Rome: The Pantheon & ... The Trevi Fountain?

My sister, Red, arrived in Rome early my second day there. I had prepped her to get as much sleep as possible on the plane... Because it was going to be a long day.

"You only have three days here. We want to start right away when you land," I told her.

She was a trooper and had no problem with that. So I mapped out what the three days would look like, and I knew the first thing we would do was grab some breakfast (cappuccino and croissant), then walk to the two closest sights near our hotel: The Pantheon and The Trevi Fountain.

We came up on the Pantheon after just a few minutes of walking. And every time I see it, it always puts in awe...

You're walking amongst old buildings already.  But even though you are aware of that, when you turn the corner into the piazza where it is located, you still are struck by how amazing this structure is... Because you know how old it is.

And then, you go inside it...

And you look up at the ceiling and into the oculus.... And you are amazed by how this was all done with ancient tools. No technology. Just muscle and brain calculating how to get things lined up and secured into place. The squares in the dome... I love them. I love patterns. And this one is so precise.

The ceiling is my favorite part. But I never forget that there are important people buried there, as well as beautiful works of art. And there is an alter...

"Do they have services here?" Red asked me.

I said I believed they did. But many people go there to sit in meditation and pray.

There is certainly enough Catholic-inspired art to make it seem plausible that you could hold a mass there.

And again... The art is beautiful. As are the tombs that reside in it. But the architecture...

This is the most beautiful to me.

One of my other favorite spots in all of Rome, which I had planned to take my sister to a few times so that she could see it during the day and at night, is Trevi Fountain.

But when we got to it, I was very say...

It was being completely refurbished! The scaffolding covers the entire thing!!!

it was drained, and there were construction workers in it working away.

They did have a makeshift pool of water in which you could toss your coin, though.

So Red and I both tossed coins, in the hopes that we go back some day. Hopefully when it is not being refurbished.

At least I started her trip with the Pantheon, so that she got to experience that wonder one gets when they visit Rome.