Europe travel guide

Italian or Veneziano in Venice

Despite Venice having a distinct local language, called Veneziano in the city or Veneto in the rest of Italy, the Instituto Venezia holds highly rated courses to teach Italian to foreigners.

A month-long 'Super Intensivo' course will involve four hours of group classes each day plus afternoons of one-to-one tuition. It's hard work but you should emerge with a decent grasp of the Italian language. And, of course, you'll also get to know the city well during your month's stay.

Italian should serve you well in Venice and the Veneto despite many locals still speaking the local dialect. Indeed, something over 2million people are thought to speak Veneto. Its use even spreads a little over the borders of Italy into Croatia and Slovenia.

The language was officialy recognised in March 2007 by the Regional Council of Veneto by passing a law on the 'tutela e valorizzazione della lingua e della cultura veneta'.

Veneto, like Italian, has descended from Latin. It's classified as part of the Italo-Romance group of languages yet is thought to be nearer French, Catalan and Spanish than Italian. Indeed, a Spanish speaker should get along quite well in Venice and be able to understand much of the dialect.

Fortunately, both Italian and English are widely spoken in Venice. If, however, you hear a language that sounds a little unusual on a city break to Venice, the chances are you are listening to a speaker of Veneziano (in the City) or Veneto, in the rest of the region.

This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Bob Cartwright. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.