Chapter 36
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I want to thank AlexDN for practically co-authoring this chapter as a result of all the wonderful wealth of information provided. Thanks so, so much, again, for your help. I hope I did your homeland justice. To everyone else, I hope you learn as much as I did. Enjoy the trip, Jackie
Tony and Olivia had just taken their seats on the plane before the doors were closed. They stowed their carry-on luggage in the over head, sit down and buckled themselves in.
"Dad," Olivia said, putting her hand on Tony's forearm. "…this is just…I don't know what to say."
Tony nodded. "It's time you got to know your heritage." Tony said. "Plus, it gives me a great excuse to go back and see family."
"Family…Really?"
Tony nodded again. "Our family is from the northern part of Italy, most Italian-Americans are from the southern part. We have distant cousins and some great aunts and uncles, if they are still alive. The aunts and uncles, I mean." Tony explained. "It's been a while since I've been back. I was a kid the last time. We used to go a lot when Mom was alive. She took me to a lot of places like the 'Italia in Miniatura.' It's great. It's has all the monuments in Italy, in miniature. It was so cool to see all that ,as a kid, in one place. I felt like a giant. And when we got to see the actual thing I could tell my parents the names. I remembered them." Tony paused. "Another great place is 'Gardaland.' It's the biggest amusement part in Italy, and the second one in Europe. Only Disneyland Paris is bigger. I used to ask to go every trip. It was so much fun."
Olivia nodded. She couldn't wait to see whatever it was Tony wanted to show her.
"Also the 'Acquario de Genova' it was great. It's a huge aquarium in Genova. The largest in Italy, in fact. The way the tanks are built, you can get nose to nose with the fish. And I'm talking some huge fish. They also have seals, sting rays, eels, just about any sea creature you'd want to see."
"I've have been to an aquarium once. It was a small one."
Tony smiled. "You'll feel like you're swimming with the fish here. It's great."
Olivia took her dad's hand again. She squeezed it. "Thank you, so much, for this."
Tony nodded. He smiled as Olivia wrapped her arms around his and rested her head on his shoulder. She was asleep in minutes. Tony had continued to speak for a few moments, not realizing Olivia had fallen asleep. He finally looked down at his daughter, fast asleep on his shoulder. He kissed her hair. He then leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.
Hours later they arrived in Italy. Tony shook Olivia gently awake as the plane began to land. Moments later they were on the ground. And Tony was soon flagging down a taxi to take them to the ferry, which would take them to the house he had rented on Maddalena Island.
Olivia had started to take pictures immediately. She had taken a picture of her tickets. She had taken a picture of her parents and brother and sister when she had told them the news. And, for her sake, they had acted surprised, even though they already knew. Tony had talked to Jacob and Sallie to make sure it was okay, Olivia being away from them for a month.
"Olivia, why are you taking a picture of the cab?" Tony asked. "There are cabs in the states."
Olivia looked at him for a moment. "Not Italian cabs." She paused. "Plus, I promised Mom, Dad…and Abby I would capture everything."
Tony conceded the point and Olivia continued with her picture taking. She took a picture of the ferry. Olivia then asked one of the locals to take a picture of her and Tony in front of the welcome sign. Tony was really impressed with her grasp of the language. Tony had suggested she take a couple semesters, just to get used to speaking her native tongue and she really took to it. She had taken two semesters and had gotten A's both semesters. She planned on taking further semesters, if she could fit it in with all her law classes.
Tony had to chuckle at her as she took picture sof nearly everything in their rental house. She then opened the window in one of the rooms and leaned out pretty far. She wanted to get an unobstructed view of the scenery. "This is going to be great. I…I can't believe you rented a house. You would think we were in the Caribbean, not Italy."
Tony nodded. "This island is beautiful. I can remember coming here a lot. We…you could rent pretty cheaply. But the best thing is the pink sand and the island feel it has. I've always loved it."
Olivia nodded as she ran from room to room. It was a small house, but she still was not sure which of the two small bedrooms she wanted. Tony had told her she could have first pick. But it was a hard choice. One had a killer view and the other had it's own bath. She chose the bath. She figured they would be outside a lot anyway. Even when they were here.
"Dad, I can't believe we are here in summer. I…I didn't bring a bathing suit. I…." Olivia stammered. "…DaddyJ is just…he thinks I show too much."
Tony nodded. He hadn't really given much thought to the swimsuit situation, and was kind of struck by it now. "I'll tell you what, we'll go shopping in a few hours. I want to get settled in here first. You buy what you want. But just remember who will be seeing these pictures on your face book page. How much skin do you want them to see?" Tony paused. "And for my sake, for my…sanity, wear a t-shirt when you're not in the water. I don't want to have some international incident with some young punk hitting on my little girl."
Olivia smiled and shook her head. "You sound just like DaddyJ." Olivia laughed.
"What?" Tony asked.
"An international incident?" Olivia asked, smirking.
"There could be an incident." Tony said, somewhat meekly, defending his statement.
Olivia just smiled and shook her head.
"Go ahead and unpack." Tony said. "We have an island to explore." Tony said as he went into his room to do the same.
TBC
There is more Italy to come!
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