Firenze.... Rain.....Hotel.... What hotel?

Remember the beautiful weather back in Roma? Never have I been here when rain wasn't in the forecast. For that matter, I have never been here when it's not actually falling from the sky - in SHEETS. We stepped off the express train at the Firenze station with our flip flops and rolled pants into a rainy, cold 40 degrees. After a quick light of a cigarette and a few quizzical looks from the locals we gathered ourselves under the ticket booth overhang to figure out how to get to a place that didn't exist (we didn't know it at the time). According to our only map the pensione was a few hundred meters away... But you couldn't get there from here. The rain persisted and taking a cab would be retarded. We are after all from New York, where we walk miles daily with not so much as a whisper. In my tired Italian I bought 2 umbrellas from a character who resembled an FBI poster silhouette and with one last hike of the pant roll we were off.