She fell in ‘love at first sight’ with an Italian stranger. Within days they were talking about marriage

(CNN) — Ambika Mathur was sitting on her parents’ couch, watching “Emily in Paris” and feeling sorry for herself.

It was summer 2022. Ambika, a California-based model, was feeling “kind of stagnant.” She’d just broken up with her long-term partner and moved back in with her parents at the age of 25. And while she was regularly shooting commercials, nothing was really “lighting her fire” at work.

As Ambika watched fictional Emily flit around a dreamy Paris — full of career highs, beautiful clothes, French pastries and a steady stream of handsome men — an idea started to form. Maybe Ambika could go on a similar European adventure?

The Netflix show still playing in the background, Ambika reached for her laptop and started Googling flights from Los Angeles.

Within weeks, Ambika was in Milan, Italy, cat-sitting in a beautiful Italian apartment. She spent her days wandering around picturesque cobbled streets eating gelato and feeling appropriately “Emily”-esque. She didn’t know anyone, but was enjoying the time spent solo — only the cats in tow.

Then, out of the blue — in true “Emily in Paris” style — Ambika received a WhatsApp message inviting her to a party on the Amalfi Coast.

The invite came from a guy she kind of knew — heavy emphasis on the “kind of.” Shortly before Ambika embarked on her Italian adventure, she’d gone on a spontaneous date with an Italian guy living in California.

“We’ll call him Italian Guy No. 1,” Ambika tells CNN Travel today.

Ambika met Italian Guy No. 1 via dating app Hinge. He was perfectly pleasant, but there was no romantic spark.

“Italian Guy No. 1 and I had a lovely dinner date, and then we never saw each other again,” explains Ambika.

“But I told him that I had spontaneously booked a solo trip to Italy, where I would be staying in Milan and babysitting some lady’s cats. And so Italian Guy No. 1 connected me with his friend, Italian Guy No. 2, so that I could have a friend to hang out with in Italy…”

Ambika didn’t really expect Italian Guy No. 2 to get in touch, given the looseness of the connection. But then came the unexpected WhatsApp party invite.

Italian Guy No. 2 lived in Naples, on the southern tip of Italy. He was turning 30 and celebrating the big birthday with a week living it up on the Amalfi Coast.

Ambika could already imagine the turquoise water, cliffside villages, delicious fresh produce and free-flowing Prosecco. But she hesitated before replying.

“What if this is all just some really elaborate trafficking scheme?” she wondered.

Still the allure of the Amalfi Coast was hard to deny. And while things hadn’t worked out romantically with Italian Guy No. 1, he seemed trustworthy. Ambika decided Italian Guy No. 2 was probably equally friendly, and on a whim, she accepted the invite.

“I was in a very free phase of life, I just wanted to explore and see where the wind took me,” says Ambika.

When Ambika replied to the message, saying she’d love to come, Italian Guy No. 2 told her the revelers would convene in his home in Naples for a few days, then head over to the Amalfi Coast.

And that’s how, a couple of weeks later, Ambika found herself cooking pasta at the Neapolitan home of Italian Guy No. 2.

She was standing over the stove, watching the water bubble, when she heard a knock on the door.

Ambika opened the door to a guy she didn’t recognize. Her mouth dropped open.

“I was like, ‘Wow, he’s pretty hot,’” Ambika recalls. “Actually, that’s an understatement. For me, it was like he was a god. He was glowing and glistening. It was amazing. The door was open, and so the light formed a halo around his head, and he was all tan and blue eyes.”

“And that’s how I met Italian Guy No. 3.”

Italian Guy No. 3

Italian Guy No. 3 was the best friend of Italian Guy No. 2: a fellow Neapolitan twentysomething who, when he heard rumors that a glamorous Californian woman had made it onto the party list, immediately headed over to his friend’s house to make his introductions.

Italian Guy No. 3 — whose real name is Marco Di Fiore — had looked up Ambika on Instagram earlier that day.

