Religious Beliefs. Newspapers give a good view of popular beliefs, as they are full of advertisements by fortune-tellers, therapists, and problem solvers. Officially, most Swiss Italians are Catholic. Archaeological remains from graves provide evidence of Etruscan, Celtic, Gallic, and Roman customs and goddesses. The Swiss Italians were Christianized already in the fourth century and some villages still celebrate Ambrosian rites.
In the alpine valleys Leventina, Bienio people were Christianized from the north. As the Grigioni Italiano were under foreign domination, the Reformation could develop freely but it did not have a lasting influence. Catholic Ticino was influenced considerably by the Catholic Swiss cantons, which by law prohibited the Reformed church from remaining in dominated areas.
Until the formal separation of church and state, the population was under the control of the churches and monasteries. Recently, many monasteries and community churches have been abandoned because of a shortage of priests.
Italian priests are often found in the valleys. The cultural linguistic, intellectual, architectural, art-historical, and artistic center of Swiss Italy lies in Italy Milan. The sculptor Giacometti from Bregaglia Stampa , who was known locally, had to exhibit first in Paris and Milan before he was recognized in Ticino.
The same can be said of Brignoni, the artist and ethnographic collector. Swiss Italian literature emphasizes regional culture and identity. There are regional programs for theater, music, and arts education. There is no Swiss Italian university four American universities around Lugano and business centers in nearby Lombardia were recently opened.
