november-2010

PHOTOS © LUIGI FIANO, ELISABETH REAL
EMILIANO ROSSI, 21
THE LONG-
DISTANCE LOVER
Emiliano Rossi met his girlfriend
Lena online a year and a half ago. They
chatted on Skype for about a year before
Rossi plucked up the courage to fl y from
Milan to Prague to meet her for the fi rst
time. “We met in person in October
last year and found out more about one
another in one hour than an entire year
of chatting online!” he recalls. He says he
was a little worried Lena wouldn’t show
up for their fi rst meeting, but she did
and Rossi was blown away. “She looked
even more beautiful in real life.”
Although it’s not an ideal situation,
Rossi and Lena don’t fi nd that living in
different countries is too tough for their
relationship – he even jokes that it takes
less time for him to fl y from Milan to
Prague than it does for Lena to travel
there from her house in Karolinka – a
fi ve-hour train journey. “My friends
are surprised that we’re still together,
but with the internet, the distance isn’t
a problem.” A year after they fi rst got
together, the couple no longer have to
wait an age to see each other. "With
easyJet it’s every month instead,” he says.
A keen traveller, Rossi has found
that one of the benefi ts of their longdistance
relationship has been exploring
a new city through the eyes of his
girlfriend. “I’d been to Prague before
but it's a lot different with Lena – more
romantic. Every month I discover a new
side to it. I particularly recommend
visiting in autumn and winter – this is
when it is at its most romantic.” In fact,
he loves the Czech capital so much, he
plans to move there to be with Lena in
a year or two, but not before he gets in
some more travelling.
“Lena and I are planning to see as
many places as possible together. This
summer we went to Málaga in Spain
with easyJet for 10 days, which was
the longest we’ve ever spent together.”
They’ll have to keep up their commuting
until the big move, but Rossi is
convinced it’s all worth it. “Being able to
have a relationship like this has totally
changed my life.”
STEPHANE
SCHWERTZIG, 38
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT
It’s not just the lives of our passengers that
have changed over the past 15 years – we've
transformed the lives of our hardworking
employees too. Stéphane Schwertzig started
working as a fl ight attendant fi ve years ago
when we created a new base at EuroAirport,
Basel. “At the beginning I didn’t know
what to expect from the easyJet experience
because I had worked for a traditional
airline,” says Schwertzig, “but it was
defi nitely good.” But it wasn’t just a new job
that kept him on his toes – during an initial
training session he met colleague Marielle,
and instantly fell for her.
“A few months after we fi rst met we
fl ew together. I’ve even kept the call sheet
from our fi rst fl ight! It was a great day, and
neither of us will forget it, that’s for sure.”
It wasn’t long after they got together that
Schwertzig realised Marielle was the one for
him, and he decided that he would ask her
to marry him.
Planning the where, when and how of a
proposal is a tricky business, but fortunately
Schwertzig had fi rm ideas about the details
of where and how he wanted to pop the
TRAVELLER TALES | easyJet GENERATION
question – even if he did have to go through
the added stress of getting his bosses to
approve it fi rst. “I decided that the best place
to propose would be on a fl ight because we
spend a lot of time in the air, and we’re both
so happy working for easyJet. I did have to
get the authorisation fi rst, of course. I had to
explain that it was something very unusual.”
Schwertzig had to be patient: he and
Marielle have only fl own together 10 times
throughout their fi ve-year relationship. But
when they were scheduled to work together
on a fl ight from Basel to Barcelona last
October, Schwertzig knew it was the perfect
opportunity. “We were about to do the duty
free together. I did the PA call out to the
passengers and I could feel the ring in my
pocket. I started to do the announcement,
and then I went on my knees and asked
her to be my wife!” Everyone in the cabin
burst into applause as Marielle said yes.
Schwertzig and Marielle got married in Nice
last year, and this September they welcomed
a new addition to their family: Capucine,
baby sister to two-year-old Clement.
15 TH BIRTHDAY ISSUE | TRAVELLER | 41