[Amy]

THIS is the British beauty who captured fiery Italian Roberto Conte's heart during a holiday fling.

Sue Lindley-French, 34, met Roberto on a beach near his house in the seaside town of Scauri in Italy 13 years ago.

Roberto, 32, fell head over heels for the then 21-year-old and the pair started a long distance relationship.

His brother Filippo revealed he ran up huge phone bills calling Sue in England, landing him in hot water with his parents.


Soon after his A-levels, lovestruck Roberto was on a plane to England to start a new life with Sue. They set up home in Liverpool where Roberto washed pots in a restaurant before becoming a chef.


A year later, in 1994, they moved to Sue's hometown of Sheffield and bought a house.


Sue said: "Roberto and I had a fantastic relationship. It was magical. We fell head over heels in love and were together for seven years.


"We got engaged and I thought it would last for ever. I've still got the ring he gave me because I can't bear to part with it."


But their "magical" relationship caused a bitter family rift, with Roberto's dad Giuseppe refusing to speak to her.


Sue, a teacher in Ealing, West London, said: "I got on really well with his mum but his dad didn't like me very much.


"I lived in Italy with them for a year and his dad Giuseppe refused to talk to me for the entire time. I would be sat next to him at the dinner table and he wouldn't say a word to me.


"Roberto comes from a very small village and attitudes there are very conservative.


"His family thought I was strange being in a foreign country as a woman by myself.


"Even though I was there teaching English, they thought I must have been shunned by my family to be living so far away from them. They just didn't understand that women can be independent." She added: "Also his dad desperately wanted him to carry on the family carpentry business but Roberto wasn't interested.


"He was into his windsurfing and parachuting and his dad blamed me. As far as they were concerned, I was taking their precious son away from them.


"Things were not easy at all but we were happy and that's all that mattered.


"Five of the seven years I was with Roberto were wonderful but the last two years were not so good.


"We had a lot of problems and started having rows mainly because another woman was involved, although Roberto wasn't cheating on me. He was just too close to her and we decided to go our separate ways."


But Sue is not bitter. She said: "I wish Roberto all the best and I'm sure he will make someone a great husband one day if he calms down a bit."


Roberto's brother Filippo said: "There was a bit of a falling-out with the family in Italy.


"Sue is a good person but she was a couple of years older than Roberto and was at times a bit egotistical.


"She would always like to have the last word and would fight it out to the end."

Article Daily Mirror

[JL]

How touching