Unfiltered Story #325737

(*Me and my sister are planning a trip to Italy for my parents’ 30th anniversary, it being a surprise for my mom but not my dad, who’s the actual financier of the trip. During a planning session, we end up talking about what we would like to see.*)

Sister: “I’d love to see the Pantheon, I’ve never been to a pagan ritual before!”

Me: “Wait, what? Isn’t the Pantheon an unused building? I mean, it’s still cool, but it’s not used as a temple anymore, I think.”

Sister: “It’s literally called ‘All The Gods’, and my neopagan friend says that they still did Roman worship in there, I’d say he’s pretty reliable.”

Me: “I don’t know, sounds pretty weird to me, since there was the whole ‘Conversion of the Empire’ thing under Constantine, but I guess, if he did go there for rituals…”

(*Our dad comes back, sits down, sighs, and then looks at my sister straight in the eye*)

Dad: “I don’t know how to break it to you, but… no. The Pantheon is a Catholic church and has the tombs of Italy’s past kings. Your friend is lying.”

Sister: “But… he sent photo proof!”

(*She starts looking up on the phone, until she shows us a photo of a crowd assembled outside the Pantheon.*)

Dad: “Those aren’t worshiper. Those are clearly visitors.”

Sister: “But how can you tell? Are you letting your prejudices go to your head?”

Me: “I don’t know, have you tried to look it up on the web?”

(*My sister starts to frantically type, seems to have a triumphal grin on her face… then her expression changes to disappointment as she sighs: indeed, the Pantheon is a church and a mausoleum for Italy’s kings, and not a pagan temple. This incident was apparently enough to convince my sister to cut contacts with her neopagan friend, I can’t imagine why…*)