Florentine Adventure--Part 2

Speaking of Santa Croce, all four of us were walking toward this church through a crowded street market last Friday. David, with the only map, led the way. He tends to walk quickly and on this particular occasion the rest of us lagged behind. Carter ran to catch up with his Dad and soon after Stephen and I lost sight of them. I really didn't know whether they had gone straight, turned off or what but when I looked down a side street I saw what I thought might be Santa Croce and Stephen and I went in that direction. It was a sunny day about 2 p.m. and my inclination was to press on to our destination and assume we would meet David and Carter there. (Neither of us had cell phones.) David knew I didn't have a map but he knows that I readily ask people for directions. That's what I did and within about 15 minutes we arrived at the wonderfully spacious piazza in front of the church. David and Carter, however, were nowhere in sight. I became a bit more anxious because I was sure we would find them there. We had to reunite eventually because we left our luggage at the hotel and I had in my possession tickets for a 6 p.m. train to Rome. Also in our favor was that Florence is fairly small and the obvious points where we would meet up were few. My main worry was that perhaps Carter had not actually caught up with David and was traipsing around Florence by himself. I was determined, however, to wait it out at Santa Croce rather than wander the streets in search of them. Still, they didn't come and Stephen and I decided to make our way back on the most obvious street to our hotel. No sooner had we started walking when we saw two policemen. We had told the boys in Rome that if they ever got lost to tell a policeman. I explained our situation and they called the hotel. Turns out that David, along with Carter, had returned there first and recently departed, leaving word should we check in that we should all meet there at 4 p.m. All was well! I assumed they were making their way once again to Santa Croce, so Stephen and I stayed put. Sure enough they arrived a short time later. We celebrated with overpriced gelati and returned to Rome on our 6 p.m. train.