Italian is a Romance language, part of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. Italian is the official language of Italy, San Marino, and one of the official languages of Switzerland (spoken in the Ticino and Graubünden cantons).
Italian is also widely spoken in Vatican City, parts of Croatia and Slovenia, and among Italian communities worldwide.

Official Language of Europe: Italian is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union and is spoken by around 85 million people worldwide.
Language of Art and Literature: During the Renaissance, Italian became the language of great literary works. Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” is one of the earliest and most influential works in Italian literature.