This monograph provides an overview of the language situation in Italy, within the framework of language policy and language planning. It presents an account of multilingualism, linguistic diversity, social variation, educational issues and phenomena of language contact both within and outside Italy. The four main threads are (1) the current linguistic profile of Italy, (2) language spread in the past, (3) the current issues in language planning and language policy, (4) the prediction of future developments and language prospects. A number of historical factors have been elaborated to account for the highly unusual conditions of Italian multilingualism. One factor is that the so-called "dialects" of Italy are actually Romance languages and not dialects of Italian different from the standard. Another is that Italian is a far less standardised language than other Romance languages. The fact that Italian became a major European language without having had the experience of a common nation explains a wide range of issues relevant to language policy and language planning: from education to literacy. Such issues include aspects of national education and foreign language instruction, minority languages, and immigrant languages. My aim has been to provide the readers with critical guidance regarding various policy decisions. (Contains 9 tables and 9 figures.)