Dolce Vita Home: How To Make Yours Feel Like One

I know many of you love Italy and anything Italian, so much so that you want to make your own home feel like your slice of Italy. While architecture and interiors are very important, creating an Italian home is not just about the way it looks, but more so about the way it feels.

Today, I’d like to discuss the concept of dolce vita and how it applies to the Italian home, to help you create a dolce vita home wherever you are in the world.

If that sounds like a nice coffee read, grab yourself a warm drink and get comfortable.

Why A Dolce Vita Home Is More Of A Feeling?

If you look up Dolce Vita home on Pinterest you’ll mostly get lemon trees home decor and tablescapes aesthetics trying to depict a very Sorrento-style and Amalfi scene. That makes me smile, and here is why.

The Dolce Vita concept has no particular ties to that area of Italy, but it’s more of an overall theme for the entire country, something that’s part of Italy’s identity, although it can feel more in tune with the Central and Southern Italian lifestyle, which also involves Campania, and thus Sorrento, Amalfi, and the rest of the coast.

However, if we were to identify the birth of Dolce Vita, that would certainly be Rome – both modern and ancient. Let me tell you about its origins. 

The concept of la dolce vita – the sweet life – as we understand it today began in Rome, in the post–World War II years, and it became iconic through the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita.

After the war, in the 1950s–60s, Rome experienced a cultural and economic boom. 

Via Veneto, an elegant street in Rome, became the heart of la dolce vita. Cafés, luxury hotels, paparazzi, and celebrities created a scene of indulgence, style, and social freedom.

The movie depicted this and exported it worldwide, forever tying the concept of la Dolce Vita to Rome.

However, the origins of la Dolce Vita are much older than that. Fellini didn’t invent the sweet life – he reinterpreted and immortalized it for the modern world.

The sweet life concept can be traced back as far as Ancient Greece and the Etruscans (pre-Romans). Since I don’t want to bore you with the details, I am going to summarize it this way:

The Greeks conceptualized pleasure and leisurely life. The Etruscans celebrated those concepts visually through their arts, like tomb frescoes depicting scenes of feasting, dancing, and enjoying life. However, it was the Romans who brought those concepts to life.

But unlike depicted in Fellini’s movie, the Dolce Vita concept is not just for the rich and famous, it’s for everyone to enjoy, because it’s not about status but mindset and lifestyle.

Even in Ancient Rome, while the wealthy indulged in lavish banquets and countryside villas, the common people found their own version of the sweet life in public baths, lively festivals, and the simple pleasures of food, friendship, and celebration. The essence of la Dolce Vita has always been about savoring life, not about wealth.

Why am I telling you all of this, when we are here to speak about a Dolce Vita Home?

For two main reasons:

1. I think my readers will appreciate a little bit of history about la Dolce Vita.
   
2. I want to tie it back to the fact that exactly like the common Romans back then lived la dolce vita within their own means, you can do the same. You don’t have to have an Italian looking home, to make your home feel that way, and you certainly don’t need the lemon tree aesthetic you often see when you type dolce vita home online.

So, What Does A Dolce Vita Home Feel Like?

Much like your home, a Dolce Vita home feels like a safe space, with the added perk of also being a sweet escape. Isn’t that what a home should feel like?

Think about it..

When you go to work in the morning, don’t you wish it was already time to go back home? That’s how I felt when I worked a regular job, and that’s what many people feel every day.

Why is that, though?

Isn’t that because your home feels like your break from life duties and hardships. It’s the place you go to rest, eat good food, spend time with your loved ones, recharge, and even create great things – even if that’s just baking a cake, and not building a side hustle business!

What I am trying to say is that most likely you already have a Dolce Vita home, if we look at it from the way it makes you feel.

However, I appreciate that you are here because you want to infuse your sweet home with that Italian flair. So let me go back to that question – what does a dolce vita home feel like. This time, I will answer it by thinking about my Italian nonna’s home, and what it felt like to me as a little kid.

