Bennett didn't get his 10 hours of sleep in last night so I knew an early nap was necessary. 
He slept 1.5 hours and then we left for today's big adventure: a mother/son trip to the town of Arezzo. Arrezo is about 45 minutes away via train or car and prior to arriving I wasn't planning in taking a day trip without Joel... But when I got up this morning, I decided it was going to happen.
I knew where the train station was in Poppi so that wasn't any issue but this station is unmanned so it took me about 5 minutes I figure out how to buy a ticket. I wasn't sure I did it quite right but eventually some lay walked by and I was able to gesture to the train schedule, say "Arezzo" and ask if my ticket was correct. Luckily it was so we waited for the train to come.
About 4 minutes minutes before it was due to arrive the lady who helped me, who was standing on the other platform yells, "Arezzo?" And gesture I was in the wrong platform. Great! Luckily I made it there with a couple minutes to spare, but not after having to carry the stroller with Bennett in it up about 20 stairs. 
On the train Bennett took my phone and took a legitimate selfie: 
The train ride went well and once we made it to Arezzo we found the information booth and got a map. The girl working was super helpful and directed me to the street I wanted an explained where things were. Arezzo is such a charming town. It's really everything I was hoping Poppi would've been. Many street with shops and restaurants, pedestrian only boulevards. It reminded me of Avignon, France. We headed to the duomo first, which was at the top of the hill the town was situated on. The doors were closed but there was a pretty park nearby and I could see there was quite the veiw from the other end of it. 
The paths of the park were gravel so Bennett spent a few minutes getting dirty and throwing rocks. Then we headed to the nearby piazza, which was made famous by the movie 'Life Is Beautiful.' We had a lunch of a mozzarella, tomato and olive panini (it was good) and a chocolate chip muffin. 
The piazza was big and fairly empty (It was about 1 and was so super hot and sunny out.) but was slanted since it was a hill so Bennett had a great time running downhill quickly away from me... 
It was really much too hot to be out in the sun and I was already horribly sweaty from pushing Bennett uphill (the duomo was about a 20-25 minute walk from the station) so I tried to put him in the striker and get to the shade. He didn't wast a fan of the stroller idea, and he didn't want to pose for pictures, and kept running into the middle of the piazza. It was frustrating. 
The view from one corner of the piazza. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the left.
The view from the top left corner of the above picture: 
Shortly before this photo Bennett missed a foot on one of the steps and took a tumble, the first of many today...
After the duomo we went to a nearly info boho to use the restroom (it cost 50 cents). The elevator to get there was broken so Bennett got to ride in his stroller in the escalator. A great parenting move! A passerby did offer to help though, and when I said I was fine. He told me to be careful. (I'm beginning to question if Italians are really that nice or if I just look that clueless and needy.)
It was shortly after that we realize all the churches and sites were closed from about 11:30-3. It was about 2 at this time so we had time to kill, and sun to get out of, so we headed back to the park.
Bennett spent a good amount of time classifying soil,throwing rocks, and getting dirty. There were tons of kids in the park, probably on recess, so it was a nice atmosphere. Then Bennett was climbing on his stroller and fell. You'll see the nice mark near his eye on future photos.
At 3 we headed to the duomo. It was quite beautiful and Bennett had a hard time understanding the need to be quiet, since his voice echoed so nicely. 
Taken from outside the duomo. It was super windy and Bennett was too busy people watching to look at the camera.
The duomo again:
Then we continued in our walk. According to the map we were passing by notable places, but since I didn't know what they were, we kept walking. We came upon another church though and this one, in my opinion, was nicer than the duomo... Or maybe I was so hot the coolness of the church was swaying my opinions of it. 
Bennett was actually super good in this church, speaking in a whispered time, pointing out things he was looking at.
We then went to some church Francesco place. It's a church with beautiful frescos but we didn't pay to go in since pictures were not allowed but we could walk into the lobby area and see most of the sanctuary without paying so I can say it was beautiful. This is outside that church.
Bennett was hating me at this point because he was pretty tired. Shortly after he fell asleep and I decide it was time to head back to Poppi. At the train station I went to the ticket booth to get a ticket and the guy told me tickets were sold "inside" which was pretty confusing seeing as I WAS INSIDE THE STATION. I had about 30 minutes before the train was due to arrive and spent some time trying to find the appropriate ticket dispenser. I couldn't find it and went to te platform hoping it was there. It wasn't. I asked some people waiting if they spoke English. They didn't. Finally I found a young mom and her toddler who spok a little English. After much gesturing and showing her my previous ticket she kindly walked me back to the station, with toddler in tow, to show me I needed to buy a ticket from the newspaper stand. HOW WAS THAT CLEAR? Then I walked back to the platform and the train had just arrived. But then I had another hurdle to conquer. 
I had a stroller, bags, a sleeping Bennett and about 2' of steps to get into the train. Someone in the train did offer to help me hoist everything up but I was worried there would be steps to the seats, which would mean I'd have to dismantle the stroller anyways. So I declined, gathered my bags, unbuckled Bennett (which woke him), collapsed the stroller and lugged everything up with me. Luckily Bennett was in a great mood after his power nap so we sang songs in the train and talked about what we were seeing. 
Back at the hotel we were able to see Joel for about 25 minutes before he headed to dinner. We declined since Bennett would be tired and a pain sitting through a meal. So dipped our feet in the pool and eventually went to the restaurant next door for dinner. 
I had a fish (I think it was trout) baked with potatoes and olives. It was REALLY good. Simple, seasoned simply with olive oil and salt, that was perfect to dip with bread. It did not disappoint, even if my dinner companion kept melting down. After dinner Bennett started melting down. He kept pulling out clothing as I was packing. Then I have him a shower and he started spazzing and fell. I caught one of his arms so it wa a slow fall but he screamed bloody murder anyways. The. After the shower he calmed down a bit and sat on my lap so that I could put lotion on him. (We finally had loping because OUR BAG ARRIVED. Reunited after 4 days, for anyone keeping track.) As he was sitting on my lap he spazzed again and fell face first onto the floor. He must've caught himself somehow since his nose didn't bleed and there wasn't a bruise but enough was enough. Bedtime. We read a few books, then I turned off the light and sat in silence until he fell asleep. It was a frustrati ending to an otherwise successful day.
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