A passion for paper

Romina Francesca left her job in the corporate world in order to turn her love of paper into a career.

Trekking to the office or doing the school run on another gloomy Monday morning is prime time for fantasising about changing your life – throwing in the job and doing something that makes your soul sing. Many of us go there in our dreams, but few are brave enough to do it for real. Romina Francesca, 30, is one of the courageous few. Three years ago she followed her heart and opened a handmade paper shop.

Tucked away in a little lane off Flinders Street in Melbourne, Il Papiro is like a temple to a more gracious way of life, making you feel like one of the initiated when you discover it. With its rich wood tones and reams of creamy paper, the shop draws you in and once you enter it’s easy to start finding that you really do need a set of embossed stationery, a leather-bound album or some darling little thankyou cards. It was this very feeling that diverted Romina from the corporate fast-track and sent her off to Florence to take a chance on life.

Romina’s love affair with paper began while she was still a student. After completing a degree in arts marketing at Melbourne’s Monash University, she went on to do honours in Italian, spending six months in Florence as part of her studies. Wandering through the city’s cobbled streets one day, Romina discovered Il Papiro, a shop devoted to all kinds of handmade paper. “It wasn’t just that they made such beautiful things, it was the connection to history and tradition that blew me away,” she remembers.

After finishing her degree Romina lived and worked overseas, first in London and then in Italy. On her return to Australia she found a job working for Mars, the confectionery company, initially in import and export and then as an account manager in the sales department. “I loved my job and the company and threw myself into being as successful as I could. I’d always assumed I’d work my way up the corporate ladder, and after years of study I was doing exactly that.” Success seemed assured but Romina couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was missing from her life. “I knew I wanted to have children one day and, for me, finding a way to combine work and children was essential.”

What was the turning point?
“I was in Auckland, New Zealand, on a business trip when I walked into this paper shop [Passion for Paper, on Auckland’s Parnell Road],” Romina recalls. “My immediate reaction was, ‘Oh my God, I feel like I’m in Florence’. All these years I’d carried an image of this wonderful shop in my head like a talisman, and I realised that deep down I’d always dreamed that one day I’d open one of these shops myself.” Her experience in the shop was an epiphany. “I’ve always believed that if I did something I loved, and did it with a passion, the money would come.” Romina flew back to Australia with a new life plan and immediately started plotting her future.

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