Hello, stranger, and welcome to my profile!

Here’s a little introduction to give you a first impression of this slightly unusual Italian guy with far too many half-naked pictures... 😂😂😂

My name is Andrea, but you can call me Andy or Andrew.

I’m Italian and currently live in Italy. I was born in Sardinia, one of Italy’s two largest islands, located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Feel free to look it up on Google Images if you’d like to see what my beautiful island looks like!
I also have a home in Milan, in northern Italy, so I currently split my time between Sardinia and Milan.

I hold a Master’s degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics. I later completed a postgraduate programme - known in Italy as a “Master di II livello” - in Machine Learning.
After spending three years at university as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Biological Physics, I moved into industry and started working as the Head of the Machine Learning Unit for a company operating in the aerospace and defense sector.

Despite this rather serious academic introduction, I’m actually a very friendly, easy-going and curious person. I enjoy meeting people from different countries, sharing experiences, joking around and having long, meaningful conversations about almost anything.

I’m here for two main reasons:

a) To improve my English - have a look at the “Request” section for more details;
b) To make new friends from around the world, hopefully meeting some of them in person one day too!

So, don’t be shy and feel free to say hello. I promise I’m friendlier than my overly serious degrees might suggest!

I joined this website with two main purposes:

Improve my English (especially my speaking and listening skills).

Regarding this point, having regular Skype/Zoom conversations would be really awesome!
I am planning to take the Cambridge Advanced English certification (C1 level) by the end of next year, so I would really appreciate help from native speakers (or people with a very high level of English), particularly with listening and speaking.

Make a few long-lasting friendships with people coming from different parts of the world.
I am not here for random, short conversations ending after just a few messages. I genuinely enjoy building meaningful connections and would love to meet some of my online friends in person one day!

I really have a long list of interests and hobbies.
I'll just list a few.

- Physics
- Chemistry
- Astronomy
- Machine Learning
- Geology (particularly volcanos and dinosaurs)
- Growing carnivorous/poisonous plants
- Keeping pet spiders/scorpions
- Fitness and bodybuilding
- Learning new languages (still stuck with English at the moment ahaha)
- Cinema
- Travelling, especially if I have a local friend in the city I am visiting :D