Italians celebrating their embarkation aboard ships bound for Argentina at the turn of the century.

Small groups of Italians began immigrating to Argentina as early as the later half of the 18th century. Only after 1880 did the stream of Italian immigration to Argentina became a mass phenomenon. Between 1880 and 1920 over 2 million Italians had left their homeland to seek a better life in Argentina.

By 1914, Buenos Aires alone had more than 300,000 Italian-born inhabitants, representing 25% of the total population! The Italian immigrants were primarily male, aged between 14 and 50 and more than 50% literate. In terms of occupations, 78.7% in the population were agricultural workers or unskilled laborers, 10.7% artisans, and only 3.7% worked in commerce or served as professionals.

The outbreak of World War I and the rise of fascism in Italy caused a rapid fall in immigration to Argentina, with a slight revival in 1923 to 1927, but eventually stopped during the Great Depression and the Second World War.

At the end of World War II, many Italians left their homeland and immigrated to Argentina.

After the end of World War II, Italy was reduced to rubble and occupied by foreign armies. From 1946 to 1957 was another massive wave of 380,000 Italians immigrating to Argentina.

The major recovery of the Italian economy after World War II during the 1950s and 1960s eventually caused the era of Italian diaspora abroad to end, and in the following decades, Italy became a country with net immigration.

Today 527,570 Italian citizens still live in Argentina.

Argentina absorbed many Italian customs including a love of pasta, pizza and espresso coffee.