Khaganate of Appennine Bulgaria (plausibility check)

After the Fall of the First Bulgarian Khaganate, Bulgarian hordes spread through Europe. The luckiest of them settled the Middle Volga area, where they established the Volga Bulgaria and possibily gave origin to present-day Chuvash (though it is far from certain) and on the Lower Danube, where they established what was to become the nation of Bulgaria after assimilation to the local Slavs.
Other groups settled in Pannonia, Caucasus (where they may have originated the Balkar people) and Italy. The main group in Italy settled some areas of the Langobardian Duchy of Benevento, and they retained a considerable autonomy within it, under their own leaders. There are hints to suppose that Bulgarians kept a distinct culture and language for several generations after settling parts of Campania and Molise.
I wonder what if they manage somehow to establish their own polity in the area and keep their language? It would not be easy, but with some luck, they could leave a significant trace in the Southern Appenine. Possibly, present-day alt-Italy, or whatever in her place, has a "Bolgheria" region whose capital could be Isernia or Avellino, whose spoken language, though Romance, shows a distinct Altaic influence. What do you think?
 
You'd need a larger group to head there, for sure.

Maybe have Asparukh's horde go there instead of the Balkans?
 
You'd need a larger group to head there, for sure.

Maybe have Asparukh's horde go there instead of the Balkans?

Difficult. Asparukh would come as conqueror and the Langobardians hardly would allow him in. He's need to conquer a great chunk of Italy. But a larger Alcek's horde would be a start. (Alcek was the name of the Bulgarian leader who settled in Southern Italy).
 
Difficult. Asparukh would come as conqueror and the Langobardians hardly would allow him in. He's need to conquer a great chunk of Italy. But a larger Alcek's horde would be a start. (Alcek was the name of the Bulgarian leader who settled in Southern Italy).

Yes, well.

Alcek's horde was small because of his standing among the Bulgars at the time of the breakup. What makes him more prominent, and if he is more prominent, why doesn't he simply conquer Serbia or Epirus/Greece instead with the extra resources?

I do agree it's a cool idea, but the details are so very vague...
 
The group that went west numbered 10 000 warriors and went to the Bavarians who tricked them and massacred them with the survivors fleeing to Italy. There Bulgairans gould be recognised for several decades.

If you get the enitre 10 000 strong force into Italy it is not beyond imagination they could take a piace of land for themselves and maintain it through promoting Slavic colonisation in their lands.
 
The group that went west numbered 10 000 warriors and went to the Bavarians who tricked them and massacred them with the survivors fleeing to Italy. There Bulgairans gould be recognised for several decades.

If you get the enitre 10 000 strong force into Italy it is not beyond imagination they could take a piace of land for themselves and maintain it through promoting Slavic colonisation in their lands.

Those Bulgarians weren't Slavicized yet, but your point stands. If Alcek sense the Bavarian intentions and flees to Italy before the massacre, he could have a chance to establish a Bulgarian Khaganate under Langobardian suzerainity in a sizeable chunk of the Southern Appennine (where many areas were seemingly depopulated at the time) and leave a strong mark in the area.
Slavic settlements happened in nearby areas of Apulia later, and in Molise there are some Croatian-speaking villages to the present day.
I'm not sure that Bulgarians and Slavs would fuse here as they they did in Danubian Bulgarian, but if they do, a Slavic-Bulgarian entity in the area would be cool.
 
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