In a time now very distant, they were strangers to each other. Altea didn’t know of Marco’s existence, and Marco was unaware of hers. Neither of them was interested in Love, nor had either ever truly been the target of its arrow.
It is often said that when you’re not seeking something, that very thing you don’t want is the one that falls into your path. For them, in truth, this only happened partially. When they first saw each other, they mostly ignored one another, so great was the difference in their manners and the ways in which they saw others and themselves. Until one afternoon in August, when Altea was spending her summer vacation in Sardinia, she received a text message on her old cell phone at the time, a metallic gray Motorola, with that iconic, now obsolete, flip-phone design.
She was surprised to read that it was exactly that guy asking her out, and after some hesitation, she replied that she would be returning to Genoa at the end of the month, and that, if the invitation was still valid, she would be happy to go out with him.
That first unexpected date actually materialized. They spotted each other from a distance. Both a little tense, as when you meet a stranger and don’t know if you’ll have anything to talk about. They not only discovered that they did, but they never stopped laughing or talking. That evening, they realized they had so much to say and share that, like in the most precious moments of everyone’s life, they stopped checking the time. They sat on the rocks for hours, talking about everything that came to mind. Without the need to rush or fill the silences. Like two sailors who no longer care about the shore, they let fate determine the course and the wind decide their fortune.
From that starry night, their lives changed shape and perspective. Her life welcomed a best friend forever. His, a best friend for every day of his time.

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Today, dear Friends, we choose to tell you about this first encounter of ours as the most significant one, because this is how we were born. And except for the complexity of the events and experiences we’ve written and lived through to reach this exceptional destination, which have changed both of us, individually and together, our way of being there for each other has remained unchanged since then.

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