Are many people in southern italy still dark skinned? Obviously I'm not talking about all southern Italians because there are light skinned people in southern italy as well. Back in the day it seems there were many more dark skinned Italians(such as myself)than today. And I was looking at some of my grandmothers pictures of people in her family picking up relatives from Ellis island(she got them processed in color somehow)and many of the Italians were dark skinned. They could've easily been mistaken for someone of middle eastern, Indian or black ancestry. I know I have been before and many people in my family as well. Obviously there was a high percentage of people from Sicily with dark skin, black hair, brown eyes and just a dark complexion in general, but what other southern italian regions had people of dark complexion? I used to have some southern italian American friends who were pretty fair skinned. Most of the people in my family if not all have a dark complexion though.