How Difficult Is It to Learn Italian?

The Facts

Italian belongs to the Romance language group (by comparison, English is in the Germanic group) and is spoken widely throughout Southern and Central Europe. It is an official language in several European countries, OSCE, and the Holy See, serving as the language of communication in the Catholic hierarchy. There are also vibrant Italian communities in many of the major cities in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated that Italian is spoken by 85 million speakers worldwide.