Nonna Concetta’s Dolce Vita Home

To little Alessia, Nonna Concetta’s home was the place to be for good homemade food that was simple and unpretentious, yet so tasty you would truly lick your fork clean. It was also the meeting point for the entire family, whether it was aunties and uncles coming and going, or the place where we would sit around the table all together on special Sundays and other occasions.

My nonna’s home was also the place I first learned to create in the kitchen. It could have been pizza dough, or biancomangiare (a Sicilian milk custard recipe), I don’t recall exactly. It was the place I saw the neatest home ever (other than my mum’s), the sort of neat you’d find in a luxury store, where everything is perfectly folded in drawers, stuffed with soaps to make it smell extra nice. The house always felt clean and organized, even though it was fairly small. 

Interior wise, it seemed like time had stopped. Think old wall paper, retro kitchen cabinets, sturdy good quality wooden furniture, and antique gems you would want to put in a museum. I especially remember this vintage looking rotary phone I loved to play with, and this grand wall mounted coat rack in the formal entrance in dark wood and green velvet. Paired with the medieval castle style entrance chairs, it felt like I was about to be teletransported back by a few centuries.

Nonna’s home also felt very close and in tune with nature, perhaps because it had a unique structure – ground floor on one side and terraced on the other. The front entrance was lined by my grandma’s small but precious rose garden, which was just a series of borders full of roses she would plant and care for all year round. On the informal side, the balcony off her kitchen led to a stairway that took us into the small garden house, garden, chicken coops and the stone oven room.

While you might be imagining something fancy, it was closer to what an old farmhouse would feel like but it was terraced, with two apartments above it. Now I get where my love for mixing old and new comes from!

The garden was my Nonno Angelo’s world, the place where he would grow all his vegetables and attend to the chickens. The garden house was just a big garden kitchen, with a huge table he would sit at to read the paper in silence. It came with a small restroom and a storage room. 

The garden kitchen was also the place my nonna would cook in when she was doing large preparations, like baking bread for the entire family, or making Christmas scacciatas, and Easter biscotti. It was also the place we would use for big family lunches and dinners, because the table was much bigger than the one in the kitchen above. I think that one seated 8 comfortably, while the one in the garden kitchen could seat 12 or more people.

How can we recreate the feeling of Nonna’s home into ours?

Much like my mum did in her home (my childhood home) – the apartment above Nonna Concetta’s terraced house, these are the things that we could take away from my grandma’s Dolce Vita home and recreate into our own.

1. Curate your home, no matter how small or grand. 

While certain parts of my Italian grandma’s home felt like a medieval castle, her home was fairly small – a small kitchen and an equally small bathroom, a comfortable master bedroom, a tiny guest bedroom, a small formal dining room, a small formal sitting room, a regular formal entrance, and a narrow and winding internal corridor. Because her kids were no longer living there, the only places to be used regularly were the kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom. However, everything felt fresh and clean, and she always kept every corner of her house neat and organized. 

The place that showed this aspect the best is hers and nonno’s master wardrobe. It felt like a fancy vintage closet with a huge hanging area on top, and lower drawers. Everything was hung and folded neatly after being well ironed. It’s important to add the fact that my grandma was originally a seamstress, so that might have had a lot to do with her neatly pristine wardrobe and the way she kept her family’s clothes. 

If you were to go back in time 35 years or so and take a peek at my mum’s master wardrobe, you would see it looked exactly the same, in terms of organization and neatness. It’s because my mum learned housekeeping mostly from my Italian grandma, her mother in law.

That might have been a little extreme, but this is how Italian strive to keep their homes, especially their wardrobes and clothes. It’s this level of curation and neatness that helps them dress and look the way they do, which is something you love so much about Italy and Italian style. Isn’t it?

This is how I do it in my home:

If you are not doing it already, try to have an organized and neat closet, no matter how big and small it is. 

