(Oculus at the Pantheon)

I’m quite glad that the first I saw of the Pantheon was the back of it.  It just made it all the more fascinating.  Yes, the front is hugely impressive, with its enormous columns and Roman inscriptions, but the back is just so much more ancient-looking.  And the bricks are tiny.  It’s not a small building, so it’s quite awe-inspiring to think of just how much hard labour went into building it.  None of these enormous marble blocks that you see everywhere else – just teeny, tiny bricks.  Strangely, I found the outside of the building much more interesting than the inside.  The oculus is fabulous, of course, and throws some beautiful light reflections onto the inside of the dome (made me think of space invaders, a bit), but it’s the outside of the building that really made me gasp.  It’s not that it’s that big compared to some of the other buildings in Rome, but it just seems to diminish everything around it.  The porch area (can one really call something of that size a porch? – well, I’m going to) is unbelievable.  There’s marble!  There are giant wooden beams!  There’s gilding!  There are Roman inscriptions!  Over the three days that I spent in Rome, I kept coming back to the Pantheon.  I only went inside once, on that first day, but the sight of it from outside never ceased to stun me, every time I walked into the square from a different direction.  Just – beautiful.  Not in the delicate and artistic way that the Trevi Fountain, for instance, is beautiful, but in a far more intrinsic and ancient sense.