We left OR Tambo at 13.30pm on 16 August and arrived in Dubai 8 hours later where it was 40°(at 00.30am their time)!!
We had a 3 hour wait before our next flight and finally arrived in Rome at 7.30am. After clearing passport control and collecting our luggage we were met by our shuttle driver and we were on our way to our hotel. We could only check in at 2pm so we left our luggage at the hotel and set off to explore. We had been told that the Colosseum was straight down the road about 10 minutes away, and we soon saw this. 
We had booked and paid for Omnia Cards and Roma passes before leaving SA. These would let us skip the line at most attractions and give us unlimited train and bus usage for 3 days but we had to collect them near the Pantheon, so we left the Colosseum behind and carried on.
The first of many, many, many
churches we visited was Sant'Andrea della Valle (St. Andrew in the Valley) on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. It was built from 1590 to 1650. It is considered to be a seriously large church and it certainly took our breath away! The dome is the third highest in Rome!
Not far away is Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini, it is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture. It is now used by the State Archives of Rome. Unfortunately it was closed so we didn’t get to see inside.
Getting creative with some rain water!
At this stage we did not have a map of Rome,
so after taking a very roundabout route due to quite a few wrong turns we finally found the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a former Roman temple, now a church, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). It was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because it has been in continuous use throughout its history.
The oculus at the dome's apex and the entry door are the only natural sources of light in the interior. Throughout the day, the light from the oculus moves around this space in a reverse sundial effect. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. When it rains, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus.
It is almost obligatory to take a selfie under the oculus!
so you can imagine how sore our feet were. It didn't take long to pass out!!