[3][4][5] The European Union has repeatedly called for the human rights of Camminanti to be respected, as well as Italian Romani.
[6] The Camminanti live mainly in Sicily (especially Val di Noto),[7] however, there are smaller populations in Campania, Lombardy, and Lazio.
One theory asserts that they are the descendants of Slavic and Nordic travellers, but this has been met with little consensus.
[8] Similar, but unproven, theories hypothesize that the people originated as the survivors of the 1693 Sicily earthquake or that they were initially slaves but transformed into an ethnic group after slavery was abolished.
[7][9] In Italy they are well known for their practice of making balloons, which serves as one of their main sources of income.