Rick Steves: Rome best enjoyed after dark

A stroll in the cool of the summer evening is made memorable by the romance of the Eternal City.

The tourist who retreats at night to an air-conditioned hotel room is missing the best time to plunge into Rome.

In the evening, it’s fun to jostle with kids to see the gelato flavors or watch lovers straddling more than a bench.

Rather than imposing arenas and temples, we enjoyed convivial piazzas with kids kicking soccer balls until midnight, splashing fountains softened by velvety lighting, and marble benches populated by ice cream lickers.

The streets of central Rome are safe and inviting for a walk at dusk, and there’s no better way to feel the city’s pulse.

If you want to be elegant, join Rome’s passeggiata in the area around the Spanish Steps, where chic people window-shop in front of upscale boutiques.

A square that might be a tiny vegetable market by day morphs into a dinner destination with colorful eateries by night.

Clustered around a rickety table outdoors, with traffic roaring past and crowds milling by, Romans still manage to create a little slice of intimacy.

Coming here, you enter the intimate side of Rome — a place of red pastel buildings with green ivy hanging down, and little squares peppered with cafes and pizzerias, perfect ringside seats for observing the river of life coursing through.

Walking down a cobbled street, softly illuminated as if by torchlight, it’s easy to imagine I’m rubbing shoulders with the past.

Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television.