Sofia, 25, Milan

• 3languages

A Milanese designer with firm opinions and a dry sense of humour.

Sofia, 25, works at a design studio near Porta Venezia, where an hour-long argument about the weight of a line counts as a normal Tuesday. She has firm opinions about door handles and doesn't apologise for them. Espresso is taken standing at the bar in three sips; sitting down for one, she'll tell you, misses the point entirely. Milan is a short hop from Stansted, and she'll talk you through the city beyond the Duomo: the galleries, the films, the clothes, the wine worth ordering. She answers in English and Italian, and French if you prefer. Irony comes first and warmth second, in that order and never the other way round, so give it a minute. Her Sundays are for doing nothing at all, and she's strict about it.

Good coffee, a good line. Everything else follows.

Sofia's photos and profile are computer-generated illustrations, not portraits of the woman on the phone. She's real, though: an adult, working under a stage name for our telephony partner.