Chapter Text
Winter season of 1968 came closer to Italy as the people of Portorosso were getting ready for the holidays. Every year, some people come to the town to visit their loved ones to spend their holidays with them. It was the best season of the year…, besides Summer, of course.
At the house of Marcovaldo's, Massimo was cutting off heads of the fishes he collected with Alberto, who copied him while using his knife that Massimo gave to him on his birthday. Over the Fall and early Winter season, the two bonded like father and son since Alberto looked up to him as a father-figure, and Massimo wanted to give the boy a home and a parent he needed.
While they were preparing dinner, the phone rang, and Massimo left the counter to answer who was calling.
"Ciao?" He answered, "Ah, Giulietta, it's good to hear your voice again," This made Alberto beamed up when he heard it was Giulia calling. This means Luca was calling too, "Everything's fine in Portrosso… Yes, Alberto," Massimo then turned to the boy, "Alberto! It's for you! I'll continue making dinner. You deserve a rest after our hard work today."
Alberto smiled excitingly as he rushed to the phone, and Massimo left him to talk.
"Hey, Giulia! Luca!" He called while putting the phone near his ear.
"Alberto! How's our friend there?" Giulia asked.
"Doing great! I've been working double jobs, Massimo taught me everything, like to read and write… you know, that's how I sent those letters," Alberto replied.
"Yeah, you're learning a lot from my papa. That means you're my brother now."
"Pfft, that's impossible."
"Oh really? You know my Papa, he can do whatever he wants, so he adopted you as his own son. So this means you have to treat me better than before like your own sister."
"Or I can torture you for the rest of our lives."
Hearing that from Alberto made Giulia really mad as she was about to shout, but Luca took the phone from her to avoid the fight between them.
"So, Alberto, are you excited to see us again?" Luca asked.
"Yeah, I wish Summer would come sooner. I missed you guys. I mean, I have fun with everyone here in Portorosso, but it wasn't the same without you guys. I missed all the fun,"
"You mean, we missed all the fun. You're watching Portorosso for us, while Luca and I were in school, learning a lot," Giulia exclaimed, wanting her voice to be heard even if Luca held the phone now.
"That's what I mean, I missed 'em all. I just wish I can come with you guys, but I think I decided to stick around a little more," Alberto sighed.
"Yeah, and tell us everything in Portorosso," added Giulia.
"Oh, Alberto, did you know that it's the winter season where there is this white stuff called snow, and freezing the entire surroundings?" Luca shared this knowledge with his best friend.
"Not a clue about that, but I do feel it's getting chilly out here," Alberto admitted.
"That's called winter. It's the season when the Earth is far from the sun, making some parts of the world get colder and have happy holidays," Giulia confirmed.
"Yeah, I don't know what that means."
"You'll know soon," Luca chuckled, "And, Alberto, we have a big surprise for you!"
"What is it?" the young teenage boy asked.
Giulia giggled, "Oh we won't tell."
"What's the surprise? Please, I want to know," Alberto was so excited, his hands were shaking.
"Sorry, we won't tell until it's coming," Luca couldn't hold on his laughter.
"Please, don't leave me in suspense. You have to tell me the surprise!"
"Ooh, my mama's calling. We'll call you soon, fratello," Giulia said.
"Ciao, Alberto," Luca added.
"No, Luca, Giulia, please tell me your surprise!" But then, the two kids hang up on Alberto, enabling him to know about the secret. He cried and put the phone down, "No!"
"Alberto, how was your call?" Massimo asked.
"Nothing much, except Luca and Giulia told me they have a surprise for me, but they never told me," Alberto said with dramatic rage, "Do you know what's the surprise?"
"Mm? Well, it's a surprise, so I don't know what it is," the man shrugged.
"Can anyone tell me the surprise?!" Alberto groaned as he sat on the dining table, and dumped his face on the table.
While the boy wasn't looking, Massimo made a small smile on his face, secretly knowing about the surprise.
Few days later, Massimo took Alberto with him to the train station, which confused the boy.
"Massimo, what are we doing in the train station? Are we picking up someone? Someone you know?" Alberto asked his adoptive father.
"You'll see," Massimo said as Alberto hung his head down.
He figured out that everyone was keeping secrets from him, and they all made some surprises that he can't know yet. He was so impatient, and dying to know what was going on. When the train came to a complete stop, a crowd of people came out, and rushed to hug their loved ones. Alberto watched the heartwarming moments in the train station as he realized there were a lot of people coming to celebrate the holidays with their families in Portorosso. He never experienced a holiday before, not even with his biological dad, which was kinda sad for him.
Just then, he spotted two children hopping out of the train, and spotted him ahead.
"Alberto!"
Alberto gasped as he recognized those children; They're his friends! "Luca! Giulia!"
The three then formed a group hug together like they never saw each other in years.
"I'm so happy to see you both again!" Alberto almost cried with joy.
"Us too, Alberto! It's good to see you again too!" Luca hugged him tightly.
"Surprise!" Giulia exclaimed.
This definitely surprised Alberto as he was separated from the hug, "Wait? This is the surprise?!"
"Yep, the surprise is that we decided to come back here in Portorosso this winter," Luca explained.
Just then, Daniela, Lorenzo, and Grandma Paguro arrived at the station where the parents rushed from the gate to hug their son for not seeing him for months.
