i'm from a 100% italian family. Soo...?

Question

WHY AM I SO PALE? I'm pale, naturally blonde.... it's so weird.

Answer 1

I dated a blue eyed/blonde Italian girl. She too was 100% Italian, or, so she thought.

Your ancestry, like hers, likely traces back to Northern Italy where blonde/blue eyed Italians are not that unusual. The reason? Mighty close to the Swiss Alps. Watch out for those Swede's (LOL)!

No one is really 100% any nationality. My heritage is Italian on both sides as far back as the Roman Ceasar's but, before that? Who knows?

Jim DeSantis

Answer 2

The part of Italy your ancestors come from can be part of the answer. You have to realize there is no 100% race in any nationality. You might have a 100% Italian family as all your ancestors came from Italy, but even in Italy many different people
immigrated, invaded etc. Italy was not a nation until the end of the 19th century when Garibaldi overthrew the Papal states and united Italy and turned it over to the House of Savoy.

I worked back in the early 60s at Southwest Research Institute. They developed and tested scale models of the Aluminaut submarine. Right after I went to work there, Jacques Picard and Prince Victor Emmanuele came as they were interested in underwater research. Prince Victor Emmanuele would be the King of Italy today if they still had a monarchy. He was very blond.

When they left, a secretary was picking up coffee cups and pads etc they left behind in a meeting room. The Prince turned out to be an aspiring Michelangelo. He had drawn characteurs of everyone in the room and put their names on it. He was quite good.

Additional note: I don't think if any of your ancestors stayed inside to keep from getting darker would have anything to do with the genes they passed on to you. I just don't think the amount of sunshine you get changes the genes you are carrying and passes on to your descendants. Maybe so.
If someone has the scientific information I would like to hear it.

Answer 3

It's not weird.. I'm 100% Italian, and I'm sooo pale too... ;-)
The cliche of tanned italians is false. Well, the majority of people here is not blonde, but there are pale people, especially in the north of Italy.

Answer 4

Another option: have a DNA test. I sincerely doubt if you are "100%". Going back in time, you are probably mixed. During the sacking of Rome by the Germanic tribes, not many "100% Italians" would have survived. Not to mention, Rome was to the ancient world what America is to the modern world: people came from all over to Rome. Also, like America, people had the chance to work hard and amount to something: slaves came to own villas and have their own slaves! (America has Mexican workers...)
Another consideration: Filipinos often think highly of light-skinned persons, and will do everything to make their skin lighter (one of the things was to spend most of their time indoors); this could be part of your paleness, inherited from persons who worked indoors.

Answer 5

I have many Italian friends and some are supper blond and some are Olive skin color is just the part of Italy that you come from in Firenze people are more pale than in Roma and in Sardinia and Sicilians are dark Skin

Answer 6

maybe you have less melanin (skin pigment), sort of like Albinism, but not as extreme.

Answer 7

genetic mutation

Answer 8

So what?