Subasio's First Easter With The Chins

at 5 and a half months old and he is already wearing his big brother Matteo's pants. At two weeks he went to Germany and through Switzerland to pick up the Ka- Chowww mobile. At 4 months he went to Vietnam to meet grandpa and spent the month with him. At 5 months he is playing Italian tour guide to the Brandon, Joanna and Nikki Chin who arrived for a visit on April 6, 2007.

Unfortunately, Suby was too small to partake in the Italian novelty of the ubiquitous BIG Easter Eggs with the lame soprese inside. I wonder if many children actually finish all the chocolate.









There were still plenty of firsts for Subasio. This was his first time to Cortona where he was Under The Tuscan Sun before spending the evening in Sienna.






Because Assisi is located in the absolute center of Italy, it made sense to use Assisi as our base camp. This was the first true test of the MBZ Vito 9 sitzer as a two family road trip vehicle and it was superb. Driving through the narrow roads, even the passenger mirror against walls twice and it just snapped back in place. 28 plus miles per gallon on the Super Strada with the air conditioner on carrying 4 adults and 4 children with car seats. KaChowww!


Pisa and Florence were done on the same day. We all made it to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence where Joanna and Brandon were witnesses at our wedding back on September 29, 1999.














Coming back to Assisi allowed us to take our time and share a few of our normal living experiences like Jax's pesto pasta eating technique and a trip to our regular pizza haunt Il Pizzone (The BIG Pizza) down in Bastia Umbra.




We were able to take them to the nearby hill town of Bettona where we met Alejandro and Susan Toyofuku who, prior to moving to Bettona, not only originally lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, but also used to frequent the Cafe owned by a mutual friend Jensen back in El Cerrito.

As a side note, on the same day I met Alejandro at the Sagra Di Oca in Bettona, I met John Pankow "cousin Ira" from Mad About You who said he only does Umbria and attends the sagra each year.




Besides, accommodations for large families in Europe have become ridiculous. I spoke with one guy who thought charging me 100 dollars EXTRA per night for the small kids was doing me a favor.


Last time we were together in Venice we got absolutely soaked in sheets of rain.





This time, we were blessed with perfect weather. Jax and Matteo worked for their bird seeds by helping Marino sell his packets in Piazza San Marco.







In Umbria we have the Jelly Belly / Hershey equivalent in Perugina Chocolates which makes the BACI or Kisses in San Sisto near Perugia. It gives an English tour daily at 11 and an Italian tour at 2:30. Here they have the Guinness World Record Chocolate Kiss at over 5,000 Kilos. In the evening we were able to relax and see the Basilica of Santa Maria just below Assisi.









Being well rested allowed us to take the drive South through Naples and onward to Positano and Sorrento where we stayed at Meta at a B&B overlooking the Bay of Naples and the Island of Ischia.






Unfortunately, the rain washed away our last chance to go to Capri so we settled for a long drive through the Amalfi Coast to Salerno.



Nikki had been studying up on the sites of Rome. So on the last day we were sure to stop by so she could walk down the Spanish Steps and toss a coin or two into the Trevi Fountain.