ITALIAN LANGUAGE FACTS
The Italian language is spoken by about 62 million natives, making it number 20 on the worldwide list for number of 
native speakers. It is also part of the romance languages group, the most common of these being Italian, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian, which branch from the indo-European language family, all descending from Latin. Even still Italian is the closest national language to Latin, especially in vocabulary, as it derives diachronically from it.
The Italian language was standardized and adopted by the state after the unification of Italy. As well as being the primary language of Vatican City, it is also the official language of Croatia, San Marino and Slovenia. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. This standard Italian language is based on Tuscan dialects, mainly from the city of Florence.
Italian is commonly thought of as the language of theatre and opera. The truth is that Italian, as we know it, is based on the writings of Dante Alighieri. Dante mixed southern Italian languages, especially Sicilian, with his native Tuscan in his epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia, in the early 14th century. Dante's very popular works were read throughout Italy and his written dialect became the basis of a language that could be understood by all.
UK Italian Information