I have a rule where nothing goes in my closet unless it’s clean. If I buy something new, I need to wash it and iron it beforehand. If I wear something once, and I know I can re-wear it before washing it, especially with jackets and coats in Winter, then it goes on a special rack in my spare room.

I like to do a deep closet clean at least once a year, and then quicker cleans and organization sessions before the start of a new season.

I try to apply that to every other space in my home, without being too perfect, as it’s normal to have slightly messy corners in your house, especially if you live in small apartments like us Europeans.

2. Make the kitchen the true heart of your home.

You can do this no matter how big or small your kitchen is, and whatever it looks like. If we go back to my nonna’s home, her proper kitchen was tiny – L shaped by the wall, with a small table in the centre, and a narrow space to move around it. It had three doors – one was the informal entrance, one led to the rest of the house, and the third one led to the balcony, the laundry room, and the garden. I am pretty sure my current office is the same size as her kitchen, and I don’t have a huge office!

The size was clearly not important. I still ate the best food of my life there, and everyone in my family probably thinks the same. The big feeling of warmth, being cared for, the family bonding, all took place in that tiny kitchen. You can do the same in yours, because a Dolce Vita kitchen like a Dolce Vita home is truly about the feeling you cultivate, not the way they look.

With that said, I love beautiful interiors, and I am pretty sure you do too. You can create and cultivate that feeling while still having the big and gorgeous kitchen of your dreams! I know I do, and I am grateful for that.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Design and install a kitchen with the final use in mind. 

What I am trying to say is this – rather than focusing too much on how you want your kitchen to look, think about how you are going to use it first, and then incorporate beautiful aesthetics into the practical design.

Ask yourself questions like these:

• What do I want to look at while I am doing the dishes, or mixing a sauce on the hob?
• How much prepping space do I need for the type of cooking I tend to do?
• Do I truly need island seating space? I thought I did, but we never use it!
• How do you want to store your food, your appliances, your kitchenware?
• What about apertures? Do you want to look out of the window when you are in your kitchen? Other than the dreamy aspect of having a window in your kitchen, it’s also a very practical way to air out your kitchen after cooking.

2. Don’t just have a show kitchen!

Of course you can, but if you do, most likely the concept of la Dolce Vita home is not for you.

Kitchens are meant to be used and loved, even if that means chipping and staining the real marble countertops.

Everyone can use their kitchens, even if it’s just for simple preparations like quick breakfasts, lunches, and heating up your takeaway dinner. If when you use it that way, it makes you feel at home, and like you’re nourishing your body and mind, then you are closer to the concept of a Dolce Vita home than you think.

But it’s when you cook your meals, bake your cakes, attempt new recipes, and most importantly share the pleasure of enjoying homemade food with a loved one, that you truly have yourself a dolce vita kitchen. That’s when the kitchen becomes the heart of your home!

That can be extended further if your kitchen is large enough, or is connected to a sitting room, because that means you’re spending most of your family time in that space. Your kids might be doing their homework while you cook; your husband might be watching a game while you make an aperitivo; etc. The more you use and spend time in your kitchen cooking and eating delicious food, and making memories with your loved ones, the more it feels more and more like the center of your home.

3. Connect your home to the outside, and nature.

I know that not everyone is blessed with a large home with a big garden. Many of us Italians are not, especially if we choose to live in cities. Notwithstanding that, we can still make use of the tiniest balconies, yards, and terraces that come with our houses.

You don’t need to build a garden, you don’t even need to start growing flowers and herbs. All I am suggesting is to create an outdoor space that helps you connect to the outside and nature. 

That could be simply putting a small table and chair set on your balcony with a plant or two, even if it’s an artificial one. You could start your mornings like many Italians, with a cup of coffee in your hands out on your balcony looking at the streets. Read more about this Dolce Vita habit and many others here.

For those that have the space, I suggest creating an alfresco dining space, with a small or larger dining table and chairs, perhaps covered with a pergola or awning structure. You can surround the space with a few trees and plants, and easily create an outdoor space that feels beautiful but very practical and low maintenance.

