Pantheon

The thing about at least Rome I’ll never forget is the people. Devin, Ben, and I were walking along the river already 30 minutes late. Plodding through our memories thinking we knew where we were going, lost as ever.

“The next bridge.”

“Yeah, at the of the island right?”

“Then up, and over, I think?”

“Nah, definitely down there past that café and around the next.”

We came to the second bridge and it wasn’t any closer at all. Devin had the nearest street to the Pantheon written down, and he pointed at it while walking up to an older couple.

They stopped and nodded their heads, “si, si, si.” They both waved their arms in the, follow us sort of way. We did. We followed through the winding narrow cobble stoned streets, motorbikes, and compact cars buzzing behind and in front. The old man pointed out certain places through broken English yet mostly Italian with the woman always up ahead telling us to walk quicker, saying something to the man which made him smile and shake his head every time.

The walk went on for 30 minutes or so. We probably wouldn’t have gotten to the Pantheon if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have actually seen the things we saw, lived the way they do. They went off of their course, and showed us the way, for what? For just being there, for simple courtesy, I hope that one day I’ll do the same. The man could’ve been anyone, yet he was everyone at in those moments, he was Rome, and he was beauty right then and there, he was God in those brown loafers, navy slacks, and red polo, or at least some Holy being. He led us to a place that frightened invaders because of its overwhelming beauty; it put God in men where no God had been present. I walked up and into the Pantheon and the high ceiling dropped my jaw, and cool breeze flowed from behind. It was so open, and perfect. Not a single thing to distract you, and it’s a time where it’s totally acceptable to stare at the ceiling with nothing in your mind. People meditate to clear their minds of things that are hanging in them, but seeing this put me into a state beyond clarity. It was a crazed fueling punch of peace, fear, and infatuation that the human race was ever capable of creating something so Godlike that it makes you want to believe.