They’ve lived in Pakistan and Venezuela, but Giampaolo and Elisabetta Cutillo, the city’s newest It-couple, are genuine Indophiles

They may arguably be the newest arrivals in the Mumbai expat scene, but Giampaolo and Elisabetta Cutillo, the country’s new Italian consul general and his wife, are sparing no efforts to catch up. Dinners and soirees that come with the job aside, the knockout Elisabetta can also be seen in a glamorous fashion spread in this month’s L’Officiel magazine.

But one meeting (and this is not our first) with the beautiful couple, and you know there’s so much more to them than most working foreigners, especially at embassies. For starters, they’ve been to the Breach Candy Club—possibly the only place that most fussy expats finds solace in Mumbai at—only three times in their eight months here. “We prefer to meet and make friends with the people of the place, otherwise this is a wasted opportunity,” says Elisabetta, 41, and a former lawyer.

The Cutillos genuinely love India, so much so that they requested to be moved here. They’ve even read all of Khushwant Singh’s books. “I think he deserves a Nobel for literature,” says Giampaolo, 39, in all seriousness. “He’s very accurate historically, witty and original, and a very cultivated man,” he adds, before expressing his desire to meet the journalist-writer. “Delhi is a fantastic book.”

Before India, the couple has been posted in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Caracas, Venezuela. “When we were sent to Pakistan in 2001 from Venezuela, we were very excited as we didn’t know much about this part of the world,” says Elisabetta. “Our daughter, Eloisa, was, of course, born in Rome but we took her back to Islamabad when she was 20 days old. And Chinasky (their silver-haired Alaskan Husky) has been with us since Venezuela.”

... contd.