Learn Italian: I miei genitori e i miei nonni sono qui. - My parents and my grandparents are here.

While it is true that singular close family members drop the article (like mio padre or mia madre), plural family members always keep it! That is why we must use the article i for i miei genitori (my parents) and i miei nonni (my grandparents).

Why do we use miei instead of mio here?

In Italian, possessive adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. Because genitori (parents) and nonni (grandparents) are masculine plural nouns, you must use the masculine plural possessive miei instead of the singular mio.

Does i miei nonni just mean grandfathers, or does it include grandmothers too?

It includes both! In Italian, when a group includes both males and females (like a grandfather and a grandmother), the masculine plural form is used. So, i nonni means grandparents as well as grandfathers. The same rule applies to i genitori for parents.

What is the difference between qui and qua for the word here?