Adventures in Sherwood Forest: Italy Day 5

Day 5 was one of our dreaded travelling days. With the exception of the initial flight, there would be more trains/car travel this day than any other day on our trip. Our plan was to travel from Poppi to Arezzo, then Arezzo to Florence, Florence to Naples, and take a car from Naples to Positano. The night before we researched trains and the ones from Poppi to Arezzo weren't as frequent as I'd hoped. We basically had to make it on to the 7:48 am train to Arezzo or we'd be screwed. The only thing is, the kids and I haven't really gotten ready for the day faster than maybe 10 am, after breakfast, so leaving the hotel at 7:30 seemed impossible. Naturally Joel went to bed around 12:30 and I was too stressed to sleep and didn't get to bed until 2. The alarm was set for 6:50 and ugh, it was a struggle. Most of our bags were packed but we still had lingering things that needed to be packed up. Of course it was a mad dash out the door. We had to dress both of the sleeping kids. They went to bed around 10 or 11, so still not enough sleep for either of them, but we were off.

After directing Joel to the wrong platform at the station, we realized our mistake and made the train. We managed to grab a few croissants from the hotel and had breakfast on the train.

Our trains for leaving Arezzo were at 8:44 and 9:16 am. Although the chances were slim, I was hoping we'd make it on the 8:44 train. That train was only an hour long to Florence, versus 1.5 hours at 9:16, plus we wouldn't have to wait around Arezzo. Obviously we didn't make the 8:44 train because our train got in at 8:37, but it ended up being okay. The kids could stretch their legs for a little bit before getting on the next train.

The train to Florence was fine. Caroline got pretty crabby but Bennett was okay. About 15 minutes before Florence, I got Caroline to fall asleep. That was nice but it would've been better had she done it immediately when we boarded the train. At the Florence terminal, the line to stow the luggage was super long and since Caroline was asleep, I told Joel that is wait at the station with our luggage while he and Bennett explored Florence for an hour. I was hoping Bennett would get to go to the duomo again.

The train from Florence to Naples was just over 3 hours. Joel was smart and bought us four first class seats. It was sooooo incredibly helpful for the kids to have their own seats. I told Bennett he could watch a video if he took a nap and in a few minites, he was asleep. Caroline was another issue. Joel had to walk her around most of the time. In Naples we were met at the station by our driver. He was a nice guy but only had one car seat, so Bennett got to sit like a regular person. Not at all scary for us... Halfway though the drive, and despite having gone to the bathroom on the train after we arrived in Naples, Bennett needed to pee. Obviously the driver doesn't have kids because he didn't understand what it means when a 3 year old says he needs to pee. It took about 15 minutes for him to find a place for Bennett to pee. Luckily for the driver, Bennett was able to hold it. We were in some slow traffic too, with little outlook points. He could've easily stopped and let Bennett per anywhere. The car ride was about 70 minutes. Most of it was actually okay, but there was a good 20 minutes of switch backs and I wanted to puke. Caroline was super fussy and crying the whole ride so when Bennett stopped to pee, I took her out of the career and never put her back in again. And again, about 15 minutes before we arrived at the hotel, she fell asleep.

We walked up many stairs to get to our hotel, but the view was worth it:

We had a great balcony and although the room is oddly dated, it's quite big so the kids actually have space to more around. They had a little pack and play set up for Caroline and she was totally enamored with the bears on the blanket. She didn't want to get out of the crib, which is a first.

We went to a restaurant near our hotel mostly because I wanted to eat somewhere with a fantastic view. The food was good, although Joel is convinced the fish he had was frozen. It wasn't GREAT food though.

Bennett purposefully closing his eyes:

Then we decided to make the walk down to the beach. From reviews online I knew there'd be a lot of stairs but nothing I really prepared me for the amount of stairs we needed to walk. We've since counted and its around 400 steep stairs. Bennett was thrilled to play in the sand. He didn't want to leave.