"Luca!"
"Mom! Dad!" Luca spread his arms, and hugged both his parents.
"Papa!" Giulia then ran towards her father.
"Giulietta!" Massimo hugged his daughter with his one arm.
"Wait, you knew all along? And you told them?" Alberto asked him.
"If I tell you, then it won't be a surprise, right?" Massimo pointed, leaving Alberto to smile and nod.
"But, I thought you'll spend most of the year with your mom, and come back here by Summer," He then reminded his friends.
"Oh, we have a lot to explain, but right now, I want to go back home. I'm starving!" Giulia said.
"Me too!" Luca raised his hand.
"I already prepared dinner," Massimo declared.
The two families cheered delightfully.
Later at night, when the two families were having dinner, Alberto couldn't wait to get the answer from his friends when he asked the same question earlier.
"So, what brings you two back to Portoross this winter?"
"Oh, where do we begin?" Giulia started, "Okay, when Luca and I stayed with mama, we told her all about you."
"Oh…" Alberto ate some pasta with a fork.
"About you dreaming of having a vespa, and seeing the world," Luca continued, which Alberto stared confusingly.
"And… Mama worked hard when we went to school, and she earned enough money to buy tickets!" Giulia announced.
"Tickets of what?" Alberto asked.
"To go to another country, of course!" the young girl responded.
"What?!" The Paguro parents and Alberto were surprised.
"Yeah, Giulia's mother earned some money for all of us to go to another country…" Luca explained, "Well, half of it because Massimo earned a lot too."
"So, that's why we've been working hard since the end of summer?" Alberto asked Massimo.
"I know that you dreamt to see the world, so I've been talking to Giulia's mama, and we both decided to earn enough money to get some plane tickets so you kids can explore another place!" Massimo explained.
"That… that's amazing!" Alberto was speechless at first. He didn't know what to say or how to react. He put his dream of getting a Vespa and seeing the world aside for Luca to go to school.
"Wait, so that means we can come too?!" Daniela inquired
"Yes, Mom! Giulia's mom and Signore Marcovaldo earned enough money to buy you, Dad, and Grandma tickets too. That means we can travel together!" The young boy exclaimed.
"But… this is my home. I can't leave."
"It's just a short vacation trip, Mrs. Paguro. We won't stay long because our winter vacation last for two weeks. So, this is our first day of winter vacation, and there's no time to waste it," Giulia explained.
"I think that's a brilliant idea," Grandma Paguro agreed with the plan, "I always wanted to see other places in the world."
"So, where should we go?" Alberto asked.
"Well, the ticket only brings us to one country only, and since it would be outside Italy, Mama booked us all to go… Here," Giulia took out a scrolled word map from her bag, and opened it for Luca and Alberto to see the whole map. Giulia then pointed to an archipelago country in Southeast Asia, "Philippines."
"Philippines. That was a small country," her adoptive brother commented.
"Well, it's small on the map, but the Philippines it's an archipelago country…" Giulia said, "A country consists mostly of islands. In this country, the Philippines has 7,107 islands, even the bigger islands."
"Have you ever been to the Philippines?" Luca questioned.
"Nope, but I always wanted to go there," The girl squealed in excitement, "Everybody wants to go to the Philippines. It's also one of the safest countries during the holocaust when Adolf Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews in Germany," When she explained it, the topic confused Luca and Alberto, not knowing about the World Ward II, "You'll learn that soon. And the people there think the Philippines is a beautiful place! And that's why Mama and Papa have enough money for all of us to go there."
"Sounds like fun!" Luca smiled.
"Yeah, and it'll be a dream come true to travel the world, starting with that," Alberto added.
"Well, the hard part is the flight to the Philippines won't be directly, as in from Italy flying to the Philippines. We have to take more than one airplane to go there," Giulia confessed.
"That sounds like a lot of flying," Luca stammered nervously.
"Yeah, and that would be the same if we go back home."
"Well, more rides are better than no ride, right?" Alberto smirked.
"I like your guts there, fratello!" Giulia chuckled.
"Yes, we're going to the Philippines!" Luca exclaimed as the other two kids cheered.
"Well, I think we can start packing," Lorenzo said.
"We don't have lots of stuff to bring, so it won't be hard," Daniela stated.
"Your mama agreed that I should come with you… just in case you kids get into any trouble," Massimo warned the trio.
"What kind of trouble? We're always careful," Alberto said with pride.
"What he means, Alberto, is we're not sure if the Philippines ever heard of sea monsters," Giulia clarified while looking at the map, "I mean, I know this place is surrounded by water, but I'm not sure if people have ever heard of sea monsters. So you guys need to stay dry."
"It would be easy, right?" Luca chuckled nervously, "Maybe not."
"Well, our flight will be tomorrow, so we better start packing, and leave early so we won't miss our flight," Giulia put the map bag in her bag, and continued eating her dinner, "And we have enough money to convert to the currency of the Philippines. Countries don't accept different kinds of money, so I already saved some for our trip. Let's not spend much."
After dinner, Luca decided to stay with his family for the night in the ocean, while Alberto and Giulia shared a room, which they fought over, but Giulia won the bed while Alberto had to sleep on the floor. This is gonna be the best winter vacation ever.
Translation(s):
Ciao – Hello/Goodbye
Fratello - brother