#portorosso

[nix-moon]

We were watching the news and my father goes like

- This guy looks like he's from that movie... What's it called? The one where the boy becomes a fish? Ah, Francesco!

HE MEANT PIXAR'S LUCA, I'M DYING.

[justluberto]

In my ongoing Luca and Alberto roleplay that I’ve been doing with someone for almost 4 years now (insaneeee!!) Luca and Alberto are finally moving to Portorosso!! 🇮🇹 (yes!!! there’s A LOT of lore explaining why they didn’t do this earlier)

And it’s going to be a canon house from Luca!! 🥹 I saw this little house in Luca Pixar and decided to make it their home! The ground floor of the house will be like Massimo’s pescheria, except it’s going to be a Vespa mechanic shop! 🛵 Alberto is going to work on Vespas and start his own little business! I’m sooo excited! 😭😭 They’re going to renovate the house a lot and it’s going to be so cozy hehhehee

[antelabbitdoods]

SILENZIO BRUNO !!!!!!!!!!!!

[scenecaps]

the town of portorosso - luca, 2021 (click for better quality)

[kkonyo-o]

i ragazziiiiiii

[animapunkocchidipeterpan]

relaxing music and ambience from Luca 🩵🍃

video made by me but I don't own any of the materials used in this video

[pinkiepiespartycanon]

luca moodboard 🌊🐠

[schmedterlingfreud]

Better late than never, finally Luca had his cinema release even here in Italy! 25th of April, a National Holiday. This makes perfect sense, right? I wonder if that was a marketing strategy or something like this. No school, no work? Come to the movies, Italian people!

I booked my ticket online. Ticket for one, please.

This is my first all alone cinema experience. In truth, my brother offered to come with me, but I denied. I have nobody else (friends, relatives) to ask for, but I think I would have come by myself regardless. I wanted to be alone with my emotions only, like I was always been while watching the movie alone, in my home, thousands and thousands of times. Or, this is what I believed.

The day before I had my night shift at work. Came home at 6 am, after being excited all night thinking about this experience. I'm very tired, so I try to sleep a little bit. I don't want to be exhausted, I want to enjoy myself, and I set my alarm clock just in case. When I woke up I don't bother myself for breakfast/lunch. My stomach is knotted in twists, and popcorn for brunch sounds nice.

It's a gray and chilling April day. A perfect weather for a cinema date, even if I was hoping for a little bit of sun.

Anyway, I immediately buy myself my favourite popcorn: toffee flavour. :)

This place is nearly desert. Just the two guys collecting tickets, one of them behind the snack bar, and few families, or just father and son. What kind of movie are they gonna watch? Luca? Godzilla? Kung Fu Panda?

I try to entertain myself with this kind of questions, slowly nibbling my popcorn, because my heart is beating faster and faster, my belly hurts and my legs are beginning to shake. My head is heavy, like filled with water. My eyes blurred for a certain kind of sadness.

I wonder how this experience would have been if I wasn't alone. It would have been nice to have a friend to share this joy and happiness with. A friend to laugh with, to cry with, or just to enjoy the moment, this little and meaningful sparkle of life.

I think about this singular situation: going all by myself to watch a movie that talks about the gift of friendship.

In the cinema hall I'm not alone but there are very few people. Ten or less people?

It's 2 pm, nobody go to the movies so soon, so our room is small. I think it's better this way. It will be just like at home, intimate, quiet, but with a bigger screen and a better sound. And with my popcorn bowl :)

I chose the last line of chairs to not have someone behind me. Maybe I'm gonna sob a little, and I don't want to embarrass myself. Fortunately, nobody seems to care about a single little girl sitting all alone during a family movie. That's cool, I think.

Every time a movie trailer ends and there's that little black space before the next one, my heart skips a bit and my hands grip the armrests. I'm sweating cold.

"Ohmygodohmygod, that's it, is it time? Another commercial? Is the movie starting?"

And finally it starts.

At the beginning, I was already sobbing. A drunk smile printed on my burning lips. I was waiting for this moment for months, or even for years, from the very first summer when the movie aired on streaming only.

During the introduction scene, underwater, in the fish village, the background music stabs my chest and pierces my poor little heart, opening a window to the first time I've heard it. Memories about that happy and lonely summer, so dear to me.

I still think about that surreal summer of 2021, about that sweet and burning feeling of love, melancholy and sadness this movie gifted to me.

After that, things went downhill for me. What followed was in fact the worst period of my life. I think about how Luca was one of the little joys that remained close to me. The friend I didn't have. An hour and a half to feel less alone, to find a place where I could pretend my problems didn't exist. I think back to the deep feeling of nostalgia I used to experience every single time, returning in Portorosso. The happiness of a place and a time where everything is simpler, just like a world imagined by a child. Many criticized Luca for being a "too simple" movie, yet it has always been that simplicity that comforted and moved me, that gave me a peace of mind that I thought I couldn't find on my own, and I will always be grateful for that.

Luca is a movie about friendship and inner growth, of that troubled time between childhood and coming of age where you have to choose your path, your own way of life.

For many of us, childhood is a time remembered with sweetness and nostalgia. I'm not sure if this is the case for me. Too shy, too quiet, too introverted… even as a child I struggled to make friends and be among them. I've never found a place, or a group of people, to belong to.

Maybe this is the reason why this movie touches me deeply. It gives me back something, a connection, that I have never had and that perhaps I am still looking for, despite having resigned myself to my loneliness. I'm still alone on my tower, I guess.

When I exit the movie theater, it's not so cold anymore. A chilling wind is still blowing from the mountains, but clouds are thin, and a surprisingly hot sun is smiling at this spring afternoon.

I don't immediately jump in my car, even if I have to go the supermarket for my grocery shopping. I wait, I sit on the steps, I lick my lips indulging in that sweet caramel popcorn taste, and I think. I think about my life, my past battles, what the future is holding for me. I fear this question, I fear my solitude, I fear myself, my insecurities, and all that hard paths I will have to cross all by myself because, deep down, I know I will be alone.

In my adult life, I wonder if I still have the right to hope or to wish for something or someone.

To hope for a friend, someone to make me feel important or special, or simply to share a hug with after a bad day. "I'm here for you, no matter what. You don't have to stay hidden in your tower of solitude anymore."

I have no idea what life will hold for me from now on, but I know that Portorosso will be there for me. And I won't be so alone anymore.

... thank you for reading. :)

Remember to take care of yourself, always. 💙