When Grado turns eighteen, during a hot day working in the fields, something extraordinary happens: his brothers, Arnaldo and Giulio, suddenly appear.

They had never stopped thinking about him, their little brother, and, after much insistence with the orphanage, they had managed to find out where he lived.

From that day on, the three brothers never separated again. Despite the years spent apart, the bond that united them remained intact.

Grado, while maintaining a wonderful relationship with his adoptive family, chooses to follow his brothers to Genoa.

Here he begins his working life, humbly accepting various jobs.

However, he soon understands that his true love is the sea.

That irresistible call accompanies him throughout his life: he spends over twenty years in the Navy and many others aboard boats and in Ligurian shipyards.