Pantheon Reserved Entry Ticket: Issued in Your Name, Checked Against ID

The reserved entry ticket to the Pantheon and nothing else: no guide, no audio guide, no food. What it buys is admission booked ahead, so you are not queueing at the ticket desk to get it. The ticket carries your name. Every traveller has to show ID, or a copy of it, with the first and last name matching the one on the official admission ticket, and if the two do not match the staff can refuse entry and the money is not returned. One booking covers up to 30 people, on a phone or on paper. A booking does not move you up the line. Everyone goes through a security check, and the door takes visitors in the order they arrive, so the wait depends on the crowd ahead of you. The Pantheon is also a working Catholic church: shoulders covered, nothing very short, low cut or transparent, and during services the tourist route can close. Inside, the dome with its open oculus, the marble, the chapels, the paintings and the tombs, at whatever pace you want to take them. A temple to all the gods that became a Christian church, which is the reason it is still here. Not everything survived intact. In 663 the emperor Constans II stripped the gilded bronze tiles off the roof and shipped them out. They got as far as Syracuse, where Saracen raiders took them, and ended up in Alexandria. The building carried on without them. One term to note before booking: this sale is final and no cancellation is refunded.