Everybody Loves Raymond: 5 Reasons Robert Should Have Married Stefania (& 5 Why Amy Was The Right Choice)

While the beloved sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond may, by its title, seem to be about the life of sportswriter Ray Barone, it’s also clear that the series only works because of the strength of the supporting characters and family members who surround him. In particular, Brad Garrett’s hapless and hopeless Robert Barone is a real standout, as he navigates his way through life as the essential human equivalent of Eeyore.

Over the course of the series, Robert finds himself in two signifcant romantic relationships: one with Monica Horan’s quaint sweetheart Amy MacDougall, and another with Alex Meneses’s fiery Italian Stefania Fogagnolo. Though Robert and Amy eventually get married on the series, we can’t help but wonder: was Amy the right choice, or should it have been Stefania all along?

10 Stefania: Fairytale

There are few things in the world of Everybody Loves Raymond that feel like they’re straight out of a fairytale. But Robert and Stefania’s meeting in the idyllic paradise of Italy is just about as close as it gets.

Boy meets gelato girl. Gelato girl meets boy. As soon as the two laid eyes on each other, the music swelled and it was clear that they had found something special with each other.

9 Amy: Reality

By contrast, the way in which Robert and Amy meet is hardly anything out of the ordinary. Amy, one of Debra’s friends, is over at the Barone family home when Robert comes over.

And instantly, they just click, with Amy inquiring about the dangers of Robert’s job and not once batting an eye at his odd behaviors. These two are perfect for the average, daily life of a typical sitcom.

8 Stefania: Opposites attract

It’s hard to think of two characters who are more unalike in the entire series than Robert and Stefania. Stefania is loud and lively and full of energy and confidence and flirtatiousness.

Robert is… well, Robert, and not exactly the kind of man you’d expect Stefania to date. But that’s what makes their relationship work, no matter how brief it is. Opposites attract, and comedy comes along with it, too.

7 Amy: She’s patient

There’s a particular, and tired, trend about the long-suffering wife or significant other, who has to wait around while the man grows up and gets his act together.

And while Amy may not have always been Robert’s wife, she certainly did her fair share of waiting as Robert came to be ready for marriage, enduring over a dozen breakups in their relationship. Amy had her own life apart from Robert, of course, but it’s clear that she always imagined him having a place in it, too.

6 Stefania: Instant attraction

We’ve already touched on the immediate connection that develops between Robert and Stefania, but the attraction between them deserves further reinforcing.

Then again, practically everyone in the series – or every man, at least – makes clear their attraction to Stefania, which is why Robert’s interest in her is never questioned, despite her many other faults.

5 Amy: She’s just as quirky

Robert is a character defined by his many quirks, whether tapping his food to his chin before he eats it, categorizing his candy by colors and size, or his many, many other neuroses. But as it turns out, Amy is just as quirky, too, just not upon first look.

Hailing from an equally weird family, Amy has her own odd behaviors, such as an overly quaint manner of speaking, laughing so hard she pees, and “the goodbye tour.”

4 Stefania: Shared family heritage

If Everybody Loves Raymond is about one thing, it’s about the closeness (and oftentimes overly closeness) of a proudly Italian family.

For that reason, it’s clear that Stefania is a better fit for Robert in some way, as she hails from the same kind of family structure. Though her father, Marco, is far more imposing than either Frank or Marie, Stefania fits neatly into la famiglia.

3 Amy: She can handle his family

While Amy may come from a far more reserved, and definitely not Italian family, over time, she proves herself to be more than capable of holding her own against the craziness of the Barone clan.

On some occasions, Amy even goes head to head with matriarch Marie, and takes on selfish golden child Raymond, too. Amy may not have known what she was getting into when she got involved with the Barones, but she more than learned how to handle them.

2 Stefania: She moved to America for him

Robert and Stefania had a brief, fairytale romance while the Barones were in Italy on vacation. But that fairytale took on an entirely new level when Stefania and her father moved to New York, particularly so that Stefania could reconnect with Robert while Marco looked into opening a pizza shop.

It’s one of the bigger, and more surprising gestures in the series, and it says a lot about the potential compatibility of these two characters.

1 Amy: They were made for each other

But at the end of the day, no one could have possibly been better for Robert than Amy. No matter how many times they broke up with each other, and no matter how many other people they may have dated along the way, these two kept finding their way back to each other for one simple reason.

As Robert himself says, they were meant to be. And when you look at these two together, particularly in their hilariously in sync wedding dance, how could you possibly disagree?

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