“I saw she had some surfing photos,” Marco tells CNN Travel today. “I’m a sea man. I practice spear fishing, so I live all year round in the sea. So I was also interested in this aspect of Ambika. And indeed, when we met, the first thing we started talking about was about the sea, the sea life, our sea experiences. I immediately was attracted to her.”

The attraction was mutual — so much so that Ambika was pretty flustered during this first conversation and barely took it in.

“I’m usually good with talking to people, but I was at an utter loss of words,” she says. “He just walked in and it was hot, so he had a nice glisten of sweat going, and he was backlit.”

Ambika’s first words to Marco were simply: “You look hot.”

She meant that he’d clearly been in the sun, and might want some water. But it was a bit of a Freudian slip.

“All I could do was offer him water,” Ambika says.

Italian Guy No. 2, Ambika’s host, was out at the time, picking up friends from the airport.

“So Marco and I just sat, the two of us, chatting,” recalls Ambika. “It was super polite. It was really cute. We were sitting on opposite sides of the couch just making pleasant small talk. I think we were both a little nervous.”

That evening, Ambika, Marco and his friend and some of the other partygoers went out in Naples. Ambika was still a little intimidated by Marco, but as the evening went on, she became more comfortable.

“Marco and I started talking and flirting a little bit,” says Ambika. “And that night, he invited me to go boating with him the next day.”

Ambika happily agreed. But the next day, as she was getting ready, Ambika questioned the nature of the invite.

“It was so unclear whether it was a date or not,” she says.

“But then Marco picks me up on his scooter, looking super cute. He’s in this white linen shirt with sunglasses, very chic. He gives me a little cheek kiss, as the Italians do. And then we went to the harbor. And it’s this beautiful harbor. It’s called Borgo Marinari, and it’s by a castle.”

The harbor was impressive enough. Then Ambika saw the boat. It was not just any boat, but a classic 1960s Riva superyacht.

“I found out later that it was once Brigitte Bardot’s boat, and Marco apparently helped the owner manage it. So we hop on this amazing boat, and we take it for a quick ride.”

Marco and Ambika spent the next few hours boat-hopping, chatting, taking different yachts out for a spin. Marco explained to Ambika that he was an entrepreneur and owned several companies in Naples, including a boating company.

“Then we hopped on another boat, this one Marco owned, and he took me over to the coastal town of Posillipo, which is the beautiful, affluent hilltop area of Napoli,” recalls Ambika.

It was an amazing evening, and as the sun started to set Marco and Ambika kissed for the first time.

“Then I was like, ‘Ah, OK. This is a date,’” recalls Ambika, laughing.

That evening, the two ate at Starita pizzeria, a Naples institution. As they shared cheesy, tomatoey slices, both Marco and Ambika felt like this was the perfect first date.

“It was love at first sight,” says Marco. “And then the day after we went for three days to the dreamiest Amalfi Coast.”

Ambika, Marco and the other partygoers rented what Ambika describes as a “gorgeous villa” in Conca dei Marini, a hilltop town in Salerno. The next few days were a happy blur.

“The Amalfi Coast is so stunning and it’s luxurious and peaceful,” Ambika says. “It’s impossible not to fall in love in those conditions.”

“I wasn’t looking for anything serious,” she adds. “I thought it was going to just be a summer fling. But we fell in love. As the week progressed, it turned into something really serious and deep.”

“She’s very beautiful, but it was talking to her, getting to know her day after day, that’s how it really started,” says Marco.

After Amalfi, Marco persuaded Ambika to extend her trip and spend a few more days with him in Naples. For the next few days, Marco and Ambika were inseparable.

“I really got the sense that this was something serious and worth fighting for,” says Ambika. “So I deleted my dating apps and I asked him, ‘When I go home. What next? What are we going to do?’”

Marco told Ambika he wanted to make it work. He’d do anything to make this last.

Ambika was serious about Marco too. But she almost couldn’t let herself imagine what could be — even though words like “soulmates” and “marriage” were being thrown around.

