Day 5 pantheon

Today we awoke for the pantheon. As we headed to the center of Rome and the sky's opened up above us, rain fell in heavy burst for about 10 minutes here and there. We got of the bus and walked to the a square with a a beautiful fountain. It has 4 statues of river gods each with a idol from there location. As we waited for the other groups it began to rain we ran for a small coffee shope down the next street. Marco had recommended it knowing all the best places. I got a latte and a danish. It was amazing best latte I had ever had. Plus it gave me all the energy I need for the day. After the rain passed we made our way back to the square, now it is filled with art venders. Unfortuonitly the venders are not small local artist with unique work but a large colection of prints that everyone has in like 5 sizes. I looked here and there to try and find something original but everything was production. As we all gathered we got a brief history of the pantheon and how and why it was built. This building has 50 foot marble columns because the 60 foot ones were not regularly available at the time. Haha I wish that was a problem I had when trying to fix up a house. They were very grand and beautiful most of the detail at the tops were broken off but the ones that lasted were gorgeous and filled with detail. As we entered the pantheon I fell in love with the ceiling. Molded were made from wood to pour cement into inorder to get the rounded dome on the top. Inorder to have a stronger heavier bottom there were larger stones added to the cement but as the dome goes up the stones would have gotten lighter to lighten up the weight for the dome, which I was standing under gazing at so thank you to the Romans who took the time to design there buildings we'll so they don't collapse on the lovely people of Rome and the camera happy tourists. They also designed the 30 foot hole in the ceeling to allow light and people's prayers to reach the gods out. However the light that shines down threw this hole moves around the room depending on the time of day and season. They had made nooks in the walls for statues to be in the spotlight. However, I think if they had added some mirrors at cool angles they could have totally used the light to create beams of light all threw out the church which could have been really cool. Then we had lunch time. Amy, Patton and I headed to the restraint we had found the day befor. I got anappetizer of squash blossoms stuffed with cheese and then fried. The were spectacular. Salty and floral with the warm cheese and the crispy crust it was a great combination of flavors. Then I had the oxtail for my main dish. Wow the phrase melt in your mouth was created here. It was fatty but flavor able and the meet just fell off the bone. There was a read onion sause that complimented every bite. At this moment my expectation for food were sky rocketed.