The Magna Graecia is the area located in the southern part of the Italian peninsula that was colonized by the Grecians from the eighth century BC.

The increase of population in various cities of ancient Greece, with the consequent need to find new opportunities for livelihood, combined with the interest for the possibility of developing trades, drove between the eighth and seventh century BC to a considerable number of farmers, peasants, craftsmen and merchants from Greece to head towards the Italic coasts (to put it better, to the coast of present Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria and Campania). This intense migration culminated with the establishment of numerous coastal and inland colonies, cities which then grew and reached high levels in the social, cultural and economic field, so as to encourage the formation and development of a civilization that was called Magna Graecia, to indicate evolution and overcoming compared with the ancient homeland.

Sicily requires special remarks, because despite having numerous colonies of Grecian origin is not properly part of Magna Graecia: if the Roman historian included Sicily in this great civilization the ancient Grecians were not of one mind.

Many reports of the glorious times past are found in archaeological sites and museums in several cities of southern Italy, calling today a huge number of tourists. Among the cities that owe their origin to the Grecians one can list: Canosa, Gallipoli, Taranto (Puglia); Ferrandina, Metaponto, Nova Siri, Pisticci, Policoro, Tursi (Basilicata); Cirò, Crotone, Gioia Tauro, Marcellina, Nocera Terinese, Reggio Calabria, Rosarno, Vibo Valentia (Calabria); Cuma, Ischia, Napoli, Pozzuoli (Campania); Acireale, Agrigento, Camarina, Catania, Gela, Giardini-Naxos, Imera, Lentini, Messina, Milazzo, Selinunte, Siracusa (Sicily). Among the most interesting monuments: the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento (declared Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO), the Temple of Poseidon at Taranto, the Temple of Hera in Metaponto, in addition to numerous exhibits kept inside the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria.