>>150202263
It is true that genetically South Italians occupy an intermediate between Europe and the Levant, with an Europe bias obviously. South Italians are basically Greeks.
Basically the Romans were genetically closest to modern North Italians, Spaniards, and South French, then they replaced themselves with Greek and Levant slaves, creating the modern terroni. Shortly after Roman civilization collapsed. North Italy was Celtic, like France at the time.
North Italy = Celto-Roman-Greeco-Germanic
South Italy = Greco-Roman-Levant