Slovene minority in Italy
The vast majority of members of the Slovene ethnic minority live in the Provinces of Trieste, Gorizia, and Udine.
The Slovenes of the Julian March or Venezia Giulia (the present-day Provinces of Trieste and Gorizia) became Italian citizens only with the Treaty of Rapallo of 1920.
During World War II large portions of the population took part in the Yugoslav partisan movement, and between 1945 and 1947, many of them actively supported the annexation to Yugoslavia.
In the aftermath of World War II, their integration in the Italian state was slow and difficult: much of the anti-Slav Fascist legislation (for example, the forced Italianization of family names) remained valid, and in the context of the Cold War, the Slovene minority was regarded by many political parties, as well as by segments of State institutions, as a potential Yugoslav Trojan Horse.
[citation needed] After 1947, the term zamejski Slovenci (literally, 'Slovenes beyond the border') started to be used by the Yugoslav press and institutions, especially in Slovenia.
The Slovene minority in Italy lives in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, more precisely, in the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine.
They shared the same fate as other Slovenes in the Julian March: they were subjected to Fascist Italianization, which gave rise to pro-Yugoslav irredentism.
In 1947, after World War II, a new border between Italy and Yugoslavia was drawn, dividing the Julian March between the two states.
They have enjoyed a certain degree of cultural autonomy (the most important feature being the education system in Slovene) since 1945, and they have maintained strong relations with Slovenia, especially with the neighboring border areas of the Slovenian Littoral.
In 1986 the Slovenian community founded the football club Kras Repen, which locates its fan base among the Slovenes in Italy.
Venetian Slovenia (Slovene: Beneška Slovenija or Benečija, Italian: Slavia Veneta) is the traditional name for Slovene-speaking areas in the valleys of upper Natisone and Torre rivers in eastern Friuli (currently in the Province of Udine).
The valley is currently divided among three municipalities: Tarvisio (Trbiž), Malborghetto Valbruna (Naborjet - Ovčja vas), and Pontebba (Tablja).
In 1939, the South Tyrol Option Agreement between Italy and Nazi Germany was also applied to ethnic Germans in the area; as a consequence, most of the German-speaking population was resettled to neighboring Carinthia.
The inhabitants of the Resia Valley (Rezija) in north-western Friuli speak a specific dialect of Slovene, known as Resian.
