The Italy of Social Media VS the Italy I Grew Up In

If you've spent some time on social media looking for profiles about Italy, you've probably seen the same themes appear again and again: beautiful piazzas at sunset, long lunches with wine, people wandering through narrow streets, and the phrase "la dolce vita" splashed across photos of Vespa rides.

While those images aren't completely wrong, they're only one piece of the picture.

As an Italian who grew up in Italy, I find myself looking at these posts and thinking:

"That's not quite the Italy I know."

"La Dolce Vita" Constant Mentions

Social media often present Italy as a country where everyone is constantly relaxed. According to them, locals seem to spend all day at what we call "bar" drinking coffee or having "aperitivo", and taking endless walks in the piazzas.

First of all, it would be worth it to distinguish between Italians being in Italy as tourists from Italians living in a specific city. We also have to consider retired locals, the ones who have a job that not necessarily is from 8 to 5 pm, and students.

Many Italians take great pride in their work and see it as an important part of who they are. When I meet my friends from the Milan area and surroundings, they often talk about work and career.

Many of them like travelling, but that's something they can do when they have accumulated enough paid leave and have had their leave request approved.

Family Life Like in the Movies 

Another stereotype I find on social media is that every Italian family gathers around a giant table every Sunday for a three-hour lunch.

Some do (not necessarily every weekend though) and some don't. Some may not even have much to share with each other.

It also depends on the regional micro-culture and also on the specific family culture. We cannot generalise.

Yes, many local Italians enjoy spending time with family and friends, but probably in the same way Australians do.

After having lived in Western Australia for more than 12 years, I keep hearing about Aussie adults going on holiday or away for the weekend with their parents, which is something I personally never heard in the Milan area where I used to live.

This is why it's important to make sure we don't associate Italy -which is a very diverse country- to a specific picture from an old movie set in Sicily and then expect every place to match that idea, especially without considering it's now 2026.

Some people move for work and sometimes families live in different cities or regions. Also, some families are extremely close, while others may not be that close.

Every Italian is a Food Expert

Sometimes it seems that the internet believes every Italian can identify the exact region of a cheese after one bite and spends every moment discussing food. (Well, I often talk about food I have to admit!)

While food is certainly important in Italy,

many Italians are simply trying to decide what to cook after work. They make quick dinners and they may never make fresh pasta. Some may often visit fast foods (which started appearing more than 30 years ago in the area I used to live) or they buy ready-to-eat meals (which have become super popular in the past years).

Making pasta and tomato sauce from scratch used to be common decades ago. Nowadays, it may be a Sunday thing, a special occasion thing, or it may never happen! Again, it depends both on the regional and family culture.

In my personal experience, Australian- Italians may value Italian fresh food way more than many Italians living in Italy do these days! They seem to be more in touch with their Nonna's traditions that were carefully kept alive when she moved to Australia, and they keep valuing family traditions that are totally getting lost in Italy.

So you may have an Australian-Italian friend who makes fresh sausages and pasta sauce once a year with their family, and an Italian one who never did it!

Italians are Stylish All the Time

Instagram can make one think that every single Italian person is effortlessly fashionable .Yes, Milan is the city of fashion, true, but that doesn't mean you'll see super fashionable or elegant people at every corner. It still depends on where exactly you go and on the people.

The Italy I grew up in was full of ordinary people wearing practical clothes.

Being Italian doesn't automatically make someone elegant, stylish, or outgoing.

However, I've always noticed that even the most humble Italian would dress up when going out (especially to a restaurant).

It's not common to see people wearing their work uniform when going out.

So are Socials Wrong?

Not at all, because it's about posting the best pictures and Italy has beautiful landscapes.

The food is amazing, and there's lots of history (think of Rome, as an example).

Yes, moments of "dolce vita" exist, but alongside busy workdays, traffic, bills, deadlines, family disagreements, and all the other things that make up normal life.

The Italy of Instagram is filtered. The Italy I grew up in is a real place.

I think it's important to understand the reality behind the postcard because that's where meaningful conversations truly happen.