Set in Cesenatico, the series focuses on the relationship between the two main characters, Summer and Alessandro. Summer is a mature and serious girl whose father is a musician who is often away for work. Alessandro, better known as "Ale", is a successful motorcyclist who is having a hard time because he recently had an accident. We also learn about the life and the relationships of the characters close to the two protagonists. Among them, there are Summer's best friends Sofia and Edoardo, Ale's best friend Dario, and Summer's younger sister Blue.
The series premiered on Netflix on April 29, 2020, and the first season consists of 8 episodes. After the premiere of the first season, Netflix renewed the series for a second season, which was released on June 16, 2021 and consists of eight episodes. The series was later renewed for a third and final season of eight episodes, which was released on May 2, 2022.
The series contains examples of:
- Adaptational Diversity: In Three Steps Over Heaven, all the characters were straight and Italian. In this series, the main cast has two black girls (Summer and her sister), a lesbian girl (Sofia), a half-German guy (Edoardo), a Spanish girl (Lola), and a bisexual girl (Blue is revealed to be this in season 3).
- Adaptational Nationality: In Three Steps Over Heaven, Step's second important Love Interest introduced in the second book is Gin (short for Ginevra), an Italian girl. In this series, her counterpart is Lola, a Spanish girl.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Almost everyone, since this series is Lighter and Softer than the source material.
- The male lead Step in Three Steps Over Heaven was a jerk and a delinquent biker who took part in illegal street racing. Here, the male lead Ale is a well-meaning guy and a professional motorcycle racer.
- The female lead of Three Steps Over Heaven, Babi, was a prissy and stuck-up rich girl. Here, the female lead Summer, despite being a Defrosting Ice Queen like Babi, is much more down to earth.
- In Three Steps Over Heaven, Step's best friend Pollo was a delinquent like him. Here, Ale's best friend Dario is a nice guy.
- In Three Steps Over Heaven, Babi's younger sister Daniela was a shallow, bratty Hormone-Addled Teenager. Here, Summer's younger sister Blue is only a brat in the pilot, but for most of the series, she's just an innocent and insecure girl.
- In Three Steps Over Heaven, Step's ex-girlfriend Maddalena was an Alpha Bitch. Here, Ale's ex-girlfriend Maddalena seems an Alpha Bitch at first, but then becomes nicer, eventually remaining Amicable Exes with Ale.
- In the sequels of Three Steps Over Heaven, Step's Second Love is Gin, a Stalker with a Crush obsessed with him. In the later seasons of this series, Ale's Second Love is Lola, who is not a stalker.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- In Three Steps Over Heaven, Babi's best friend Pallina was straight and in a Beta Couple relationship with Step's best friend Pollo. Here, Summer's best friend Sofia is a lesbian and ends up in a Platonic Life-Partners friendship with Ale's best friend Dario.
- In Three Steps Over Heaven, Babi's younger sister Daniela was only attracted to boys. Here, her counterpart Blue (Summer's younger sister) is only into boys in the first two seasons, but she comes out as bisexual in season 3.
- Adaptational Wealth: In Three Steps Over Heaven, the girl (Babi) was rich while the guy (Step) wasn't. Here, it's the opposite: Ale is rich and Summer is middle class.
- Adaptation Name Change: All the characters have different names than their counterparts of Three Steps Over Heaven. The only character that keeps the same name is Maddalena, the ex-girlfriend of the male lead in both works.
- Adapted Out: In Three Steps Over Heaven, Step has an older brother. In this series, Step's counterpart Ale is an only child.
- Bisexual Love Triangle:
- Summer's two best friends are Edoardo (a straight guy) and Sofia (a lesbian girl), and both of them have been in love with Summer since childhood. In Sofia's case, there's also a problem of Incompatible Orientation, since Summer is straight.
- In season 3, Blue is dating Alfredo, but also has feelings for a girl named Viviana.
- Canon Foreigner: Edoardo, the male friend and classmate of Summer and Sofia, has no counterpart in the original work. Especially since Babi and Pallina in Three Steps Over Heaven go to an all-girls private school.
- Did Not Get The Guy: Summer is the female lead who starts a relationship with male lead Ale in season 1. But Ale ends up with Lola at the end.
- Gay Best Friend: Sofia is a lesbian girl who becomes a very close friend to Dario, a straight guy. She is also much more confident than him and often gives him love advice.
- Incompatible Orientation:
- Sofia being in love with her straight best friend Summer, who also remains Oblivious to Love for a long time.
- Dario is attracted to Sofia initially. Only after hitting on her, he finds out she is a lesbian. They decide to be friends, and eventually become Platonic Life-Partners.
- Implied in season 3, when Blue falls in love with another girl, Viviana, but later she finds out that Viviana has a boyfriend.
- In Name Only: While the Italian/English title is Summertime, other foreign adaptations named this series after a translation of the book/film's original title Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo (for example, the Spanish title of this series is A Tres Metros sobre el Cielo instead of Summertime). But this series has nothing to do with the source material, and almost everything is completely different. The only similarity is the basic plot "serious and studious girl falls in love with a guy who likes riding motorbikes".
- Ironic Name: Summer's most hated season is summer, at least in season 1. "I Hate Summer" is even the title of the first episode.
- Lighter and Softer: It's based on the teen romance novel Three Steps Over Heaven and its sequel, but it's much more family friendly. Unlike its source material, here almost all the characters are portrayed as sympathetic and well-meaning, there aren't people who engage in criminal activities, nobody dies, there's no Teen Pregnancy, and there's no rape.note
- Love Triangle: There are so many triangles, but the most important one is Summer/Ale/Lola in season 2 and 3. Ale/Summer/Edoardo also gets some focus in all the seasons.
- Precocious Crush: Summer's younger sister Blue has a crush on Summer's friend Edoardo in season 1.
- Race Lift: In Three Steps Over Heaven, Babi was white (blonde in the books, brunette in the movies), while in this series, Summer is biracial, with a white mother and a black father. The same applies to her sister Blue, who is based on Babi's sister Daniela.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In Three Steps Over Heaven, the male lead's best friend Pollo eventually dies. Here, his counterpart is Dario, who is still alive.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Summer and Ale. They clearly have a connection and Unresolved Sexual Tension, even in later seasons, but there's always something that keeps them apart.
- Team Mom: Summer, especially in the first season, is the glue the holds her family together, being more mature than her mother and her sister, and she also has this role when she's around her best friends Sofia and Edoardo.
- Twofer Token Minority: Blue is biracial (black father, white mother) and bisexual (we see her being attracted to both boys and girls).
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Both Edo and Sofia are this to Summer, whom they both loved since they were kids. While Edo dated Summer for a while, they weren't meant to be. Sofia is just a case of Incompatible Orientation.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The reaction of many characters towards Summer and Blue, when they meet them for the first time. It's explained that their parents are musicians, and they named their daughters after songs they like.
