Southern Italy
Where Vesuvius looms
Southern Italy is the lower portion of the Italian peninsula, generally including the regions from Naples southward plus Sicily and Sardinia.
The area is sometimes called the Mezzogiorno.
Historically poorer and more agricultural than the industrialized north, Southern Italy carries associations of traditional culture, rural life, and the origins of most Italian emigration to the Americas: My grandparents came from Southern Italy in the 1920s.
- CalabriaSouthern Italian region
- NaplesMediterranean port city
- SicilyMediterranean's biggest island
- Greek coloniesOverseas Hellenic settlements
- Norman architecturePost-conquest English building style
slow food · family recipes · brigandage · organized crime · lemon groves · Amalfi Coast · coastal villages · sun-drenched hills · Mediterranean climate · summer heat · Vesuvius · ancient ruins · pasta · olive oil · Ionian Sea · poverty · terracotta · mozzarella
- Southern PlacesDixie, Patagonia, Antarctica, Southland
- ancient citiesAthens, Rome, Jerusalem, Sparta, Damascus
- Subtropicsmild winters, humid summers, wet season, dry season, trade winds
Southern ItalyNorthern Italy
Peninsula's upper portion
Lombardy · Piedmont · Milan · Emilia-Romagna · Turin
south, southern, Italy, Italian, Southern, southward, southerly, southeastern, southwestern