Of course, if you live in a mansion, the sky is your limit. You can re-create a Tuscan style outdoor space, complete with a pool and sunbathing area. But that’s not necessary!

Even if you only have a tiny balcony, and live in a city with not much nature in it, you can do what many Italians in your same situation do. They try to connect to the outside every day by walking a little every day. It could be walking to take the metro, walking to go pick up fresh bread, or going to a park.

When you get the chance, you can get outside the city, and enjoy nature quality time. That’s what many Italians do when they go to the beach on the weekend in Summer, and to the countryside and mountains close to where they live during the other seasons.

Do you know what’s my favorite way to connect to nature, one that doesn’t involve any outdoor space, but just a window or external aperture?

It’s focusing on the sound of birds chirping. That’s the way I ground myself and connect to nature. Another way is paying attention to the weather and how it feels on my skin, even if it’s just while opening the doors to let the fresh air in.

Speaking of that, that’s probably the best way to connect your home to the outside, one that many Italians did in the past and still do today. My nonna did it, so does my mum, and so do I.

It’s opening the doors in the morning, while your bed is still undone, and letting the fresh air in. You should do it daily in every room, especially those you use the most. It’s nature’s natural and free air purifier. Make sure to use it! The longer you can leave them open, the better, unless you are allergic to something outside that is in season. In that case, you could do it while keeping your air purifier on, or turning it on right after you close the doors.

4. Make your home feel lived in and welcoming.

Much like what I told you about how a kitchen must be used and loved, the same applies to the rest of your home. Your home needs to be lived in, not feel like a show home.

Yes, I am aware that I mentioned that my Nonna Concetta had a formal dining room and sitting room. What I meant by that is that those rooms were organized that way after her children left the home. She likely didn’t want to throw that furniture away, those rooms weren’t being used, and so she allowed herself to have those formal rooms. Sometimes they were used when guests would come over, but most of the time they were used as guest rooms, thanks to the pull out couches. Those rooms don’t hold many memories for me, and that’s exactly the point I am trying to make. 

A show home is not a home that feels cosy, comfortable, and a place to build memories in. You don’t want to live in a cold home without a soul.

No matter what your interior style is, even the most modern homes can have a soul and feel lived in. All you have to do is plan them around your lifestyle and use every inch of them. Invite people over, make delicious meals, use them as your office, dirty and clean them, scratch and repair them. That’s what a truly Dolce Vita home feels like. 

Even a grand palazzo on Lake Como can be a lived in Dolce Vita home, no matter how stunning and splendid its interiors are. It’s all about how that home is used, and how the owners make you feel when you visit. I think you get my point!

5. Create a beautiful home you love living in.

I have left this for last because as I told you a Dolce Vita home goes beyond what your home looks like. However, we are humans and we love beautiful things; that’s a very accentuated trait of us Italians – you can read more about that in my Dolce Vita Lifestyle post.

No one wants to live in an ugly home, so making your home feel beautiful to you, is also an important part of cultivating a Dolce Vita home. That’s going to look different for each one of us.

What we like, where we live, what we can afford, are going to be different and affect how our homes look. It’s perfectly fine. 

That’s exactly why I told you earlier that la dolce vita has nothing to do with a lemon tree aesthetic. You can have orange trees, olive trees, and no trees at all. It’s all about choosing the aesthetic that helps you achieve a home that feels safe, comfortable, and beautiful to you.

PIN IT FOR LATER

Read The Full Dolce Vita Series

Without planning it, my first dolce vita post has grown into a series — thanks to all the love you’ve shown on Pinterest. I love writing about it just as much as you love reading it!

If you’d like to read the other posts, I am listing them in order:

Dolce Vita Lifestyle
Dolce Vita Dresses
Dolce Vita Home Aesthetic

If you have a special request, I’d love to hear it. Come say hello in my newsletter and let’s chat about it. Remember that you can sign up via the signup box in this post. You’ll find multiple ones as you scroll up and down this page. See you there.

A presto,
Alessia