17
17Rome, Italy, 3 July 2014
The lights were modern, electric. Yet, their yellow-hued illumination cast a majestic, historic aura on the buildings of the Piazza della Rotunda. And gave the walls of the Pantheon the appearance of burnished gold.
Tourists milled about in the portico and the piazza, savouring the ambience a final time before dispersing into the streets around the Roman temple. Inside, an usher herded stragglers out and made to seal the bronze doors. As always, the usher paused momentarily, c*****g his head, closing his eyes. Just after the Pantheon was shut to the public and bathed in silence if one was perceptive enough, one could detect faint echoes — supplications of the prayerful, awe-filled questions, gasps of amazement —reflecting off the barrel-shaped atrium, ascen
