Honey,

I am so incredibly happy that we are standing here today, you and I.

After these last years that have been at once the most beautiful, but also the most difficult. For me, but also for you.

When I think of where we are now, thinking back to where it all began, I see a succession of moments in which we have come closer and closer together.

Choices we made together, sometimes smaller and sometimes bigger. And as it goes, we didn't always know how it would turn out.

June 5 marks the 10th anniversary of my first plane ride to Rome, a month after we met.

Without much thought, I had booked a ticket. Only when the plane started landing did I realize that things could also go completely wrong.

What if you didn't show up? Or that we wouldn't have anything to say to each other? Just wouldn't like each other enough to spend an entire weekend together? How was I just thinking about that now?

After a few minutes of panic, I calmed myself down with the idea that Rome wouldn't be the worst place to be stranded for a weekend. I had a camera with me, I'm sure it would be fine.

But there you stood, in your beautiful dress.

We may have met in Amsterdam, but in Rome I really got to know you.

You drove me home in your light blue open-top car, scolding on the way anyone who drove too slowly or didn't look properly. Our hands found each other.

Rather you went through traffic on your red motorcycle, at least then you could pass them. Unforgettable evenings they were, in which you showed me all the most beautiful places in Rome in a few hours.

We slowly got to know each other better, began to think about a future together.

The same beautiful woman you still are now, with a smile that makes me melt. Sometimes a bit impatient, but often rightly so.

You have become the mother of our wonderful children.

A listening ear who is always there for me. Giving me peace and confidence.

I can no longer imagine life without you.

When we had been together for less than a year, you decided to give it a chance in Amsterdam.

You left everything for me that you had in Italy, to try to build something together here.

You left home for a dreamer, three years younger than you. In so many ways also so different from you.

You learned Dutch even faster than I had ever seen you drive, made new friends, found a job. But it didn't stop there.

We've been living together in Amsterdam for 9 years now. And you still make those sacrifices, every day, for the sake of me, the children, our life together.

Being far from your family and friends that you miss. The subtlety of your own language.

I love you.

I will continue to support you as much as I can, love you every day.

I really look forward to all the years ahead of us. The vacations, birthdays and parties, but also just being together, the breakfasts, the walks.

And I hope we may grow old together, and then look back hand in hand on a life we have celebrated together.