Paolo Ventura, a Roman astronomer, is off to Madrid on Friday evening to referee the Test match Spain against Germany on Saturday afternoon.

Born in Rome on 10 June 1970, Ventura was educated in Italy and then went to the University of East Anglia in Norwich and there he met rugby and played with the university's squad.

He gave up playing immediately on his return to Italy: "I was attracted by the spirit of the game, and too busy to play with continuity."

Busy? Dr Ventura is an astronomy researcher at the Observatory of Rome (part of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - the National Institute for Astrophysics, an Italian scientific institution conducting research in astronomy and astrophysics) and teaches stellar astrophysics at the University of Rome Roma3.

Refereeing highlights? "The best and most important experience was the Under-19 World Cup, played in Durban (South Africa) in 2005. I also did four European Challenge Cup matches, three semi-final matches in the last three seasons in the Italian League, and two Under-21 Six Nations matches, namely Scotland vs England (2006) and Scotland vs Wales (2007)."

He is also not new to Test match rugby, having refereed Tests, including Portugal vs Ukraine, Portugal vs Chile, Czech Republic vs Portugal and Malta vs Poland.

Most help in his career has come from his coach - Viorel Popescu and the referees he has admired most are Chris White of England, recently retired Paul Honiss of New Zealand, and Giulio De Santis from Italy.

Ambition? To referee European Nations Cup matches.

Most enjoyable part of refereeing? "Enjoying the game, helping to improve the quality of the game."

Buono viaggio, Paolo.