In the 18th century, on the ship Santa Rosa, the naval artilleryman Giovanni Andrea Botero arrived from the port of Cádiz to the city of Cartagena de Indias, specifically in January 1716, working in the service of the Spanish crown.

He traveled to the interior of the country and settled in the municipality of Rionegro, Valley of San Nicolás, Antioquia, where he devoted himself to agriculture and gold mining, founding this family there.

[19] Very few Italians arrived in Colombia before the war of independence led by Simón Bolívar, although several hundred monks came from Italy primarily as priests and missionaries were present in the country.

[20] Although few, these early Italians were present in almost all higher levels of Colombian society, like Juan Dionisio Gamba, the son of a merchant from Genoa who was president of Colombia in 1812.

)In the mid-19th century, many Italians arrived from South Italy (especially from the province of Salerno, and the areas of Basilicata and Calabria), on the north coast of Colombia (Barranquilla was the first center affected by this mass migration).

A wealthy businessman in the Italian-Colombian region of Cauca, named Ernesto Cerruti, stood against the oligarchy and the church in favor of a liberal party and local Masonic group.

[25] In November 1887, to commemorate the independence of Cartagena, a fervent song with lyrics by Rafael Núñez was played at Bogotá Variety Theatre, and was subsequently adopted in 1920 as Hymn of the Republic of Colombia.

The melody came from someone who had arrived as first tenor in an opera company, the Italian musician Oreste Sindici (May 31, 1828 – January 12, 1904), and who lived the last years of his life in Bogotá.

[28] The sculptor Cesare Sighinolfi travelled to Bogotà in 1880, invited by his mentor Pietro Cantini to help decorate the Teatro Cristobal Colon.

[31] After World War II, Italian emigration to Colombia was directed primarily toward Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín, mainly concentrated in the capital region.