My Sicilian born maternal grandfather heard me tell a friend I was half Italian. He cuffed me across the ears and told me we were Sicilians—not Italians. He considered Italians to be low-life people, particularly those from Naples.
Yep. My husband is Sicilian. Those are the only REAL Italians. People from Naples ("Nablidon" - Neapolitans) are "thick-headed."
Of course, he is only joking when he says this.
Sort of.
All 4 of my grandparents were from Sicily. The family went bananas when my uncle married a woman whose family was from Naples.
Our Italian neighbors told me that there’s a saying in Rome, “Everything south of Naples is Africa.”
But in Milan they say, “Everything south of Rpme...”