Our last day

The Pantheon under construction. It is rather an ordinary structure from the outside. It doesn't even give us a hint as to what lays inside.

We walked by the Pantheon last night, but it was late. So today we woke up early ate our croissant for breakfast and walked to the Pantheon. We got there before it opened. So we started out Rick Steves' audio guide on the steps in front of Pantheon.

When it opened we listened to our tour inside. I have to say I love the audio guides. It was nice to be able to listen to the information while walking around and looking at what he was describing. It was much better than having to read a book a learn about the architecture and history. Without the audio guide I would have never known that the walls at the base of the dome are over 20 feet thick and as the walls rise they get thinner so near the top it is less that 5 feet thick. The Romans used concrete for the construction, mixing in Travertine for the bottom parts of the dome and Pumice was mixed in to the concrete towards the top. I also would have missed the holes in the floor that allows the rain to drain out of the structure, since there is a huge hole at the top.
























Our last stop was the church of Santa Maria della Concezione die Cappuccini. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. The part of interest is the Capuchin Crypt. Construction started in 1631, with monks bringing in 300 cartloads of deceases friars. They were buried in the crypt under soil that was brought from Jerusalem. As new monks are brought to be buried, they dig up the monk that had been buried the longest and add his bones to the decorative motifs. Bodies typically spend 30 years buried in the soil, decomposing before being exhumed and added to the motifs. The crypt was separated into 6 rooms, the Crypt of the Resurrection, the Mass Chapel, Crypt of the Pelvises, Crypt of the Skulls, Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones, and the Crypt of the Three Skeletons. I got tired of counting when I got up to 200 skulls. It was a good test of my anatomy. I got stumped on the sternum bone, but it did not have the top part of the bone that gives it its distinguishable "T" shape. And I never knew how artistic vertebrae can be.


I commented to Stewart that I didn't think the crypt was the best choice as our last memory of Rome. He laughed, then as we were sitting at the airport waiting and waiting for our flight, he told me that this was our last memory of Rome. We were herded on to our plane and came back home to happy well cared for kids, who wanted to know when we were leaving again.