The idea itself of dialect may be difficult to grasp for non-Italians. It’s not a language, yet it’s not a variety of one either. It may sound like Italian here and there, yet it can also be extremely different and to make things worse, people speaking different dialects may not necessarily understand each other.

I have vivid memories of how I, a born and bred Piedmontese girl, would stand in confusion when, as a teenager, a friend’s Neapolitan stepdad would speak to me using his colorful, beautiful dialect. God bless Parthenope, of course, but I think I have never felt so confused in my life.