Italian-American presense of Broward County... (Jacksonville, Miami: apartment, condo, living in)

[max's mama]

My Italian-American husband will be very happy to know there is a large Italian community in Broward...

By the way, this thread is a very good example of how diverse and passionate CD posters are. Seems to be such an innocent question from the OP, and STILL it sparked a debate. LOL.

[vanborel]

Ciao! I hope you could help... I'm planning to move to Florida in the near future with my wife and 2 daughters, 5 and 7 yo. in preparation to this, we planned to spend June thru Aug '14 in FL and are looking for some kind of activities/schools or summer camp for Sofia and Alice: considering that they don't speak english and that the primary goal of the trip is for them to start learning it... I'm wondering if you are aware of any school/insitute with such program between Boca Raton and Ft Lauderdale ... in alternative we would consider a private teacher...

[Nolefan34]

There are lots of Italian-Americans in Broward County, but you don't see entire neighborhoods of them like you see in NY/NJ. Broward County is a very mixed area. There are few areas that any one cultural group dominates.

[Papillons2]

Here's a link to a celebration of all things Italian that is coming up in two weeks. It's within walking distance of our home, and my wife and I go every year:

St Coleman Italian Festival

Don't have any statistics on hand to back this up, but I have heard that almost 10 percent of the population of Pompano Beach is of Italian descent.

[paul1981]

There are quite a few Italian-Canadians from Montreal in the county too. I notice many of these people were actually born in Italy and settled in Canada during the 60s/70s so they speak Italian and are the real deal. There is an Italian club in Wilton Manors that I've walked by and I was surprised to hear people actually speaking in Italian.

[Cachavacha]

Hi, my name is Cristina, I live in Miami and I'm learning Italian. I would like to find people to practice. Anybody available?? My email is [email]Cachavacha0303456@gmail.com[/email]

[Avalon08]

Interesting old thread. I grew up in an Italian town (mostly Sicilian immigrants) outside Philly. There's definitely a difference between your NY/North Jersey Italians, Philly Italians, and probably Italians who grew up in FL and other parts of the U.S. For example, when I lived in CA, my Italian-American neighbor who grew up in LA had never heard of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. I was shocked! So I would say, just because a town in FL may have a lot of Italians doesn't mean you'll all be similar and compatible. And I'm sure there are redneck Italian kids. It's very popular to be of the redneck culture (and I mean that not in a disparaging way) in FL among the younger kids, no matter what ethnicity or race.

[blueherons]

Lots of Italian and Italian American neighbors downtown Fort Lauderdale. I have found the NY/NJ Italian Americans VERY loud and the actual Italians are more soft spoken.

I think loud is a yankee thing.

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by blueherons

the NY/NJ Italian Americans VERY loud and the actual Italians are more soft spoken.

So true!!!

[jwolfer]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

Interesting old thread. I grew up in an Italian town (mostly Sicilian immigrants) outside Philly. There's definitely a difference between your NY/North Jersey Italians, Philly Italians, and probably Italians who grew up in FL and other parts of the U.S. For example, when I lived in CA, my Italian-American neighbor who grew up in LA had never heard of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. I was shocked! So I would say, just because a town in FL may have a lot of Italians doesn't mean you'll all be similar and compatible. And I'm sure there are redneck Italian kids. It's very popular to be of the redneck culture (and I mean that not in a disparaging way) in FL among the younger kids, no matter what ethnicity or race.

My sister dated a guy about 20 years ago whose grandparents were from Sicily and Naples. They were immigrants to rural North Florida and were collard green farmers. He looked like he could be right out of Brooklyn or Jersey City but sounded very redneck. ( There was a small community north or Jacksonville called Italia that was settled by Italian immigrants about 100 years ago. Not much there and now sort of overtaken by suburbia)

There were lots of Italians who came to New Orleans instead of New York. they moved to areas around the deep South, like Arkansas and Memphis, TN.

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There was an episode of 'The Sopranos" that had them over in Italy. It showed how those guys ( Italian Americans) who were very different from the people in Italy. Another poster mentioned it, here in the US people have stories and remembrances from parents and grandparents in Italy from over 50 years ago and a lot has changed.

A girl who I grew up with who is 1/4 Italian, Mom was Slovak descent and dad was Polish-Italian at least 2 generations American no one spoke Italian in her family but with a VERY Italian last name... She really over-emphasizes her Italian background, saying things like 'muzzarel' for Mozzarella cheese...