“He dropped me off at the airport in Rome, and as we were driving there, I remember we were bawling, both of us were crying,” she says. “It was really stressful, because I loved him, but I really didn’t know if I was going to see him again.”

A trip to the US

After Ambika and Marco’s teary goodbye, Ambika returned to California and Marco went back to Naples. He was struck by how lonely his home city felt without her. He wondered if maybe he needed a change of scenery.

“So I took my dog to our house in the mountains,” Marco recalls. “But I was saying to myself, ‘Marco, what are you doing here? If you really want to be with her, why don’t you get a flight and fly to the United States as quickly as possible?’ And indeed, I went online. I booked the flight, and in a couple of weeks, I was in the United States.”

When she reunited with Marco at LAX, Ambika felt like she was “living in some movie.”

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this Italian boy who just flew across the world to be with me,’” she says.

“We spent the first evening in this beautiful, dreamy little cabin in the hills of Malibu. Then we met friends in Beverly Hills, we had cocktails on some fancy hotel rooftop, and I brought him home to Orange County. He got to meet my mom, and we spent the week in SoCal, between LA, Orange County and San Diego.”

Marco enjoyed seeing California, while Ambika enjoyed “being a tourist in my own town.”

“For two days, we rented this blue Smurf-colored Porsche, just for kicks. And that was so fun,” she says. “We were driving up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, taking photos and videos of this gorgeous Porsche.”

During Marco’s time in LA, Ambika was also balancing work commitments. On one shoot, Ambika persuaded the casting director that Marco should play her boyfriend in the commercial. The casting director agreed.

“It was so much fun,” says Ambika. “I loved working with him.”

The two said their farewells certain they would see each other again, already talking plans for the future, with the word “marriage” still in the mix.

Staying connected

The next month, Ambika returned to Italy to visit Marco, with her trip coinciding with Marco’s 30th birthday celebrations. She hung out with Marco’s friends — and met his parents for the first time.

Marco and Ambika’s loved ones were generally “all pretty supportive,” as Marco puts it.

But there was also some apprehension in the mix, especially as it was evident Marco and Ambika were launching themselves full throttle into romance, already talking about getting married and planning a future.

Over the next couple of months, Ambika and Marco visited one another whenever they could. The frequent tips were made a little easier by the fact they both worked for themselves — Ambika could avoid booking modeling work when she was traveling to Italy, while Marco could manage his own schedule and work remotely from the US.

“This really helped,” says Marco. “We were both lucky to be in this position.”

In between visits, the two video-called, messaged and watched movies together from afar. But they missed each other when they were apart.

“Long distance sucked,” says Ambika.

It was with this mindset that Ambika started considering a more extended stint in Naples as the year came to a close.

“I just knew I needed to be with him,” says Ambika. “So I bought a one-way ticket to Italy, in December 2022, right after Christmas.”

Ambika knew that it wasn’t a permanent move — at least not yet. But she wanted to sample what it would be like to live in Italy for a longer period of time.

For the next few months, Ambika lived with Marco in his apartment in the center of Naples. She signed up for language classes and immersed herself in the city, which she found “super chaotic” but also “beautiful, cultural and historical.”

“The city center was cool because it was a really authentic experience, and it was walkable, so I could walk to my Italian lessons every day and meet people and stuff,” says Ambika. “It was also a huge culture shock going to the city center of Napoli, where it’s just really loud and there’s so much stimulus compared to what I’m used to in Southern California.”

But while Ambika found Naples “intense,” she also fell a little in love with the city. She made friends, got to know locals — including a local baker who invited Ambika to apprentice with her and passed on traditional Neapolitan recipes.

And as Ambika fell slightly in love with Naples, she also fell all the more in love with Marco.

The couple decided that logistically, settling in Naples made more sense than living in California together, as Marco’s businesses were all Naples-based whereas Ambika’s work offered more flexibility.

Moving across the world was daunting for Ambika, but she says she felt strongly that Marco was her “person” and she didn’t want to have any “what ifs.”

