13 year old Grace (Raquel Sciacca) was looking forward to a family holiday on the Galapagos Islands and to swim with the turtoises - even though she's afraid of water and couldn't swim if her life depended on it -, but then her dreams are squashed (or at least postponed) as her grandpa's (Jerry Colpitts) has some health issues and she and her family - mum Clara (Christina Elise Perry), dad Tom (Paolo Kossi) and brother Richie (Dawson Sciacca) need to be by his side. A bit of a blow for Grace, but at least grandpa has a swimming pool where she can finally learn to swim - which she never does. At first things don't look too bad with grandpa, and she even finds a local love interest in Mateo (Ryan Umbarila), a boy about her age who collects memorabilia for a time capsule for the local library. But then grandpa is suddenly committed to the hospital and might never return, she panics and runs away when on a date Mateo wants to go swimming with her, and on top of it her period sets in and dad loses his job - so how much worse do things have to get before it gets better?

To be honest, coming-of-age movies can be a pain in the ass when they tryo to drive their point(s) home a little too hard or over-.romanticize growing up - and some of them even lack any and all understanding of one's formative years. How I Spent My Summer Vacation fortunately enough falls in none of these categories, rather it tells its story slive-of--life style, giving its characters the necessary room to breathe and grow, choosing sincerity over spectacle, and this way keeping things relatable throughout. And thanks to a subtle direction and a strong performance by Raquel Sciacca, surrounded by a solid ensemble this film has become utterly heart.-warming - essentially because it never really tries to be.

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