On Feb. 6, Fernando Melo fulfilled his lifelong dream by opening Pizzeria As-Ilhas in Inman Square--28 years to the day after he and his family landed in Logan Airport after emigrating from the Portuguese-speaking Azore Islands.

"I always had a dream to open a small restaurant or pizzeria, and now my dream has come true," says Melo, with a hint of a Portuguese accent.

Melo arrived in Boston as a boy of 15 from the island of Terceira with his parents, three of his four brothers and two of his three sisters.

His transition to the United States was not easy.

"I cried a lot," Melo says. "I came to a country so big, [and] I am from a little island," he says.

Melo's discomfiture was enhanced by the New England winter.

"I had never seen snow before in my life," he says. "There was a big storm the night we left. I didn't know what the white stuff was."

Melo went to work immediately, although he spoke no English.

"I always kept my address in my pocket, so if I got lost I could show it to someone and get home," he says.