Roman Ruins at dusk

My first glimpse of the Colesseum came just as a short storm was ending. 

We had just left a bar, when a crack of thunder ripped through the usual hubbub of the city. That's got to be cannon fire, my husband told me. Thunder makes me nervous, and I'm not sure why. It's got worse the older I've become, maybe it's because I realize how utterly significant I am in the face of the storm. Why we assumed anyone would be firing cannons, I couldn't tell you, but it couldn't have been thunder, it doesn't rain in August in Rome, right?

But it did. I read somewhere that the cobble stones in Rome gleam like diamonds in the rain. Although the author and I were looking at the same cobbles, we have very different perspectives; the he was a child of the city, whereas I was a wet tourist.

We huddled under a door way as the rain came pouring down. Amazingly, the street venders all switched from their usual wares to hawking umbrellas miraculously pulled from slim backpacks. Once the rain passed we wandered towards the imposing Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) also called the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II) or "Il Vittoriano" after unified Italy's first King, a man with many mistresses and a mustache you could hide a merekat in.

From there we passed the Forum and Palatine hill, looking at once melancholy and haunting, a darkening well in a city of bright lights, gelato stands and girls in sundresses.

Past the Forum and the edge of Palatine hill stands the Colosseum, iconic and somber.

The later the evening, the more beautiful the Coliseum became, standing regal in gold light against the blue sky. It's easy to forget the grisly history that's passed inside those walls.

We returned later with our entrance tickets to the Colosseum and Palatine hill, but visiting at night was a wonderful introduction to Rome's most famous monuments. If you have a chance to stroll by the ruins in the evening, spend a few moments enjoying them in the cool quiet evening after the crowds have left.