Florence the land of tourists

Florence. It is never a good thing when you are unsure you are in a foreign country when you are in one. The areas of Florence we have been in thus far have been very touristy. A lot of English speakers and other tourists around here. This is a busy place in the summer and most Florentines are not around for the summer they get out of the heat and humidity. So now we get to stay here for three nights which is absolutly fabulous. It will be nice to have the break a bit. Today we went to see one last thing in Rome as we passed through. We went down to the "southside" to go into the catacombs. These are miles and miles of tunnels of dead people. Very interesting place to be. In the catacombs Peter and Paul the apostles were once buried. It is so very interesting to be walking in areas that you can read about in the Bible (not that their reburial was in the Bible).
Our fun yet stressful story of the day: We had a trained booked for Florence from Rome for 2:52 via Eurostar a fast and sometimes expensive train. Well at 2:30 we were just leaving the hotel with the nuns after James wrote some postcards. We started at a good clip and tried to stop for pasteries but it was closed for lunch. (time: 2:40) Good thing it was because we were running late. So we headed to the train station and somehow got turned around. We basically got lost and had to ask someone in broken Italian where the train station was. It was the other direction. (Time: 2:47) So now we are running, me with a regular backback and a large duffel hauling it like you carry a baby and James with a side bag and his big backpack. We were weaving in and out of traffic down streets and jumping curbs. We bumped into all sorts of Italians yelling "scuzi" all the way down the road. We see the train station a block away (time: 2:52) and know we have missed it. Hoping that the train is late we continue to jog, speedwalk all the way to the end of the tracks. No dice. We missed it. Now I am thouroughly frustrated that we missed the train and got lost. I know it is not such a good idea to mention anything to James so I say little. I am sure he is just as frustrated as I am and so I leave it be. In the end we traded our tickets at no extra cost for a train to Milan that was going through Florence. Can't complain about that too much. We really blessed God for that one. Now we both can laugh about it already.