Well as Christopher Walken was kind enough to point out in the movie True Romance, most italians were blonde with blue eyes. Whether he was right i really don't know but hey Walken is the man so if he says it then it's good enough for me.
love that scene.
But no, the difference btw North and South has been so overhyped. Both areas have mixed blood.
Cities like Genoa or Venice where kinda like ancient NYC, they were a real melting pot of folks coming from all over the place. This is clear after studying Italian dialects...most have french\spanish roots.
Some words sound the same and have similar meaning:
Gna' in Eastern Sicily means "girl" and there is a very similar way to say it in Brescia:
gnara. Also gnaro (guy), gnari (guys) and gnare (girls).
Fidec' means liver... both in Neapolitan and Bergamo\Brescian.
Portùgal (or
Portuall') means orange...both in Naples and in Brescia\Bergamo.
Some people say that comes from the Greek word "portukalia", others say that the Spanish used to call oranges like that because thay used to import them from Portugal.
Anyway it is...it's remarkable.
You can find a blonde Sicilian as easly as you can find an olive-skin dark Northern.
Funny how people keep this stereotype alive.
All bets are off only in Alto Adige, where like 97% of the population is Austrian.
