These are my hopes in starting a thread that would allow people rub their heads together for the answers-- it could be interesting.
I wondered what a person with Italian blood not growing up in Italy could possess, that a person without the Italian blood couldn't possess even if he grew up in Italy. One thing is all I came up with, and that's the genes for body structure and visual appearance. What else I wonder could you receive through blood that you could never get by just living in Italy?

Thats one tough question jacqueline.. so here's one honest answer -

It's in the blood! :D

The boom in genealogy over the last few years and the availability of DNA testing for the general public have shown that many races are not as pure as they were once thought. In the US many Black Americans have discovered they have white blood, and the number of Native Americans has risen dramatically, but not because of a baby boom.

One particular example of this is presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America's most vocal civil rights activists, who learned that his ancestors were once owned by relatives of the late segregationist South Carolina Senator, Strom Thurmond. For Sharpton it was an ironic twist of fate that closely links him with that of a man who "embodied everything he despises,"(NY Daily News). Sharpton has submitted himself to DNA testing to see if they might actually be related. I am not aware of the result.

Considering how wide the Roman Empire stretched and the mixes in cultures that resulted, and the subsequent 2,000 years of history where Italy was at the forefront of trade and exploration, there isn't such a thing as Italian blood.

Taking the example of Sardinia, which is considered to have one of the purest "bloods", this is what is written about it on wikipedia:

"The original Nuraghe inhabitants of Sardinia, who are now concentrated in the interior of the island due to pressure from colonists, are a genetic « anomaly » in the region. They belong to Y-chromosome haplogroup I, which otherwise has high frequency only in Scandinavia and the Croatia-Bosnia area. Furthermore, the I haplogroup of the indigenous Sardinians is of the I1b1b subtype, which is unique to the island. The I1b1b haplogroup also has a low distribution in and around the Pyrenees, indicating some migration of Sardinians to that area. The Sardinian subtype is more closely related to the Croatian-Bosnian subtype than to the Scandinavian subtype. Sardinia also has a relatively high distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup G, which results from people that migrated to Sardinia from Anatolia. Y-chromosome haplogroup G also has a relatively high concentration in and around the Pyrenees, again indicating migration of Sardinians to that area."

After all that, I believe that what makes a person Italian is living in the Italian environment. Once you move away you cannot help but be influenced by your new surroundings, and vice versa. I am not Italian, yet people here laugh because I have picked up some typical mannerisms and expressions.

Paolo, I'd like to hear your opinion on this.

Thanks for both comments. This Sardoman may pertain to any type of blood than since over the centuries so many kingdoms were invaded and intermingled. For example we have a part that comes from Brittany France, but how on earth could we say we have Norman Knight blood?

I think 10CC got it right when they said

Life is a minestrone
Served up with parmesan cheese

Genetics give us our physical appearance and maybe some characteristics, but where we live gives us our behaviour.

I beg to differ with you Sardoman - to a large degree anyway. My mother is Italian. She speaks perfect English with no trace of an accent, has been married to an Englishman (my father) for 48 years and has worked in the UK all her adult life (until retirement). She has many english friends etc.. but she is as "Neapolitan" in her thoughts and mannerisms as the day she came to live in the UK - 59 years ago.

Behaviour is something we ourselves do and something we experience from others. Many things can affect our behaviour from the way we have been brought up, where we live, the weather and the food we eat for example. Our biological heritage also affects behaviour.

The question here, I think, is whether blood alone defines national identity.

I think that historian Hugh Seton-Watson said it best when reflecting upon the task of writing about another country.

“The foreigner has not grown up in its physical and mental climate, and he cannot understand them, still less feel them, in the same way as its own people do. He can spend long periods in a foreign land, learn its language, live among its citizens, to some extent think as they do, and be accepted as a friend. This is not the same thing as being one of the people of the country, but it is something.”

Ciao Jacqueline

There is no escaping a mixed blood line … there were to many different cultures that were injected by the Roman sperm. One can say “ A truly bloody interaction “.
The pure Roman Imperialist called it a posioning period of time during the Roman Empire. Roman Latin (now the Italian race) was injected with a gorgeous gene and as a result produced a physical attraction, of beauty, with the inner most soul of passion that is undeniable but very much desirable! to a non blooded Italian.

History tells us that the roman blood line spread rapidly during the longest rein of power known to mankind. One can not even begin to imagine what went on thru there conquering love travels combined with ruthless invasions that spanned across all of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

If they could see today’s generic outcome, would they have been disappointed? No!
Although it makes you wonder why the Romans spent so much of there time second guessing… preventing this wild orgy from ever taking place. Killing and dieing trying to separate there so called blood poison from it’s main Roman vein.

All in All …I think the non blooded Italian is a victim from a deep ancient Roman kiss… who's ancestor unfortunately missed out on the total seduction, just for spilling a little wine!

Baci
Boun Natale
Frank Tarsitano
www.italysouth.org

Frank I thank you kindly for such an intricate and poetic explaination to a rather complex question, it makes you stop and think how it all could have went..the killings, the mixings by force or by pleasure, where they took place and how the Romans invented new species everywhere. Thanks Frank

Thank you Praetor for Hugh Watson