Irony, nostalgia and look to the future: how
is the home of today thirty-year-old fellows

It is said that at 30 years of age everything changes, that the 30 years of age are not the end, but the beginning. At the age of 30, one’s taste, the way one sees the world is outlined, almost all the uncertainties of youth are abandoned and the first awareness is born. At 30, you begin to think about where you are really going. Where and how you want to live. At 30, you choose the first house, the “real” one, that will be yours for a long time, differently from the university period, much shorter. In an era like this, where everything moves at a very high speed and perhaps without any logic, the generation of the thirty years old is the one that is most experiencing these important social and cultural changes.

To understand more, we have entered the homes of three famous thirty-year-old girls: Silvia Rossi, Ilaria Sirena and Stefania Rubino, CEO of the viral project itrentenni.com. Three girls with different goals including a webtv, a site, a just published book (“Did you say 30?” By Rizzoli), an e-commerce, social networks of over 200 thousand followers. But above all a common dream: to tell a whole generation, under every small aspect of everyday life, between contagious laughter and online shared reflections.

So, about the home of a today thirty-year-old, we have discovered that …

1. The living space must be multifunctional, because the profession has evolved, there are more and more young freelancers, who often work from home, with contracts by project and collaborations. That’s why the secret to Ilaria’s multitasking house is a “hidden” printer in the living room furniture; that’s why Silvia keeps her penholder on the kitchen table and Stefania lives up to her most the open-space between kitchen and living room. 2. At 30 you can still do everything, in fact, you do everything. A creative work, a new family that is born, the friends of all time, the individual increasingly transversal passions… The house of a thirty year old is truly a world in itself that contains life at 360 degrees.

Silvia is a journalist, author, actress and speaker. She lives in the quiet and green province of Milan, but is always struggling with a thousand creative projects in the city. “My home is a mix of vintage and modern objects and furnishings”. Her favorite room is the living room, “because it’s warmer and more colorful”. There: “a record player, the sofa and the bookcase”. Her feeling of absolute peace.

Stefania instead – who lives in the heart of Rome – madly loves her large terrace, from which she can admire the incredible skyline of the capital. But the open-space that unites the kitchen with the living room is her “comfortable space” for working, cooking, reading, creating. In life she is a Sales Manager, she deals with fashion and, like her friends Silvia and Ilaria, works on the project of the thirty-year-old all-round.

Ilaria is an architect from Milan, and an expert about houses, spaces, furnishings and design. “My house is my jewel, I care a lot, I take care of it in every aspect. Order and harmony are my key words among the walls of the house “. But what are the fundamental elements of a woman’s house (almost a mother, above all!) and a thirty-year-old architect? “A large living room, a small lamp on the low table next to the sofa, a wooden bar on which to hang all the different ladles in the kitchen”. And in the sleeping area … “a practical and elegant dresser cannot be missing”.

Silvia, Ilaria and Stefania are three different thirty-year-old women – somehow reflecting the personalities of many of their peers. For Silvia, the creative, the vintage armchair in the bedroom is essential “to hold all the clothes”, according to Ilaria, practical and pragmatic, “the minimal empty-pocket is a must in the entry”; Stefania, dynamic and energetic, would never give up her coffee machine (“and a sofa rigorously with a chaise longue!”).

In short, different tastes and imaginaries, ways of seeing the world that, although different one from the other, find their space inside the home. Home. What does “home” mean for a thirty-year-old? “For me it’s warmth, safety, comfort. It must reflect my personality and that of my boyfriend Luca, it must encompass our passions. At home there is always good music in the background, just like when I woke up as a child on Sunday and my dad put some beautiful songs and we all danced together” says Silvia. What then, what is more sweetly nostalgic of the irony of the 90s?

Even Ilaria has no doubts: “Home for me means two things – family and sharing. For me, home means being lucky. I have a house that I have always dreamed of, with wide, luminous spaces and all the warmth I need”. Ilaria is about to have a baby, together with her partner Davide.

“I have moved many times in my life, I feel a bit nomadic. There is the house of Messina, in my homeland, where even now I find the love of my parents and the memories of my childhood. The 5 different houses that I changed in Milan, during the 16 years spent there: each represents and guards moments of growth and transformation. And now my Roman home, where my new family was born, my son. Home for me is a “finally”, that longed sigh after having closed the door behind you”, are the words of Stefania.

An eternal journey through life, the stories of these three thirty-year-old Italian girls seem to be saying. And like them there is a generation that lives the same emotions, the same doubts and often makes the same choices. Choosing is never easy, especially at 30 years of age today, but fortunately there is Home.

Courtesy photo cover: Claude Seggi