Italy Day 2

Caroline had a terrible time sleeping the night before. She had a fever and kept waking every few hours to scream. It was an exhausting night but by midnight, she was in a good sleep... Unfortunately she decided to wake up round 7. We had to patiently wait for Bennett to wake. When he was still asleep around 8:45, Caroline was getting angry, so I woke him. He was actually really good about it and anxious to start the day. 

He clearly wasn't excited for Caroline to give him a hug or for me to take a picture. 

Then we hung around the hotel for a little bit while I thought about how at we should do.

Joel texted me about a little market being set up when he was walking to the conference so we decided to check t it. 

Then we walked to a little outdoor space. Caroline fell asleep and I had Bennett take a picture of us. He's doing pretty well with his photography.

Luckily for me, Bennett is so great about entertaining himself while I sat with a sleeping Caroline. He found a stick and wanted to pose as an archer.

Then he set up his stick so that he could go fishing. 

Finally Caroline woke up and we started a slow walk back to the hotel.

We did a lot of window shopping and sitting on our way back.

Then we had lunch at the hotel restaurant. Both kids loved the pasta.

Because of her nap, I thought Caroline could hold out for a little swim. Bennett has been begging to go. He was very excited. 

Caroline wasn't and didn't even want to touch the water. 

Bennett was really loving it, despite the lack of enthusiasm in the pictures. He wanted me to pull him around the freezing water. His poor body was shaking and teeth were chattering but he still didn't want to get out.

Finally Caroline, who had been sitting in the shade, got super angry and we needed to go. It took a while but they fell asleep for naps around 2:30, which was prefect because there was a late street dinner.

They slept over two hours and around 5:20 we started the trek up to the castle for dinner.

One of Bennett's best qualities is his enthusiasm for everything. He galloped, skipped and ran up the steep cobblestones. We passed an elderly Italian couple who smiled at him and commented in Italian. I don't know what they said but I have no doubt it was about his energy and how he talked nonstop. 

Early in the walk, and much to my relief, Joel met us. That made things sooooo much easier. Caroline wasn't one for walking and she gets heavy on the hike up. Plus, it was hot and humid. We were all dripping sweat when we made it to the top.

There was a long reception before the dinner. Caroline was over it but Bennett made a friend, a little Swedish girl named Charlie.

They didn't speak the same language but it was amazing to see how little kids don't notice things like that and were quickly playing together. Like, neither seemed to notice the other was speaking in another language. It was really heartwarming to see.

On the walk down we met a black cat, who Bennett decided to name Olivia. We pretty much adopted her for 5 minutes of the walk. Bennett had a plan for how we needed to buy one more leash so that she could go for walks with us at home. 

As we passed the gelato shop Bennett asked if we could stop. Joel wanted to get Caroline back to the hotel but I'm not one to pas up in gelato so we had a little date. Bennett picked cherry and chocolate.