For the past several years, Italian media have repeated a familiar refrain: “The American Dream is dead.” And yet, spending just a few minutes on TikTok reveals a very different story — one not about the American Dream at all, but about dreaming of America itself. Hundreds of videos show young Italians imagining New York, planning to move there, or feeling nostalgia for a city they have never even visited. In other words, the younger generation seems to be telling a different story.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Italian teenagers were undeniably fascinated by the United States. Whether they dreamed of living there or simply embraced American‑inspired fashions, music, food, and lifestyles, America exerted an enormous cultural pull across the Atlantic.
