Paolina and Ake Viking were married in Sicily in the autumn of 1958, thanks to a far-traveling bottle. Two years earlier Ake, a bored young Swedish sailor on a ship far out at sea, had dropped a bottle overboard with a message asking any pretty girl who found it to write. Paolina's father, a Sicilian fisherman, picked it up and passed it to his daughter for a joke. Continuing the joke, Paolina sent off a note to the young sailor. The correspondence quickly grew warmer. Ake visited Sicily, and the marriage soon followed their first meeting.

Ake, a Swedish sailor, relieved his tedium at sea one day in 1955 by writing a letter. "To Someone'Beautiful and Far Away," he poetically inscribed it. After giving his home address and a brief description of himself, he added, "Write to me, whoever you are," and signed his name. With that, he tucked the paper into an empty bottle of aqua vitae, replaced its cork and tossed it overboard. Two years went by. Then, on his return from another voyage, he found a letter, postmarked Syracuse, Sicily. The message was in Italian, which one of his shipmates obligingly translated. It was from a 17-year-old girl, who wrote: "Last Tuesday, I found a bottle on the shore. Inside was a piece of paper, bearing writing in a strange language. I took it to our priest, who is a great scholar. He said the language was Swedish and, with the help of a dictionary, he read me your charming letter. I am not beautiful, but it seems so miraculous that this little bottle should have traveled so far and long to reach me that I must send you an answer ..." Other letters, consigned to ordinary post, followed the first two. Photographs were exchanged and, finally, vows. Ake set sail for Syracuse and now, together, he and his pretty, if not beautiful, correspondent, who has just turned 18, are embarked on the sea of matrimony.

I used to see those "Love In A Bottle" ads in the back of sleazy magazines years ago. A few drops and she was yours to do with as you please. "Please, say Si, Si, say that you and your spanish fly will wait for me". Creepy

I've never had any luck with messages in bottles. Back in 1998, I threw a bunch of them into the Atlantic Ocean at Atlantic City, NJ. Then, a few years ago, I put another bunch into the Pacific just outside Pacific City, OR (just coincidence that the locations have the names of their respective oceans).

To date, the result has been: nothing. No response from anyone at all.

*sob* Poor me.

Am I the only one to ever wonder about languages? Yes, I know Europeans tend to be fluent/literate in more than one language but how likely would it be that a Swede would write in Italian or an Italian could read Swedish?

They didn't, the article states that each had to have the other's letter translated first.

The important point is that Ake dropped the bottle far out at sea. Dropping a bottle off a beach is pointless as the tide will soon wash it back to shore, even if you choose an out-going tide it probably won't get far enough away to not wash back.

I find this story highly unlikely; not because of the language difference - I am myself Swedish, and fluent in English, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish, with a hint of Latin and Italian - but because I cannot find any record of an "

I'm Finnish, and can't speak that many languages, but yeah, I think

A beautiful love story,even though its really strange to believe.with lot of language complications etc..

I was at the Sj

I have to wonder if the guy couldn't have signed his letter with something like '

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