She was stood up by a man she met on her flight. Then she randomly encountered her future husband.

When 18-year-old Cristina Farina boarded a flight from Florence to London in August 1984, she had no idea it would change the course of her life.

Seated beside a charming stranger, she spent hours deep in conversation, captivated by his friendly demeanour.

"Why don't we meet tomorrow, go have a coffee, spend some time together?" he suggested, as per CNN, proposing they rendezvous at 11 a.m. in Trafalgar Square.

Full of youthful optimism, Cristina agreed, excited by the possibilities that London and her summer abroad studying English held.

"I loved London. It gave me a lot of energy," she reflects. "I felt free to do what I wanted."

But when Cristina arrived at Trafalgar Square the next day, eager to meet her aeroplane date, the bustling crowds yielded no sign of him.

Disheartened, she was left alone, scanning the square until her eyes landed on someone else who caught her attention: a long-haired young man listening to music on a walkman and reading Romeo and Juliet as he leaned against one of the iconic bronze lions.

Feeling uncharacteristically bold, Cristina walked up to him.

"Hi," she ventured.

"Hi," he replied, taken aback but intrigued.

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The man was Matt Reinecke, a 20-year-old American college student from California who was on vacation with his family.

"Why does this pretty girl keep looking at me?" he'd thought in the moments before she approached.

Despite a few language barriers, the spark was instant. For two hours, they talked.

"I liked him immediately," Cristina said.

By the end of their chat, Matt asked her to meet up with him a few hours later for a drink. Unlike her plane date, he showed up. 

Matt's parents were staying nearby and having a drink at a different venue. They knew about their son's spontaneous date, and asked him to walk past with Cristina so they could sneak a glance at the girl who had their son enamoured.

Matt and Cristina obliged, giggling along the way. At the pub, they shared their first kiss. 

When the night came to an end, both knew they wanted to see each other again. And though Matt had one day left in London, he made plans to spend it with Cristina.

The next day, the pair wandered through Hyde Park and picked up where they left off.

"We really just kissed and talked all day in the park," recalled Matt.

Cristina remembered leaving Matt's side filled with certainty. She didn't know when or how, but she felt their story wasn't over.

Before departing London for California, Matt slipped her a note.

"Don't open it until you get home," he told her.

Back with her host family, Cristina finally opened the paper.

"I can't bear the thought of never seeing you again," it read.

As the days passed, Cristina's certainty that she would reunite with Matt dwindled. When the woman Cristina was staying with saw her teary, bloodshot eyes, she suggested writing Matt a letter.

Cristina sent letters to Matt's college address, but the 18-year-old didn't hear back. Still, she was determined.

"So I tried to find out his parents' address instead," she recalled. "I knew they'd been staying at Claridge's, so I contacted Claridge's, asking for the address.

"Of course, they couldn't give me the address of the parents. But they told me, 'Send the letter to us, and we'll forward it to them.' So that's what happened."

This time, Matt replied, explaining that he had never received Cristina's initial letters.

"I was a university student, so I was changing apartments every year," he said. "And then they would never forward the mail."

From then, Cristina and Matt became pen pals.  Cristina was the driving force, writing often, while Matt, a self-proclaimed poor correspondent, delighted in her detailed accounts.

Over the next two years, they learned each other's worldviews, dreams, and quirks through these handwritten exchanges.

"The letters became more important as our relationship grew," Matt said.

In 1986, Matt visited Europe again. This time, he included a stop in Cristina's hometown, Florence. Her family was sceptical of the long-haired American, but eventually warmed to his humour and charm.

"He didn't speak a word of Italian," Cristina said. "But he started to learn slowly, listening to my parents and my brother."

While Matt was intending to travel to Greece, he ditched his plans and instead spent three months in Italy with Cristina.

"It was a dream," Cristina recalled. "It was a movie type of thing."

Matt returned to the US to finish his studies, and Cristina visited him in California. When the college student graduated in 1987, he hopped on a plane and headed straight back to Italy. 

Soon, he got a job as an English teacher in Florence, where he lived for 18 months. 

"That's when we decided, 'We're going to live together forever,'" Matt said.

"I was still only 21; I was very young," added Cristina. "But I was very convinced that he was for me."

But Matt knew his teaching job wasn't forever, so the couple decided to move to California for awhile.

Matt and Cristina's parents were supportive, albeit hesitant, of the union. Cristina's folks were worried about their daughter moving countries, and Matt's parents had pictured their son meeting a girl from a different background. 

"My parents were more wanting me to be a part of upper class San Francisco life, and not running off to Italy," said Matt.

"We were from different backgrounds," says Cristina. "My family was a normal middle-class Italian family."

Nevertheless, Matt and Cristina ignored the noise. They got their own apartment and started their life together.

While they knew they would be together forever, Matt and Cristina tied the knot sooner than expected.

In 1991, Cristina received a letter from US immigration that informed her that she had two weeks to leave the country. That same year, Matt and Cristina wed in San Francisco's City Hall with only Matt's mother and a few friends present.

Months later, they celebrated properly in Italy. The ceremony was entirely in Italian, which Matt was almost fluent in.

In the summer of 1993, Matt and Cristina quit their jobs and spent half a year travelling — visiting Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia.

Once they had seen the world, they decided to lay down tracks in Italy. It was here that they welcomed their two children, Davide in 1997, and Francesca in 2003.

Cristina, Matt, and their two children. Image: CNN

Eventually, Matt and Cristina bought a rundown 1600s farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside, renovating it to make it their family home.

For 11 years, they ran a bakery together before selling the business in 2019.

Today, the couple are retired, and fill their days with family time and travel. Matt is finally fluent in Italian, and their kids are bilingual.

"Our conversation in the house switches back and forth between English and Italian mid-sentence," said Matt.

"Who would have ever thought that I'd live half my life in Italy? It's weird how just a brief second can change things in a wonderful way."

The husband and wife have since returned to London with their children, showing them the spot near the lions in Trafalgar Square where they first locked eyes.

"I was emotional when we were there together," said Cristina.

"Life is amazing," added Matt. "It is crazy just how absurd things can be. Be careful out there. You might find happiness in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

Feature Image: CNN