'You aced it,' the actress wrote.
Ellen Pompeo is thanking Giacomo Gianniotti. Following Grey's Anatomy's shocking midseason premiere, in which Gianniotti's Dr. Andrew DeLuca died, Pompeo, who plays Dr. Meredith Grey, took to Instagram to pay tribute to her longtime co-star and onscreen love interest.
"You will be missed. Thank you for showing up and being the consummate professional every time you walked on set," Pompeo wrote, alongside a selfie of them on the beach together. "Grey’s is a master class in patience and in having to be present no matter how monotonous it may get. You aced it."
"Now you get to go have some fun and apply all that skill!!" she continued. "I’m excited for your future... and remember wine and pasta with me will always be a part of it!!"
Pompeo ended her sweet note by writing "Tuo amico per sempre," an Italian phrase that translates to "Your friend forever."
Gianniotti shared the same snap on his Instagram page, revealing that the shot was taken during his last day on set.
"Although our friendship will be everlasting, this ride with you has been incredible and I will deeply miss sharing the screen with you," he wrote of Pompeo. "Digging deep in scenes, fighting for truth, seeing how much you care about your character and the show after all these years. It’s been an honor."
The 31-year-old actor called back Pompeo's tribute to him next, writing, "Deluca and Meredith won’t be seeing each other any more, but Giacomo and Ellen will be having much more time for pasta and wine now. Well said."
"Thank you for making this experience such a memorable one @ellenpompeo," he concluded. "Grazie Grazie Grazie."
ET spoke to Gianniotti after his character's shocking death, and reflected on his on and off-screen journey with both Pompeo and her character.
"I think there were a lot of parallels between DeLuca saying goodbye to Meredith, but also Giacomo saying goodbye to Ellen," he said. "Not that I'm going anywhere. Just because the show is over, obviously we're going to keep being friends and stay in touch, but in a way it was like, 'I'm not going to be sharing the screen with you anymore. I'm not going to be walking in the early A.M. with a coffee in my hand and rehearsing scenes with you.'"
"All those things will be gone, so there was a mourning of DeLuca and there was a mourning of Giacomo as well," he added.
The actor also assured fans that DeLuca won't be forgotten as Grey's Anatomy continues on.
"If you're a Grey's Anatomy fan, you know that we've lost so many people over the years, but no one ever truly dies, whether it's a dream or a flashback or a memory or a text message, we continue to keep all those characters we've lost alive in some way," he said. "So it's not the last we'll hear of DeLuca. People are always kept alive in the hallways at Grey Sloan and they're talked about."
Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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