Church, ancient Roman antique, temple to key historical figures, dramatic and key, the Pantheon is all of these.

The Pantheon is a building to savour, when enjoying it from inside or out consider when it was built. We were told that until the 1960's this was the largst self supporting dome in the world, even if this is nt true, its awe inspiring from the outside.

I recommend visiting (it is free to enter and is infact a Church) during day and night, as with other Rome attractions it is floodlit at night and looks beautiful.

During the day you can appreciate the interior, although it is nt as gran as one might imagine, it is interesting, containing the tomb of Raphael (artist) and memebers of the Italian monarchy.

Also you can check out the effect of the sun shining through the hole in the roof.

During our visit in Feb 2007, much interior repair work was being carried out creating a sence of smallness in every dimension except up towards the inerior of the roof. There was no work being carried out on the exterior however.

There was no souvenier or similar stall inside the Pantheon but there are plent of postcards and other memorabilia sellers in the immediate vacinity.

The area immediately around the Pantheon is very interesting. We enojoyed a drink one early evening in shadow of it from a well appointed table as the sun went down and took some nice pictures. It is a great people watching spot, immediately outside and worth stopping to relax. There is also an excellent coffee shop up a street bearing north east as you walk out of the Pantheon, round the corner from bar Pantheon, which we ate at, but would nt recommned, overpriced and poor food, though a decent spot for a drink and a rest after walking.

We were here in December. Go at night and by day. By night it's phenominal lit up and we thought it was much more impressive then. You can't see all the colors as well at night though and the opening in the dome is rather impressive by day. Raphael's tomb is very pretty.

Remember that the Pantheon is still an active church and if you turn up during a service you will need to wait until it is finished before you can explore inside.

Just come back from Rome and before we went the Pantheon was one of the sights at the end of our list of places to go, but now we have been it should have been right up there toward the top.

OK its not as grand as the Vatican of as big as the Coliseum but when you actually think about how long this place has been standing there, then it makes all the difference.

We had a lovely evening there, with a great meal sat right by the Pantheon thinking about all the people over the years that would have visited this site.

Don't miss it!!!