Anonymous wrote:Northern Italians in Florence and Rome consider themselves the "quintessential Italians". They consider their accents to be the proper was to speak, and they consider themselves to be more educated and enlightened. After all, it northern Italy was the birth place of the Renaissance. Southern Italy is generally not as well-off.

Dialects are EVERYWHERE. They're regional.

As a Southerner who knows the standard Italian as well as our dialect, I can tell you that the Southern Italian dialects - with the exception of Sicilian dialects - are much closer to the standard that Northern dialects are.

Study the language, live there a few years, and listen to the dialects of the North and South before you post again.

Northern Italians in Florence and Rome consider themselves the "quintessential Italians". They consider their accents to be the proper was to speak, and they consider themselves to be more educated and enlightened. After all, it northern Italy was the birth place of the Renaissance. Southern Italy is generally not as well-off.

If northern Italians think that they look like Germans they are wrong. I lived in Ticino Switzerland and even there, the Swiss Italians looked different from the Germans.
I think that Northern Italians have a complex. They do NOT look like Northern Europeans and Northern Italy is not like Northern Europe.

I like all of Italy, including the southern part.

By emphasizing this "northern" heritage, Italians show their insecurity. Best way to make your self look stronger and to show some self respect is to defuse the whole thing and say that they are Italian period.

As an African American, I get concerned when some AAs boast about their Native American heritage to deflect from African roots. It makes them look silly even if they do have native blood. I am not suggesting that we neglect the family heritage that is different from our outward look, but it does not need to be emphasized in the first two sentences.

I once knew a Sri Lankan woman who used to say that her mother was white. The young woman was darker that I. It turns out that when I met her mother, the mother was half Portuguese half Sri Lankan (common mixture there) and was not white. To me, it seemed that somewhere in that family being white mattered a whole lot.

Don't get me going on Iranians who say that they are white...

Colored people please be proud of it, our skin is beautiful, no matter what the media wants us to believe, don't get sucked in.

Anonymous wrote:Northern Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance and the cultural mecca of Italy. Southern Italy has always had pretty significant crime issues--Naples is dangerous, Bari is dangerous, etc.

Northern Italians are like the WASPs of Italy; Southern Italians are like... the Jersey Shore? That's an over-exaggeration, but you catch my drift.

No, i don't catch your drift.

Have you been there? Do you have friends/relatives there?

I have friends in the North and relatives in the South. My pal works in Milano and says there's crime everywhere, as the mafia is in bed with the government - always has been. Furthermore, the educational system is breaking down and more and more private schools are popping up.

Southerners are not Jersey Shore. You claim your statement is an exaggeration, but it's not. It stems from ignorance.

Come back with your travel experiences - if you really have any - and then we can talk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of NJ is dark skinned Italian.

Here is her high school photo: http://cdn3-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2011/07/melissa-gorga-before.png

Here is her now: http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/melissa-gorga-sept-23-001.jpg

Wow, her high school photo looks like a biracial black/white child.

It looks like a really bad perm to me.

I just saw an interview with her in US Weekly. She gets a blowout every three days and uses Ecru Silk Nectar Serum. She said her hair frizzes quickly and is very curly.

Having to get a blowout every three days to maintain straight styles, wow.

Anonymous wrote:A bit off topic but I can't take Italian-Americans that can't speak/comprehend Italian seriously when they swell up in pride over their Italian heritage. Like-wise Irish-Americans, who are laughed at in Ireland as being Plastic Paddies.

Language is a huge part of cultural identity. If you've lost it, you are just another american no matter how much you try to connect to your roots. Blame your parents for not learning from your grandparents so they [your parents] couldn't teach you.

Liking Cacciatore and wearing clothing with il tricolore on it does not make you an italian-american.

I totally agree with you. I am 1/2 Italian but I am not some nut-job Italian-American. I just like traveling to Italy and seeing my family there. I speak very little Italian but I can cook all the food (my Nonna taught me).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of NJ is dark skinned Italian.

Here is her high school photo: http://cdn3-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2011/07/melissa-gorga-before.png

Here is her now: http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/melissa-gorga-sept-23-001.jpg

Wow, her high school photo looks like a biracial black/white child.

It looks like a really bad perm to me.

Northern Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance and the cultural mecca of Italy. Southern Italy has always had pretty significant crime issues--Naples is dangerous, Bari is dangerous, etc.

Northern Italians are like the WASPs of Italy; Southern Italians are like... the Jersey Shore? That's an over-exaggeration, but you catch my drift.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of NJ is dark skinned Italian.

Here is her high school photo: http://cdn3-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2011/07/melissa-gorga-before.png

Here is her now: http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/melissa-gorga-sept-23-001.jpg

Guess again.

What does that mean?

PP thinks they're black. If anyone saw my family and the many relatives with dark skin and thick, curly hair, I suppose people would think we have African blood in us.

seriously? Who cares? It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something about not staying without you, Tania?

I've never properly studied Italian, so, you know, I'm not gonna be the best translator. But I think that's on track, no?

Certo! "te Tania", non "Tetania". Grazie. But that "fu'" I don't get. "There's no --- to be without you, Tania"?

Anyway, it seems like a great improvement over the one I remembered. I love the fact that Google let me check it out.

I think it's dialect.

Non c'e la fa a stare senza te, Tania.

I don't have the strength/force (or something to that effect) to stay w/o you, Tania.

It makes me cry. Assuming Tania has met an untimely end and someone close to her is grieving.

absolutely could be, yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of NJ is dark skinned Italian.

Here is her high school photo: http://cdn3-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2011/07/melissa-gorga-before.png

Here is her now: http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/melissa-gorga-sept-23-001.jpg

Guess again.

What does that mean?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something about not staying without you, Tania?

I've never properly studied Italian, so, you know, I'm not gonna be the best translator. But I think that's on track, no?

Certo! "te Tania", non "Tetania". Grazie. But that "fu'" I don't get. "There's no --- to be without you, Tania"?

Anyway, it seems like a great improvement over the one I remembered. I love the fact that Google let me check it out.

I think it's dialect.

Non c'e la fa a stare senza te, Tania.

I don't have the strength/force (or something to that effect) to stay w/o you, Tania.

It makes me cry. Assuming Tania has met an untimely end and someone close to her is grieving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
According to PP, we're all black?

Only if you apply the one-drop rule. Which is fine, nothing wrong with being black, but the history of that approach to racial identification is pretty effed up.

Or based on when humans started walking around Africa was most hospitable to our nearly nude bodies. Unless of course you were in Eden....another thread

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something about not staying without you, Tania?

I've never properly studied Italian, so, you know, I'm not gonna be the best translator. But I think that's on track, no?

Certo! "te Tania", non "Tetania". Grazie. But that "fu'" I don't get. "There's no --- to be without you, Tania"?

Anyway, it seems like a great improvement over the one I remembered. I love the fact that Google let me check it out.

I think it's dialect.

Non c'e la fa a stare senza te, Tania.

I don't have the strength/force (or something to that effect) to stay w/o you, Tania.

Anonymous wrote:Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of NJ is dark skinned Italian.

Here is her high school photo: http://cdn3-www.realitytea.com/assets/uploads/2011/07/melissa-gorga-before.png

Here is her now: http://www.okmagazine.com/sites/okmagazine.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/article_images/melissa-gorga-sept-23-001.jpg

Guess again.