Trip to Solin (Roman name Salona)

We went to Solin today, the kid and me. I was looking for the remains of the Roman amphitheatre, he was just going along as it meant a ride on the scooter and, if I was feeling relaxed, a chance for him to go solo on it. We pulled off the road where a sign indicated that the ruins were to be found, but it turned out that the site was spread out over a very large area and we wandered around, wasting a lot of time before we came across the actual amphitheatre.
There it was in all its overgrown and ancient glory. The sun shone down on the verdant grass of the arena and, in the path of the gladiators’ entrance, a game of Croatian boules (locally called boče) was going on between two teams of local men. The sight of this ancient game, possibly introduced into Croatia by Roman soldiers, being played with wooden balls was strangely affecting. If it were not for the branded tracksuit tops of the players, and the assortment of cars parked nearby, we could have been back in time, two hundred years or more.
If you look east from Solin you can see the hilltop fortress of Klis. I was up there once. If I could revisit that scene I would, but life is not like that. The afternoon was over and the sun was sinking over the hills to the west. We climbed back on to the scooter. The kid held on tightly to my jacket and we headed back home. Are we close? Of course we are.