The Roman Way of Life - Rome - page 748

Home Life & the Family
Romans, like most Italians, live in apartments. These are often small - 75 to 100 sq m is
typical - and expensive. House prices in central Rome are among the highest in the country
and many first-time buyers are forced to move out of town or to distant suburbs outside the
GRA (the grande raccordo anulare ), the busy ring road that marks the city's outer limit.
Almost all apartments are in self-managed condominios (blocks of individually owned
flats), a fact which gives rise to no end of neighbourly squabbling. Regular condominio
meetings are often fiery affairs as neighbours argue over everything from communal re-
pairs and plumbing quotes to noisy dogs and broken lights.
Rates of home ownership are relatively high in Rome and properties are commonly kept
in the family, handed down from generation to generation. People do rent, but the rental
market is largely targeted at Rome's huge student population.
Italy's adult stay-at-homes have given rise to various linguistic terms: bamboccioni (big babies), a word that
came to prominence when it was used by Tommaso Padao-Schioppa during his term as Minister of Fin-
ance; the more commonly used mammoni (mummy's boys); and the female equivalent, figlie di papa (daddy's girls).
Staying at Home
Italy's single most successful institution, and the only one in which the Romans continue to
trust, is the family. It's still the rule rather the exception for young Romans to stay at home
until they marry, which they typically do at around 30. Figures report that up to 41.1% of
25- to 34-year olds still live at home with mamma and papa . To foreign observers this may
seem strange, but there are mitigating factors: almost half (45%) of these stay-at-homes are
out of work and property prices are high. There's also the fact that young Romans are gen-
erally reluctant to downgrade and move to a cheaper neighbourhood. In any case, Romans
brought up in this tradition know that the quid pro quo comes later when they are expected
to support their elderly parents. Seen from another perspective, though, it might simply
mean that Roman families like living together.
Paolo Virzì's 2008 film Tutta la vita davanti won critical praise for its bittersweet portrayal of a philosophy
graduate who dreams of a job in research but ends up working the phones in a Roman call centre.
But while faith in the family remains, the family is shrinking. Italian women are giving
birth later than ever and having fewer children - in 2011, the average Italian mother had