Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be and he, alongside fellow intruder Will Sadler, did not receive a rose and was sent home.

It was an all-important Cocktail Party, with the very last single date on the line for the Bachelors and Bachelorettes remaining in the Mansion, and everyone pulled out their best stunts. For Luca, that meant gifting Brooke an ‘adventure box’, full of memories they had already made, as well as inspirations for future ones they could make together.

“I wanted to show Brooke what a future with me would look like,” he told 10 play, “I thought that was the night to do it because we were getting down to the pointy end and there was not much time left.

“There was a single date up for grabs and whoever wanted that needed to make a good impression,” Luca continued. “I thought I’ll show her what what I want to do with my future partner and if she likes it she likes it and if she doesn’t she doesn’t and I’ll have an answer after that.”

Luca said Brooke had a genuinely positive reaction to his adventure box, which made him feel quietly confident that he could survive another Rose Ceremony, but he had a sneaking suspicion things between them had changed.

“I think she started to listen to her heart a little bit more and she went back to her original deeper connections which hurt because I could kind of sense that, but I didn’t want to put it in my head because then you start to lose confidence and you don’t really want to show that," he explained.

“It does get nerve-racking as the numbers thin, but you just have to be confident in yourself, keep going and remember why you’re there. I went there to show the best version of myself and that’s what I did.”

Coming into the Mansion as an Intruder, Luca said nothing was more difficult than walking into a Cocktail Party and seeing the other contestants watching his first meeting with Brooke.

“Seeing everyone else watching, not knowing if they could hear you or not, I think made it ten times harder but sometimes you’ve got to put everything to the side.”

Not knowing what kind of connections Brooke had made in the weeks before he and his fellow Intruders had arrived, Luca knew he had to make up for lost time and unapologetically went after time with Brooke, which didn’t sit great with some of the ‘OGs’.

“The only person who gave me a bit of kindhearted lip was Konrad,” Luca said, laughing. “I think he had this connection with Brooke off a single date and then I came in and I think it worried him a little bit, but it was in a lighthearted, ‘Hey stay away from my girl’ way.

“The group were just so nice, they wanted to give each other a chance to meet Brooke. I think that was the difference in this season as opposed to past seasons," Luca added.

His gumption paid off as he was the first of the Intruders to nab a single date, with Brooke appreciating the effort he went to make sure he got as much time with her as possible.

“Our single date was awesome,” Luca said, “there were a lot of things we spoke about, a lot of time was spent with one another, and I felt like we made a really good connection.”

Leaving the Mansion, Luca said the most surreal part of the whole experience has been watching himself back on TV.

“You look at yourself and go… why did I say that?!” He said, laughing. “But it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not many people can say they’ve done it, and it's been really fun.

“I put my heart on the line doing this and I would 100 percent do it again if the opportunity came up. I enjoyed every minute of it. Getting to know Brooke was super fun, the connections I made with people in the mansion, everything has been really enjoyable. Nothing but thumbs up from me.”

Watch The Bachelorette Australia, 7.30 Wednesday and Thursday on 10 and 10 play