Hurrah for the newlyweds!

Having had myself an ‘international’ marriage, I do understand the somehow inconvenient feeling in ‘international’ weddings where half of the guests laugh at the speeches pronounced in their own language, and the other half remain silent wondering what the hell is being said.

For this reason I accepted to say a few words in English to our Danish guests so that they could understand what we ‘Italians’ think and say.

Well, first of all ‘Velkommen til Italien’ - Benvenuti in Italia.

Then… well, I presume that most of our Danish friends do not know Riccardo very well, and wonder who their daughter, cousin or friend got married with. I can in fact imagine that when they first saw or met Riccardo - big, dark, bad… with these funny hairs on his chin - they may have thought ‘Oh my God, Tanja must have lost her mind!’

But who really is Riccardo, and what’s behind this ‘Mefisto-like’ look?

And well, the best way to answer to this question is perhaps to tell the story of when I met Riccardo for the first time.

That was when I moved to India. Before actually moving to India I wrote to a contact I was given saying ‘Hey, hi, I am moving to Delhi, could you help me in finding an accommodation?’. And this person forwarded my message to a mailing list saying ‘Hey, there is this new guy moving to Delhi, please keep your ears open in case you hear anyone letting or subletting his place’.

And a few days later I received a message from riccardo.mesiano@unido.org saying ‘Hey, I heard you are moving to Delhi and looking for an accommodation. I am currently out of India, but feel free to stay in my apartment as long as you want. The keys are here, my Vespa is parked there, and the name of my maid is Kulsum’.

That’s how I met Riccardo. And, interestingly, that’s how - with probably a few differences in the story - many people got to know Riccardo. Because, in my opinion, that’s what best describes Riccardo: generous, welcoming, open… someone you can always rely or count on.

So, my Danish friends: don’t worry. Tanja has not lost her mind. Behind the ‘Mefisto-like’ look, she actually found a very special person.

But if this is not enough to reassure you on the fact that Tanja actually made a good choice, let me then tell you another short anecdote.

When Riccardo first told me he was dating Tanja, I asked him how she was.

He answered: ‘She is the right one’.

That was two years ago…