Sure, the languages and aspects of the cultures do go back quite a ways. I mostly object to portraying it as a stable group of people directly descended with no

Sure, the languages and aspects of the cultures do go back quite a ways. I mostly object to portraying it as a stable group of people directly descended with no immigration or adaptation. People changed languages, religions, etc. as borders and rulers changed, as they migrated, and for various other reasons. For example some of today's Greeks are descended from Hellenized Arabs, Persians, Turks, Italians, Romanians, Albanians, etc., while some of today's Italians are descended from Greeks, Visigoths, and others who became Italianized. And these migrations and assimilations also changed the cultures as well as adopting them, especially when they lived side-by-side in multicultural cities. That used to be common in Europe, especially in the big maritime cities and imperial capitals: cities like Vienna, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Trieste, Rhodes, Gdańsk, Marseilles, and Vilnius were multicultural and multilingual up until they were turned monolingual (often violently) in the 19th and 20th centuries. So I don't really buy the idea that Europe is somehow inherently supposed to be made out of monocultural nation-states, and that a multicultural city like NYC is a uniquely American idea.