The Basilica of St. Peter is in the heart of the Vatican City, an independent sovereign state on the right bank of the Tiber river, in the centre of Rome
The first quarter of Rome is “Monti” (mounts), so called as its confines once comprised the Esquilino, Viminal, part of the Quirinal and the Celio hills. It is the most ancient quarter of Rome.
In 27 b.C., Agrippa, son-in-law and architect of Augustus, erected the Pantheon on the site where Romulus according to the legend ascended to Heaven during a ceremony. It was a common temple rectangular in shape, medium size, conceived as a place of worship for various divinities.
Stazio, a Latin poet, called it " Queen of roads" for the splendour of its burial monuments, the splendid patrician residences in the suburban section and for the evocative beauty of the land that it crossed.