Greeks began to settle the Italian south almost 3,000 years ago, and were the prominant culture there for almost 2,000 years. I tend to think of the culture of the “Magna Graecia” as something buried deep in history, like the Riace bronzes I posted about last week.
But now I find out about the Griko–a surviving culture speaking a Greek dialect, which Greek speakers call Katoitaliotika, or Southern Italian!
This very interesting video (thanks to Agora Productions) provides a lot of history and many great photos reflecting the Greek history of the Italian south.
The Italian South 
Though Southern Italy has not changed as much as N Italy over the years ,the reality is the world is a smaller place, and many many Southern Italians have moved to North and South America and N Italy over the last 150 years.In fact,80% of USA Italian immigrants came from S.Italy!!Also,it does not take a Greek scholar to figure out that ALL of Italy to owes much of its roots to the Greeks…
Thanks for you input, Tony.