Just west of the Colosseum in Rome is the Forum, a rectangular plaza surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings. The ruins are impressive and I wanted to get a shot of the Forum at sunrise. I decided to get up early and shoot the Forum from Capitoline Hill. I started shooting at dawn (before sunrise) and I was able to capture some great color in the sky. However I discovered, the hard way, the precise time the lights turn off at the Forum, viz. 5:50 AM, which is exactly as I was taking my first photo. Fortunately, my very first attempt was a success.

Forum DawnDawn at the Forum in Rome, Italy.

I was in Rome in March, during the off season. Besides small crowds, there was one really nice advantage: I was there for the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox is when the plane of the Earth's equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, once in the fall and once in the spring. The significance for most people is that during the equinox, day and night are approximately the same duration. For a photographer, the significance is that the sun rises and sets almost directly east to west. The Forum stretches east to west, with Capitoline Hill at the western edge and the Colosseum at the eastern edge. I was therefore able to capture the following sunrise: 

Forum SunriseSunrise at the Forum in Rome, Italy.