[Menydh]

There are several issues that are interesting to discuss. I will start with bringing in some of Breha's comments.

Originally Posted by Breha

[...] I don't feel neither a Langobard nor a Roman. As I've said ad nauseam, I feel closer to the French and the Occitans since those are our true origins, at least in which has prevailed. [...]

This is undoubtedly more realistic than the Odinist nutcase adscribing a Langobard origin to Northern Italy. Although I still see it little exact.

What you are obviously referring to is a Gallic or Gallo-Romance origin (depending on how far back in time we travel).

Indeed the ancient ethnology of Northern Italy points to a Celtic settlement in NW and NC Italy, together with a Ligurian element at least in the W and NW of Italy. So maybe we can speak of a Celto-Ligurian ancestral past in Western Italy. This Celto-Ligurian element stretched along Eastern Occitania (modern SE France) through the Valadas Occitanas (modern WNW Italy) until meeting the Celtiberian elements in Central Occitania. This is, needless to say, a very rought sketch. The Ligurian presence in W Italy and E Occitania is attested, as is the Iberian presence in Central Occitania. Although the stretches of each one (Ligurians to the west and Iberians to the east) are less clear and probably confused. Suffice to say that there are suspected Ligurian elements as far west as Spain.

Now, how this applies to NE Italy I'm not sure. But the Ligurian element seems to dilute the farther you move east. And this does not apply only to the Veneto but also to Lombardy. In other words, the Occitan connection appears limited to the very west of Northern Italy. I hope that it doesn't sound too bizarre to some if I say that there appears not to be one strong identity for the whole of Northern Italy.

Leaving this aside for a moment, let me move next to what I believe that it is the divide between Northern and Southern Italy.

The easiest and by far more popular way to indentify this divide is by thinking in geopolitical and geo-ethnic terms of North and South. However in the case of Italy this makes us miss much of the nature of the problem. Which is more of an East to West direction.

This is an issue that I find interesting because of how misleading it is. Basically, Southern Italians are closer to Greeks in their culture. Still the Magna Graecia in a way. What is less clear to me is how west are N. Italians and to how degree depending on the regions.