Italian people

The Italians are a Southern European ethnic group found primarily in Italy and in a wide-ranging diaspora throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia. Their native language is Italian, and historically Italian dialects and languages. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic. The Italian people have varied European origins; Northern Italy had a strong Celtic presence until the Romans conquered and colonised the area in the 2nd century BC, which lead to thousands of Romans and Italians migrating to the North. The Central portion of the Italian peninsula was settled by the Etruscans and Latin peoples. The South was mostly Greek and other Italic peoples such as the Bruttii and Samnites. Sicily was predominately made up of the Sicani and Sicels, before the Greeks moved in. The appellation Italian is possibly derived from the Greeks who used the term to describe the Ancient Italic peoples, who pre-date the coming of Indo-European languages.
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