Gli Studianti

Matteo's first day in Asilo Renascita. Mom is taking the picture. Jax is in his class next door and dad is holding Suby outside the window.

THE BIKER

Live Free Or Die

"Live Free or Die" is the official motto of New Hampshire, adopted by the General Court in 1945. It is probably the best-known of all state mottos, partly because it speaks to an aggressive independence inherent in the American dream, and partly because of its contrast to the mild sentiments usually found in such mottos.

The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:

Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.

The motto was enacted at the same time as the state emblem

This all leads to my next crazy idea!

I have been assessing where we should be in the next 3-5 years. Originally, I thought Italy was going to be a 5 year adventure, but as I see the kids picking up the Italian and the culture, I think it only fair to give Subasio a chance to have some schooling here so that puts us out atleast three more years. Then the plan was to possibly move to Alaska so the kids could get a bit of outdoors exposure. My dream of Shaolin immersion for all of them might have to be reduced to a year or even less.

An alternative to Alaska and a place that can offer substantial outdoor adventure as well as a rigorous academic environment would be Hanover, New Hampshire, home of Dartmouth and CNNMoney.com's Second Best Place To Live In America.

To spice it up... why not live in a converted barn? Helen, the good sport that she is, says I can build another Container House !!! so I look in to see how the state of the art Container House architecture is doing. Not Bad. But who am I fooling? This is New England. Better to stick with a barn. So I contact www.mainebarncompany.com to see what they can offer.

Kiddy Italian

Jax's Italian:

Red White Green
Rosso Bianco Greeno (Verde)

Butterfly
Butterfala (Farfala)

Boring
Aspettando per Sempre

Antipasta!!

Sagra!

So we have been a bit lazy this summer Sagra season. It has been hot! We went to the Bettona Sagra D'Oca twice to make up for it.

Wine Jugging in Bevagna

I have been exceptionally low on my wine supply all summer. I scrounged around and found a jug back in the closet that lasted me a few weeks. 6 bottles to a jug. I had some crappy Lungarotti Falo that tasted really cheap and weak. On the flip side, I found this bottle of Montepulciano della Abruzzo the other night that was pretty darn good. But that was it. My stash was depleted. So off we went to visit Sesto at Dionigi out in Bevagna yesterday to reload some Montefalco Rosso. As usual, I arrange to meet with Leo and Patricia to make the short trip . This time however Leo was unable to come so his daughter Romina substituted. Also Alejandro met us half way as he has now converted over from jugging in Passagio Di Bettona. Our next jugging trip might be to Toscana to find the much coveted Brunello Del Montalcino.

Mama Mia Ucciso!

Ucciso! That was one of the first words I learned in Italy. When we first arrived, I would pick up a lot of vocabulary from watching the news (that was before the satellite hook up). The news would scroll Italian words below the news anchor and I would rush to look up the word in my handy dictionary. That was also before the day of the Google translator widgets.

Ucciso! means killed.

So we are at a party for Fabrizia's daughter Luce a few weeks ago and her mom tell us a story about a murder that happened the night before. Apparently a 9 months pregnant woman was killed last night in her home located in a borgo (small group of old homes) near Marciano (about 15 miles from Assisi). Her other two children were asleep. The husband, who operates coin laundry machines, was out collecting money. Someone broke into the home and, when confronted by the mother, stabbed her to death. Must have been someone who knew them.

I offer the US perspective. The husband did it.

Nope! Fabrizia's mom says not in this case!

Oh. I think to myself. Wow. Husbands sure get excluded from suspicion pretty fast here in Italy. No alibi. No forced entry. Maybe he said he didn't do it and cried real loud. I guess you had the be there.

I go on and tell them the Scott Peterson story of that guy in California who went fishing a hundred miles away on Christmas Day! 8 month pregnant wife disappears. Fishy. He sells her car. Months later, Laci's body is found near where he said he was fishing. Fishier. The police find Scott down in San Diego with blond hair (he said it was from swimming), a beard, several cell phones and 10,000 dollars in cash.

I also tell them about that guy down in Florida who told everyone he was going to med school. His wife had called the school to complain that they had not been assigned housing and was informed he was not admitted to that med school. The morning she disappeared, her husband had bought a new mattress. He had put her in a dumpster.

SO- Today we are at Grand Casa and we run into Christina who we had met at the party. We exchange greetings and she starts talking quietly in Italian and try really hard to follow what she is saying. I hear Marciano, ucciso - killed, moglie - wife. But Christina is talking quietly and I didn't remember the story. Finally Christina breaks down and tells me in English that the police suspect that the husband killed the wife. Ahhh.

