Last of the Romans?

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I am referring to the Romans as an ethnic group, I know that the Romans are the descendants of Italians what them brag about

But I wonder whether Roman culture ceased to exist with the fall of the Roman Empire, I also know that the East Roman Empire fell almost thousen years later, in the fifteenth century but it was Roman only in name because it really was a Greek Empire

I'm very interested in Roman history and being familiar with it,I see evidence of Roman culture everywhere !
Their influence is very much underestimated,perhaps not suprisingly unless their history has been studied or if
one lives close to areas of Roman remains.
Their language Latin of course forms the basis of French,Spanish,Italian,Portuguese etc.Even English owes much to Latin words.The Romans more or less invented or perfected vital building blocks of civilisation such as concrete,aqueducts and sewers.
Many of today's modern roads in what was the Empire are based on the ancient routes that they followed.
Their laws form the basis of many modern countries' laws and the Roman Catholic church is a legacy of the Emperor
Constantine's influence in converting to Christianity and promoting it as as the imperial religion.
It's true that the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire was Greek in nature,but the Romans had already taken over and 'adopted' Greek culture and infused it with their own in the Western empire.They adopted cultural aspects of all
the peoples they conquered.

It is AMAZING how the Romans/Greeks influenced just about EVERYTHING up until about the mid-20th Century.

When Roman Empire had been conquered by the barbatians, many sources mention that they were fascinated by Roman culture and were copying it wherever they can - Visigothic, Burgundian and Langobardian chiefs were proud to become equites, patricians and senators, even started wearing togas for some period, they adopted Roman Law in territories they possessed, learned Latin and generally took many other useful things and achivements from dying Empire.

Even in the 19th century, it was almost "required" for a famous person to have a sculpture created of that person in Roman/Greek (usually Roman) garb and hairstyle.

A lot of modern norms (monogamy, sexual prudishness, the Julian calendar, etc.) were popularized by the Roman empire.

I'm working my way through Durant's volumes on the History of Civilization. I just finished the book on Ancient Greece; next up is Rome. The cross-pollination between Greece and Rome was large, so I much look forward to reading what he has to say. It is amazing how much after 2,000 years or so the degree that Western cultures still reflect influences of these two ancient cultures.

There is no hidden valley where you can find folks who wear togas and speak classical Latin.

But the Roman Empire survives in the influence mentioned above.

Also a shadow version of the Roman state lives on in the form of the Vatican (essentially Roman style republican legislature).

Linguistically the Roman Empire survives in the Modern Romance languages spoken in many of Rome's former western provinces: Gaul (French), Hispania (Spanish, Portugese, Catalan, etc), Italia (Italian), until recently the romance language of Dalmatian was spoken in what is now Slovenia (north east Yugoslavia), and in eastern Europe in what was the Roman province of Dacia they still speak Rumanian( The modern country of Rumania is a Latin speaking isolate surrounded by Slavic speaking countries). And there are remote valleys in Greece, and in Yugoslavia were the modern peasants speak "Vlach" (essentially a dialect of Rumanian). These folks could be thought of as the ethnic remnants of the Roman empire before the Slavic barbarians over ran the eastern empire in the Dark Ages. In fact the modern Rumanian government advocates for the rights of the Vlach minorities in Rumania's neighboring countries. The word 'Vlach' is ancient Germanic for "foreigner"- which during the time when the Germanic tribes were over running the mediterranean world meant "subjects of the Roman Empire" (ie Romans). The word is related to the word "Welch" which is what the Germanic Anglo Saxon invaders of Britain called the Romanized Celts who already lived in the place they were invading ( ie "foriegners", or "Romans").