Greek culture and language is alive and preserved in Calabria.

Long before the Romans, Calabria was a significant part of Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). Descendants from this ancient Greek colony are still around today in small pockets who still speak an ancient Greek dialect called Calabrian Greek or Grecanico. These local Greek pockets survived centuries of cultural shifts and Latinization following the Norman conquest in the 11th century as well. This language was officially recognized by the Italian parliament as a historic linguistic minority in 1999.