Rome Day One... Ups and Downs

Monday morning, early... to Rome... I had to schlep all my stuff down to the train station with everyone else and hop on the 7:57 train to Roma Termini.  It was a long ride on a full train and I spent it reading Last Watch.  Upon arrival, we headed for our four star hotel, the Hotel Tiziano to check in and leave our bags.  My first room, 204 was really nice... there were two full beds and one twin but the twin was tucked in its own little corner, away from the others, which I liked a lot... Unfortunately, it was not to last. 

Shortly after we arrived, we left again, as this was going to be a long day of touring the ancient sites of Rome, as we headed to the Campo di Fiori one of the girls asked if she could switch rooms with me so that she could be with the other people in my room... Since I really liked my spot and she didn't know what their room was like because it wasn't ready for them, I told her that I'd think about it, hoping to see it later on before I decided... more on that later...

This marks the beginning of about two hours that were just awful... after we got to the Campo di Fiori, Ann talked for a minute and, when she was done and people were headed off to get some food from the venders, I asked her if she knew where there was a cash machine and rather than simply saying something like, "Sorry, no.  Look around and I'm sure you'll find one." She responded in a voice that sounded, I thought, like she'd had enough of me and just wanted me to leave her alone and acted like I'd asked her something almost offensive... seeing as she's been in Rome dozens of times and I've never been, I thought it was a fair enough question to ask.  Apparently she didn't think that was the case. 

I spent the next twenty minutes walking around looking for one... in tears.  It really doesn't help that that would have been completely prevented if she'd given me the 90 euro I was supposed to have for our meal allowance in Rome, which I still haven't gotten and we only have one day left.  It also didn't help that I was starting to think this whole trip was a mistake.  I've never been good at joining groups, finding friends, and generally getting along with people.  Now I'm in a foreign country with no family, no friends, and no Andy, and, since I don't feel like any of the people on this trip care to spend time with me, no one but myself. 

I spend most of my free time alone, no one asks me to join them for dinner or to go somewhere unless I'm right next to them, no one calls me or texts me.  I've asked people to do stuff with me and it seems like they usually don't feel up for it, if they're already going and I ask to go along, I feel like I'm just a tag-along.  If I don't make the effort to be with people, I end up alone.  Maybe it's not a fair way to look at things, as there are people who seem to care, or act like they care, but it only lasts for short periods of time.  When I'm not around any more, it seems like I don't matter.

At the time, I'd not had anything to eat at all, so you can imagine that a lot of what I was feeling was due to my general grumpy-ness when I've got low blood sugar issues but sometimes I can't help feeling invisible even when I'm not hungry.  Usually I just deal with it and try to do something on my own as I generally find things better when I'm alone because I don't have to go at someone else's pace and I can do what I want to without worrying about what they want but I still feel lonely.

After finding a bancomat and a sandwich (and gelato, which I didn't take a photo of because I was still weepy and depressed, mango and fruits of the forest) the group was to meet at Largo Argentina, a collection of ruins only a couple blocks from our hotel.  Then we walked past more ruins towards the Piazza Campidoglio and Capitoline Hill which were designed by Michelangelo... I think.  I wasn't too interested in listening to Ann talk about it.

It wasn't until we started heading to the forum that someone asked me what was wrong and it was my roommate from Santa Chiara who is nice and she told me that a friend of hers had been on this trip in the past and has had similar experiences with Ann.  She also said that I could walk around with her, but apparently that offer was only limited to the next five minutes because it didn't last long.  Not to mention that, only that morning, she'd left me in the room to head off to the train station with another girl rather than waiting for me.  Maybe people just don't see what they do but there are definitely people who want to spend time together and do so, and I'm not one of the people that anyone picked.

Anyway, between her gracious offer to let me walk with her and Lawrence saying that no one could forget me after I said that I felt no one remembered I was around and that I felt invisible, I was able to cheer up enough to start taking pictures of the Roman Forum, our next stop.  It was big and full of broken marble stuff.  It seemed that other people were more impressed with it than I was but I've found that to be pretty par for the course when it comes to Rome.  

What I found to be the most interesting thing is that it was all under river silt for years after the area was flooded by the Tiber.  Even today people are working to excavate the forum ruins from the muck of thousands of years.  As we walked out of the forum proper area, we saw a crew of people working through a guard fence.

We headed off through the Arch of  Septimus Severus towards the Arch of Constantine which sits very near the Colosseum, our next big ancient site for the day.  It was big and a bunch of it was closed off because they're in the process of putting in a platform that puts visitors over the center area where there would have originally been a floor and allows them to get a better look down into the under area where the slaves and animals were kept. 

After that, we went past two tall memorial pillars with carved figures running in a spiral up them in a counter-clockwise direction on our way to the Pantheon, which is only a few blocks from our hotel.  It was an interesting building with a hole in the center to let in the rain, which seems silly.  I bet it looks really pretty in a rain storm, though.

Dinner out at a sort of mediocre place, pesto pasta and a pizza.  Afterwards we went to a giant book store just down the street from our hotel that Ann said had a nice sized selection of books in English, which was true.  Unfortunately, they were quite expensive.  I didn't get any as I'm still working on my last Watch book and I stole a copy of Sense and Sensibility from the book trade at Santa Chiara before we left for Rome.  After that we got gelato, this time I got a photo.  Dark chocolate and the fruits of the forest.

Headed back to the hotel for an early night after our long day walking around Rome.