“When you meet someone and you just have a gut feeling that you met your soulmate, you don’t waste time,” Ambika says. “Especially because we live on different continents, so decisions and moves had to be made.”

A proposal

Ambika and Marco got engaged in November 2023, about a year-and-a-half after their first meeting.

“It was just an absolute dream,” says Ambika of the proposal.

The couple found themselves back on the Amalfi Coast, as Ambika was modeling there and Marco was shooting with her again. Ambika had a sneaking suspicion that Marco might propose on the shoot — she got her nails done, especially.

But she couldn’t have predicted the magic of the moment.

“We went to this piazza where the Duomo is, in Praiano, and it felt like the heavens and earth collaborated to make this happen,” recalls Ambika. “For one, the piazza was completely empty, which is really rare in the Amafi Coast on a Saturday. Then, two, the sky looked like a Michelangelo painting. And then, the church bells started ringing. And as if on cue, Marco got down on one knee and popped the question.”

By then, Ambika was a confident Italian speaker, so Marco asked her to marry him in a mix of Italian and English. She said, “Yes.”

“And then we just said, ‘Ti amo, I love you,” says Ambika.

The couple got married in a small civil ceremony in May 2024, followed by a big celebration in Naples in September, in coastal Massa Lubrense in Sorrento.

“It was the wedding I’ve been dreaming of since I was a child,” Ambika says.

Ambika is of Indian heritage, and it was important to her — and to Marco — that the wedding encompass Indian traditions, as well as Italian and American influences.

“So we started with the big white dress and the classic Italian dark blue suit, and we had our symbolic ceremony, and there was an aperitivo and dinner,” recalls Ambika. “And then we did a change, and we both changed into matching Indian outfits that we got custom made from India. And then we did our Indian dance party and cake cutting. So it was a fusion wedding.”

Speeches were translated into English and Italian. Ambika and Marco read their own hand-written vows, which was especially meaningful to Ambika. She describes the personal vows as “a promise that you come up with, from your heart.”

“It was all so beautiful,” says Ambika. “All the people we love were there, and you never get to see all these people together, because they live in different parts of the world.”

And naturally Marco’s best friend — AKA Italian Guy No. 2 — was the best man. It all felt pretty full circle.

Life in Naples

Today, Ambika and Marco are enjoying life together in a new apartment with a sea view in Naples.

They regularly start their day with a swim in the crystal blue sea, followed by an espresso overlooking the water. It’s important for the couple to take a moment to soak it all up. Ambika can’t believe she’s living the Italian dream, while Marco enjoys his wife’s fresh perspective on Naples.

“She’s making me appreciate all the more what we have here,” he says.

Ambika still models — with Marco occasionally tagging along — but she also writes a blog and posts on social media, under the handle @ambymathur. Ambika’s writing and posts focus on her life in Italy, with some of her most popular content revolving around baking, inspired by her apprentice days. She runs a baking class in Naples and an online course via her social media.

While life is busy and fun, Ambika still spends the occasional day watching Netflix on the couch — and she devoured the most recent season of “Emily in Paris,” which saw the titular Emily falling in love in Italy.

“I still love ‘Emily in Paris,’” says Ambika. “And it was very cool to be sitting in my apartment in Naples watching Emily in Rome.”

Some two-and-a-half years on, it’s a little surreal for Ambika to reflect on her spontaneous flight to Italy and her encounters with Italian Guys No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 — AKA her future husband.

“I think the world where we didn’t cross paths is a bad one, so I’m really glad that I’m in the universe, and this reality,” says Ambika.

“Marco makes me feel so loved. One of my favorite things is our cuddles. And he’s so good at just communicating with me, he’s really good about making me feel okay and proud of myself. And he makes me laugh, and is so fun. He brings a lot of joy into my life.”

“Ambika completely changed the course of my life,” says Marco, who adds that their cultural differences “enrich our lives.”

“I’m so happy,” he says. “We’re experiencing a very good life together. And I’m still enjoying the journey. It’s not finished yet. In fact, I would say it’s just started.”

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