiana Reggiano to their front door). You’ll understand why they’ve been in business since the 1300s.
Nero, Constantine, Augustus! The Caesars used this very spot as a great stage for their empires; a pulpit from which to establish authority, legacy, even proclamations of divinity. Empires were born and overthrown from this spot - and in sight of the very cobblestones and pillars still standing. And Marcus Aurelius, the emperor-philosopher who seems to be so popular lately - would’ve frequented this square daily. His meditations echo the quiet reverence of the Pantheon itself - if I’m allowed to be a little poetic with my imagination. I would imagine even Napoleon had to stand in awe of the legacies before him when he approached the Pantheon… wondering about his own legacy. And Cleopatra would’ve walked through this square many times - with all of Rome whispering behind her!
And the art from this place, the crossroads of culture - the poetry, and the paintings, and sculpture created and inspired here. I can almost see Michelangelo sitting on the Pantheon steps, sketching the way the evening light descends on the great dome. And the work of the great artist, Raphael (also the namesake of my favorite ninja turtle) was also born here - alongside the building he always admired. He’s buried in the Pantheon - forever alongside his fiancé.
The history here is overwhelming, and awesome - especially for an Arkansan who made a B- in World History 101. I mean, this square and this building have been her for 2000 years.
Now, other than the Pantheon, take a second to look at something most people don’t even notice in the square; that pointed Egyptian obelisk rising up from the fountain. That fountain was build in the 1500s (by a student of Michelangelo). But that obelisk is much more historic than even this square and the Pantheon. That was brought to Rome in the 1st century AD by the Emperor Domitian. The obelisk was carved in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II during the 13th century BC!
Ramses II! So, those are the things that got me hooked on travel. Sitting in the shadow of the Pantheon, enjoying a plate of the best Salami and olives in the world, and just taking a moment to pause, and to wonder what that “Lincoln memorial-looking thing in the fountain is.” Then, finding out it was built in Egypt during the reign of Ramses II? That means Moses would’ve looked up at this very obelisk that I’m sitting under, on this very square that - it turns out - Cleopatra walked through centuries later.
And then, maybe the most humbling and personal part of this Pantheon area for me - realizing that Peter (and even Paul) would have likely preached on these very steps, these very cobblestones - spreading news about Jesus and his resurrection for all of us. Paul lived, and was imprisoned a few blocks from here - another site worth walking over to.
I can almost hear Peter himself, a Hebrew fisherman standing in the middle of Rome - right here in front of the Pantheon (a building constructed to honor “all the gods”). These walls, these stones, they heard Peter’s sermon about one God.
Anyway… This is just one of those places I hope everybody gets to see. I’ve been there a few times, and always look forward to my next visit.
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