Piazza Della Rotunda - Angel's and Demons

As we walked away from class on Monday we walked by a few vans that had video equipment. My roommates and I were curious about this and followed the row of vans into Piazza Della Rotunda. As we entered the Piazza the first thing i noticed was a crowd of people standing on the steps of the Pantheon and other crowds of people enclosing the fountain and obelisk in the middle. What they were enclosing was another group of people that looked somewhat normal but were all standing still. What was most noticeable about these people wasn't their lack of motion, but rather, the people themselves. I realized that this was a movie scene and it became apparent that religion was a predominant undertone. This was due to the fact that about fifty percent of the people in the portion of the Piazza that was being filmed were dressed in religious garb, either nuns, priests, or monks. This was nothing like the Piazza I was used to seeing and it was a little dis-heartening.
I asked someone what movie was being filmed here and the answer came back Angels and Demons. I was shocked at first and then the scene made complete sense. The book is all about religion, obelisks, Bernini and the city of Rome. The director, Ron Howard, wants to portray Rome as the Holy city, which it is, but I already noticed that he may be going over the top. Seeing the scene as it will appear in the movie is nothing like the Piazza Della Rotunda that I am used to.
After getting over the shock and awe of my first encounter with a movie set, I walked up toward the tents where actual production was taking place. Here I saw Tom Hanks and Ron Howard having a discussion about the scene they were shooting. This was a cool experience, I had the urge to yell "Ruuunnn Foooorrrrreesssst" but I reluctantly held back.