There were many of us. Fede e Luce had just started in Milan, but friendship came quickly, and we felt at home together.
Our lodging was makeshift—don't ask about beds or mattresses—but the garden and private beach right on the lake were beautiful.
We were near a famous villa that had been used for a well-known film a few years before.
The days were full: waking up took effort, then breakfast, games, cleaning, lunch, prayer. Around five o'clock the others would swim in the warm lake water. (Not me—the others.) We had a dear friend who had never been in water before.
One day the younger ones decided to let him taste the joy of the lake. They got busy and found a big inner tube—the kind trucks use—blew it up (what work!), stuffed our friend into swim trunks despite his protests, laid him out in the tube like he was on a raft, and with him between them, they slid him into the water.
After the first moment—his eyes showed some fear—a wide smile of pure joy. He was out in the middle of the lake, surrounded by able friends. I remember him now as I did then. And from up there, Fiore smiles with us.
— Sergio de Rino, 2000
