We left St. John's before 9:00 and managed to find Sarah B., Sarah D., and Damaris at the bus stop. Thankfully, the stop is right next to the bakery, Pupi di Zucchero, and I got to grab a little bit of breakfast before the bus came. The bus ride was more stressful than it should have been since I was so paranoid the whole time that we would go in the wrong direction like last time. To my delight, that didn't happen and Sarah B. managed to navigate us to the Pantheon without any problems. It is a breathtaking building on the outside, but the inside is even more amazing.
We all walked inside and managed to squeeze our way relatively close to the center, underneath the oculus. The light shining down on us managed to illuminate the entirety of the building and I was impressed by how grand the architecture and decorations were, as well as the memorials to two of Italy's kings on either side. One thing I didn't even know I didn't know before this morning was that the upper marble facade of the inside is not how it looked in ancient times. Apparently it was redone at one point and they are just now attempting to remodel the top as it used to be in antiquity. An artist who was sitting near us (she was drawing pieces of the Pantheon in her sketchpad) told us about the restoration because she heard me remark on the two windows on the facade that are completely different than the others.
After waiting, standing, for about an hour and a half everyone's feet began to hurt. I was doing different stretches and squatting in intervals, while other people around me were constantly shifting their weight and leaning on each other. Around 10:45, however, the adult choir and the group of young children playing violins picked up for the processional hymn. From there, mass proceeded as usual, most in Italian but some of the readings in English. It was strange how I couldn't figure out much of the ceremony when I go to church relatively regularly - probably a combination of the Italian and my incapability to see the altar. Everyone was crowded in terribly tight and it was difficult to see anything at the front of the church. Potentially the saddest part of mass was the attempt to give out the Eucharist. Priests were coming around and giving it out but not to everyone. Just a few people before me, the priest in our area decided to stop handing out the Eucharist and move away. I was disappointed, but understood that they probably couldn't handle giving it to all of the people inside.
Once mass was over and all the firemen were in their respective positions above the oculus rose petals began to fall. I could see the men throwing down handfuls of the petals and watched as they fluttered towards the floor. I've never seen something so beautiful or magical in my life. It was as if a rain of rose petals was falling inside of the Pantheon, everyone was captivated by the combination of light and flowers as the danced in the slight breeze. There were so many more than I had anticipated; so many, in fact, that the entire center aisle was completely covered in red by the time they were finished. Since none of us could resist, we joined to crowd as they pushed in to gather the petals. I could see tourists gathering them up to throw them for fancy pictures, but I had no such intentions. Rather, I wanted to memorialize the moment by keeping some of the petals and pressing them into the pages of my journal. The petals of roses are more magical to keep than a few photographs - you can make comparable photos but there's a slim chance I could ever find comparably significant rose petals.
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