Mirko Giuggiolini, 19, gets up at 5am for the commute from his parents’ home in Ronciglione to Rome, an almost two-hour journey by bus, train and metro, to make it in time for his 8am lecture at Sapienza University. Then he repeats the journey home after his last lecture, which on some days finishes at 8pm.
But now the law student has had enough, and for the last few nights has been sleeping in a tent outside the university as part of a growing movement of students across Italy protesting against high rents.
“The commute is draining both financially and physically – I end up too tired to study and with no free time,” said Giuggiolini, a first-year law student. “But the rents in Rome are totally unsustainable.”
The protest was started by Ilaria Lamera, an engineering student at Milan Polytechnic, before spreading to Rome and other cities including Florence, Bologna, Padua and Cagliari. Lamera had been commuting to university from her home town of Bergamo and when she started looking for a room to rent in Milan struggled to find one for below €600 (£520).
“Rome is just as expensive,” said Viki Angelini, a political science student who has been camped outside Sapienza since Monday night. “I pay €500 for a room but for two years did a one-and-a-half hour commute.”
Almost 70% of university students in Italy live with their parents, compared with the EU average of 17%, according to a Eurostat report.
University accommodation is scarce, and usually only available to students from low-income families or those who are disabled.
Valentina Capalbo, who has a motor disability, moved to Rome from Calabria for her degree in cultural heritage, which she completed in March. She now lives in assisted housing, the cost for which comes out of her monthly €800 grant. The 31-year-old can stay in the accommodation until she finds a job. “Then I’m left to fend for myself,” she said. “It’s impossible to find a place in Rome adapted for people with disabilities. This is why some people choose to study for longer – they finish one degree and start another just to benefit from the assistance.”
Young Italians continue to struggle after obtaining their degree owing to a precarious job market and high cost of living. Youth unemployment stood at 22.3% in March – the third highest in the EU after Spain and Greece, while Italians will, on average, continue to live with their parents until they reach 30.1 years of age.
“We are among the last in Europe to leave our parents’ home,” said Giuggiolini. “Jobs are mainly on temporary contracts and with low wages – not enough to rent a home and we can only dream about buying one.”
Sara Mariotti, 26, lives with her mother in Cagliari. She works as a Deliveroo rider while studying for a masters in public administration. “It’s a very flexible job as you don’t have fixed work hours or obligations, so I can study and work and don’t need to depend on my mother for money.”
She said the average rent for a decent apartment in Cagliari is €600-€700 a month. Even with a job, young Italians struggle to find a home as it’s impossible to rent or obtain a mortgage without a permanent employment contract.
“You need to have a lot of financial security to achieve this,” said Mariotti.
Thousands of young Italians leave the country each year in search of work overseas. “Unlike in places like Germany, where there are agreements between universities and companies that mean students are trained to fill specialist jobs, in Italy there is a big gap between studying and the world of work,” said Mariotti.
In response to the protests, Giorgia Meloni’s government said it would invest €660m – money that would come from Italy’s share of the EU’s post-Covid recovery fund – to create new university accommodation. University leaders have also urged the government to convert empty state property into student homes as a more immediate solution.
“But it’s not enough to just provide buildings, we need the private rental market to be better regulated in order to fight against high rents,” said Giuggiolini.
As students in Naples joined the protests on Friday, Giuggiolini said those at Sapienza would be returning home after reaching their goal of securing a meeting with the Lazio regional authority.
“In the meantime, this evening we’ll host a public assembly by the camp which will be open to the entire student community,” he said. “The assembly will define the requests to be presented at the meeting on 18 May.”
