Italians of Romania

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The Italian Romanians are people of Italian descent who reside, or have moved to Romania. They are an ethnic minority in Romania, numbering 3,331 people according to the 2002 census. Italians are fairly dispersed throughout the country, even though there is a relatively higher number of them in the western parts of the country (particularly Timiş County), and in the Municipality of Bucharest.

As an officially-recognised ethnic minority, Italians have one seat reserved in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies.

In recent years, the number of Italians living in Romania has increased substantially. As of November 2007, there are some 12,000 Italians in and around Timişoara.^[1] About 3,000 square kilometres of land (2% of the agricultural land of Romania) have been bought by Italians.^[1]

[edit] History

The territory of today's Romania has been part of the Italians' (especially Genoese and Venetians) trade routes on the Danube since at least the 13th century. They founded several ports on the Danube, including Vicina (near Isaccea), Sfântu Gheorghe, San Giorgio (Giurgiu) and Calafat.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, many Italians from Western Austria-Hungary settled in Transylvania. During the interwar period, some Italians setteled in Dobrouja. After 2000 an increasing number of Italian bussnisemen came to Romania.