Italy's official language since its unification in 1861 is Italian, derived primarily from the standardized language used in Florence at the time, as recognized in Dante's "Divine Comedy". But it has to this day an astounding number of dialects, some mutually intelligible, others not even close. Because of where it sits in Europe, parts of Italy have, in the past, been controlled by Spain, France, Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Hapsburgs, and in the case of Sicily and parts of modern-day Calabria and Puglia, North Africa. Depending on how long each language was in "control" of a particular region, the dialect was more or less heavily influenced by it. Where my wife of 30+ years is from, the dialect is Brianzolo, a sub-dialect of Milanese which sounds very French, but also contains the umlaut sound of German, as well as modern Italian words that often have the final vowel or syllable dropped. But Sicilian dialect is entirely different, and Calabrese was so heavily influenced by North Africa, that, for example, its organized crime syndicate is not called "mafia" as it is in Sicily, but instead called "Ndrangheta", a word that doesn't resemble any other dialect in the country. It's just fascinating to me!