The Italian language is spoken by people in places.
The Holy See , also referred to as the See of Rome , ( Santa Sede Sancta Sedes [ ˈsaŋkta ˈsɛdes ] ) is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome , the episcopal see of the Pope , and an independent sovereign entity . Italian language . It used to have official status in Albania , Malta and Monaco , where it is still widely spoken , as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions where it plays a significant role in various sectors . Italian is spoken by small minorities in places such as France ( especially in Corsica ) , Montenegro , Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers ( 13 % of the EU population ) and it is spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens ( 3 % ) . Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy , having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society .