So this tells me that the police skills in Umbria have improved significantly from the police portrayed in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Clue-- Thomas Ripley did it.

Buying Car Insurance in Italy

So you think that it's just the 8 bucks a gallon for gasoline to gripe about. How about the 2000 bucks for liability only auto insurance? By accident however, I stumbled upon a bargain which hopefully may benefit other people shopping for auto insurance in Italy as well as all over Europe.

While I was shopping for the Vito last year, I had the good fortune of speaking with a fellow American in Texas who selling his VW Transporter in Germany. This fine gentleman told me that Geico also sells car insurance in Italy. Ah Ha! Geico Insurance out of the US sells auto insurance here in Italy.

I saved about 70% since the european carriers generally assume that you have the worst driving record when they issue insurance to you. I used to pay about 1400 Euros for the VW. Now I pay 800 Dollars. An additional 40% discount is available if you can provide a letter from your previous insurer that you had no major claim in the last 3 years. This made a huge difference for me.

Geico info can be found by Googling Geico Italy. You get a list of countries they do business in. There are 4 locations in Italy alone. I selected Aviano where I spoke with Lino at "American Service Center" Lino is very very easy to work with. the beottom line is that I was able to insure each car for less than half what I was paying the European carriers. we were able to complete the whole insurance transaction over the net in about an hour.

I hope this helps.

Pope Benedict is coming to Assisi this Father's Day

Sunday June 17, 2007 8:15 the Pope's Helicopter is landing in Rivertorto below Assisi. Time to get up. The Pope will be at San Damiano at 9 and at Santa Chiara at 9:30. He will pass the Popsicle Cafe . It will from now on be known as the Pope-sicle Cafe.

KIDS

Mille Miglia 2007 in Assisi

I have missed it four years in a row. A perfect record. The Mille Miglia starts in Brescia up north and goes through Italy for a mille (thousand) miglia (miles). We first heard about it on some Discovery Channel or Travel Channel program back in 2002. Brandon told us that his Ferrari mechanic comes out each year for it. This year 375 cars participated.

Now the first year we missed it because we didn't know it came through Assisi and we didn't find out about it until the week after it happened.

The second year we planned to see it, but Helen's brother Henry took ill and we made a dash back to the states on the day the Mille Miglia came through Assisi. My friend Rafael, who drove us down to the airport in Rome was able to take our Cabriolet to see it though-

The third year we decided to go back to the US to attend a shareholder meeting and to say hello or goodbye to some friends and family who we correctly though might not be with us much longer.

So this year was gonna be the year. We timed. We planned. We committed. We researched..... We got sick. About three weeks ago Jax got this fever out of nowhere... 105F... broke in about two days. To top it off, it was a four day weekend (Italian Liberation Day) and while Jax was in school that Friday, we had all gone to Lake Trasimeno to check out camping resorts to spent the weekend in our new delux Coleman tent the Chins had brought over for us.

Then last week I could see Matteo with a runny nose and one eye with conjunctivitus... hummm. Then the other eye. Then Helen had the aches. Then I got it. Then I got the chills. Then I'm out. So right at its peak. Mille Miglia comes through Assisi at 4:50 PM. Helen takes Jax and Matteo. I stay behind with Suby. Oh well. Try again next year.

Helen says we have to join in when we get older. There was a Corvette in the procession this year. Humm. Perfect excuse to bring over the Vette? Or maybe....

The Hanoi Hilton and John McCain

There really is a Hanoi Hilton and it is very nice, but it isn't the Hanoi Hilton that housed the prison built by during the French occupation for the Vietnamese who didn't like being occupied and later used to house American pilots shot down and captured.












My old friend Jim Schultz and I went to the Hanoi Hilton or what was left of it last March. It was just a few blocks from the very nice small hotel in the old quarter I was staying at and I had passed by it a dozen times not knowing it was there.










The Vietnamese displayed the flight suit of their celebrity POW John McCain. Jim asked "Can you imagine what he was thinking when his jet was going down" and I said "As soon as he got into the jet, he knew he could be toast."

John McCain has balls. I told Jim that McCain had a different variety of balls than we had. Now I can't speak for Jim, but I got the sense from him that perhaps his liberal views on the Vietnam War AFTER visiting Vietnam for the second time had changed. I have some opinions but I would rather keep them to myself.

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.

GOOD morning VIETNAM

Grandpa George and Matteo on Feb 26, 2007















Grandpa George and Subasio in Hue on Feb 27, 2007

















Not A Good Day To Be A PIGGY































OR A LOBSTER!!!






