Who are the Griko people of Italy?

Question

Who are the Griko people of Italy?

Answer 1

the greek community of southern italy..there are many greeks and albanians in southern italy...many italian-americans are actually albanians (arbereshe) or greeks (griko) who lived in southern italy and migrated to America..(John Belushi is an italian-american of albanian ancestry for example, Ray Romano too!)

Answer 2

So called "Griko" people are a small community in Southern Italy, living in Salento, an area of the Puglia (Apulia) region.

This area (called "Grecia Salentina") consists of the territory of these towns:  Calimera, Carpignano Salentino, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Cutrofiano, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia e Zollino.

Their dialect, still spoken by elderly people and now rediscovered by young generations (since a few years it's also teached in local schools), is the preservation of the medieval Byzantine Greek language, being probably the idiom of the first communities immigrated there from Greece during the 8th century.