A woman with an FBI T-Shirt (Full Blooded Italian) criticized my pronunciation. I told her I was part Italian and that was how my mom pronounced the words. My mom is from the east coast.
The woman with the FBI T-shirt said she was from Chicago. So evidently Chicago was populated by northern Italians.
I am told that Italy has more dialects than Carter has pills.
We have a branch of Italians in our family and even that one branch is diverse. There are Sicilians, Neapolitans, and if you go back farther there are some from Tuscany in the north and some from Apulia in the south, where they speak a form of Greek (Griko).
If an “FBI” criticizes your accent just tell her...oh, you know...
Chicago Italians are mostly Sicilian or from Tuscany. There is a “Little Tuscany” on Oakley Street on the west side.