OR A DOG

Gong Hay Fat Choy

OkaY.

It is the Sunday before our Vietnam trip. It is Carnivale time in Italy. We all have the sniffles. Rosemary's power is turned off. I have a recovering case of the hives. The tower transaction needs to get done before we leave. There is some question as to the accuracy of the parcel number.

Now. How will I get down to the train station on Wednesday morning for at 7:50 train? Virginia just called and offered to pick up the VW if I leave it at the station. It would be unfair to make her drive the Vito through our gates. Too narrow. Got to get the key to her.

I tried again to call Fabio and Loan in Vietnam. Their number would not connect, but I was able to reach Loan's sister.

I Know It's February, But...

the other day when I went to Asilo Rinascita to pick up Jax, the teacher stopped me and asked if I had a photo of Babbo Natale... that's Santa... from his visit at school last December. As a matter of fact I did.

It turns out that Babbo Natale lives just a few yards away from our house. It took us nearly a year and a half to realize that this 3 year old miniature horse lived just between us and the Grand Hotel Assisi.

When Grandmothers Retire From ARMANI

Happy Birthday

Sebastiano

they design and make cool outfits for the grandkids. So last week was Sebastiano's 6th birthday. Grandma, who used to work for Armani, couldn't let her only grandchildren show up wearing pret-a-porte. Not when she had the opportunity to make costumes for all three as Peter Pan characters.








Gerardo was really in character as HOOK and even sported a mustache.







And what about Luce as Tinkerbell.


Of course we thought that our kids were kinda cute too. Jax pumped a little iron and did a few sit ups to fill out his Red Power Ranger outfit while Matteo walked around with his little stinger hanging out.

Vietnam 2007(Feb 21 - Mar 22)

In the end it is best to use the internet to buy tickets. You click a button and you are done. Travel agencies will promise you one thing and put you on a waiting list and tell to call back next week. UNLESS of course you are willing to pay full fare.

So we have our visas... went to Rome last Tuesday to get them.. the man at the Vietnam Embassy pointed to the calender at Feb 9... Helen said "No, we leave on the 21st". I quickly point out that he was not mistakenly identifying our departure date, but was indicating that we drag ourselves all the way back down to Rome to pick up the passports and visas on the 9th and informed him that we live up near Perugia and, if at all possible, we would wait for them to process them now. So we were in and out in 1 hour.

So off we go with Pippo and Francesca. Our flight from Rome leaves at two inthe afternoon so we leave Assisi around 9 and take the train. No Problem. The flight is direct to Bangkok's new international airport open only 6 months ago for the celebration of Thailand's Kingìs birthday (the new airport runways have so many cracks now that many flights are diverted back to the old airport) and then a quick two hour connector to Hanoi.

Ahhh... Hanoi. Grandpa George's flight is scheduled for arrival only 15 minutes behid ours. As we stood in line at passport control, I look back and see Grandpa at the back of another line. I bring over Subasio to meet Grandpa for the first time.

Ahhh... Hanoi... Vietnamese Coffee... Pho... Ahh lets get real. Communism just does not work. Neither does 90 percent of Vietnam's population. I'm no expert on foreign policy like Richard Gere or Sean Penn, but I have lived in communist countries before and have experienced others over the last three decades.

Vietnam is at a crossroad. It has just been admitted to the WTO. It's per capita income is about a buck. It's average age is about 25. 25 ahhh.. such a tender age, not weighed down by such things as knowledge, experience, wisdom, hygiene....

As a tourist destination in Southeast Asia, it must compete with Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. I have not yet been to Laos although I hear it is a favorite, but dollar for dollar, Vietnam has some travel issues that it must resolve if it expects return business. That being said, Vietnam offerings are comprised of a few under developed man made historical sites, a few mildly interesting natural sites and several sites whose existence stems from a much maligned US foreign policy.

A Busy January 2007

Let's see...

Joanna, Brandon and Niccole are coming out from California to Rome on April 5 - 16. Where shall we go?

We are planning our trip with Pipo and Francesca to Vietnam in February for TET.

Subasio needs to get his passport down at the American Embassy in Rome on January 9. Got to get a good photo. Grow hair fast Suby!!

We need to renew our Long Stay Visas and add on Subasio. Humm, the Questura. The process is now electronic and updated. The Questura no longer handles it. We need to go to Bastia... to the Patrona... The office is scheduled to be open on Fridays at 4... but call at 4:30 to see if anyone is there. Now that is progress!!