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When it Rains in Rome

By Tineke Ziemer

September 12^th, 2014

It has been quite hot and humid in Rome since we arrived, but thanks to a fairly constant breeze, we tolerated it as well as our Canadian-born selves could handle. With the temperatures and humidity rising, the locals said it was inevitable that a storm was coming. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” said our tour guide.

But Laura and I only looked at each other with a twinkle in our eye. You see, on our second day here, a few sprinkles fell from the sky—it wouldn’t even be considered rain back home—and within seconds the busy street had emptied like someone had yelled “BOMB!” Literally, people scattered. And there were Laura and I on an almost deserted street wondering what we had missed. (I will admit though that wet cobblestones and flip flops are pretty much a lethal combination!)

So after battling crowds at every monument for the past 10 days, a storm could only mean one thing: photo opp!

As evening approached, and so did the dark clouds, Laura and I gathered our gear and headed for Castel Sant’Angelo and the bridge in front of it, with some very specific ideas in mind. There were people everywhere - particularly street vendors who had their goods spread out all over the bridge. Everyone looked pretty comfortable. There would be no great photos at this point unless we wanted three hundred people in our shot. So we settled in to wait. Sure enough, before long thunder rolled and amazing lightning flashes lit up the sky.

And…the first drops began to fall. As the people ran for cover, Laura and I ran for the middle of the bridge. In moments, our cameras were on tripods, our sweaters were taken off to help shield our lenses from rain and our long exposures were set. There we were, two drowned Canadian rats, cackling at the top of our lungs and shrieking with excitement, dancing and hugging when we got the shots we wanted. On more than one occasion we received incredulous looks, but one Italian man could not pass by without asking “What the HELL are you doing?!?!” Well actually, I couldn’t understand a word he said, but the expression was quite clear. Not being able to respond in Italian, I just swooped both arms emphatically at the scene before us and said “Foto! Foto!” He just shook his head, shrugged and kept walking away under the safety of his big umbrella.

By this time our t-shirts were see-through and our sneakers were squeaking, but we both agreed, the rain was warmer than the shower in our flat so we might as well enjoy it. Not to mention, after the hot streak the past few days, this felt gloriously exhilarating. Over and over, vendors came up trying to sell us umbrellas but we just kept shouting, “We are from Canada! We love this!”

After we were satisfied that we’d got our people-free photos of the monument, we shouted at some poor Italian ladies to keep walking in front of our cameras so we could get photos with them and their umbrellas. They came to look on the back of the camera and exclaimed, “Bella, romantico!” And we giggled ferociously. Oh what fun!

When we were done, we put back on our soggy sweaters, stuffed our cameras up our shirts to keep them dry, and set off arm in arm, howling like school girls, to go find some gelato! (Yes, Michelle, we thought of you!) A more grand adventure there has never been than spending the evening on the streets of Rome in a thunder and lightning storm.