The Love trap. romanticization practices of the italian generations of the 90s

In this article, drawing on material collected during two ethnographic investigations conducted in Rome and Lazio region, I will focus on the experience of love triggered by relationships with humans and archaeological remains, showing how these activities bring out a shared experience of being chosen. I will show that in the particular climate of precariousness experienced by the Italian lower-middle classes born around the 1990s, the possibilities offered by romantic discourse and the concreteness of material culture objects make these kinds of love relationships proper systems for moving forward and building a life experience that has an outlet in the future. In this way, through the experience of love, its durability, and its cultural identity, people can cope with the unpredictable context of ordinary lives and overcome the lack of those symbolic and material certainties that had characterized the past generations’ vision of the future.