Genoa,

A child named Grado Balestrero born in 1916 loses his mother while still in swaddling clothes, his father dies in Belgrade during the clashes of the First World War, his 2 slightly older brothers Arnaldo and Giulio are adopted by 2 different Genoese families, he ends up in orphanage.

A few years later, a farmer from the Ligurian hinterland, having all had daughters, decides to adopt Grado so that he can grow up surrounded by the love of his new family.

Years pass and Grado is now eighteen years old and during a day of work under the sun in the fields, he receives an unexpected visit... They are his brothers, Arnaldo and Giulio, they had never forgotten their little brother and after having insisted a lot with the orphanage, they had managed to get him to tell him where he lived.

From that moment on they will no longer be separated, despite all that time spent apart, their hearts had always remained together.

Grado, while remaining on excellent terms with his adoptive family, decides to follow his brothers and moves with them to Genoa and after humbly carrying out various jobs, he understands that his true love is for the sea.

That strong bond with the "Big Blue" will last throughout his life with more than 20 years in the Navy and many others spent on various boats and in Ligurian shipyards.

In 1950 Grado arrived in Chiavari and here he fell in love with the neighborhood of Via Marina Giulia, then entirely surrounded by the sea and inhabited by fishermen.

Here he will put down his roots and form his family and after many years I have decided to dedicate his little house, Ca do Maina, to him, to my beloved father, a man of the sea, good and free.

​

Balestrero family.

With love

Eliana