A Greek community has existed in Southern Italy since ancient times, beginning with the migration of traders and colonial settlements in the 8th century BC.

During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, owing to demographic crises caused by a variety of factors including war, famine and overcrowding as well as the need to find new commercial outlets, the Greeks began a large colonisation drive, including in Southern Italy. Greek colonies were established in places as far apart as the Black Sea and Marseilles.

The Romans called the area of Sicily and the extremity of the Italian mainland Magna Graecia because of the large numbers of Greeks living there. New waves of Greeks came to Magna Graecia from Greece and Asia Minor during the Early Middle Ages.

During the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries and mainly after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, many Greeks settled in Italy. They included artists, writers, musicians, scientists, philosophers and theologians, and their presence is considered by modern scholars to have been crucial in the revival of Greek and Roman studies, arts and sciences, and subsequently in the development of Renaissance humanism.

Although most of the Greek inhabitants of Italy became entirely Latinised during the Middle Ages, migration routes between Southern Italy and the Greek mainland never entirely ceased to exist and pockets of Greek culture and language remained and survived there into modern times.

Today, there is an ethnic minority who live in the Southern Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia, especially the peninsula of Salento, who speak a distinctive dialect of Greek called Griko. They are believed to be remnants of the ancient and medieval Greek communities who have lived in the south of Italy for centuries. The dialect combines ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, and Italian elements, and there is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, though now limited to only a few thousand people.
(Wikipedia)

A celebration of the language and culture of Southern Italy

International Greek Language Day, observed on 9 February, aims to highlight the role that Greek has played in world culture, and to encourage Diaspora Greeks and all those interested in Hellenic culture to learn more about the Greek language.

In celebration of the event, the language and culture of the Greek-speaking communities in Southern Italy are to feature in an evening being held at the KAM in Chania on Saturday 11th February. Described as “a tribute to the Hellenism of Lower Italy and the Greek language”, the evening includes discourses by Daniele Makris, a Greek philologist from Sicily, and Foteini Kaimaki, philologist, author and researcher into the culture of Lower Italy.

Songs from the area will be performed by Mariella Vitorou, accompanied by G. Melabianakis on mandolin, M. Kanakakis on piano and accordeon and A. Kanakakis on guitar and woodwind. The evening will be presented by philologist and journalist Viky Kollia.

The event will conclude with the cutting of the vasilopita of the Greek Language Association, to mark the new year.

Organised by the Regional Unit of Chania, the Municipality of Chania and KEPPEDICH-KAM. To be held at 19:30, at the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture (KAM), 2nd floor. Admission free.