One country, four language regions, multiple cultures. In a country known for its white cross and cluster of identities, the Italian-speaking region is often overlooked, even by the Swiss themselves. This region includes the canton of Ticino and four valleys known as the 'Grigionitaliano' – Mesolcina, Calanca, Bregaglia and Valposchiavo – in Graubünden, the country's only trilingual canton.
Italian is Switzerland's third national language, and it's spoken by around 590,000 Swiss people, or 8.1% of the country's population. The language can also be heard in cities in both the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland: more than 50% of the country's Italian speakers live outside the Italian-speaking region, in part due to immigration from Italy, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Switzerland is home to the third-largest community of Italians outside of Italy.
To mark the #SettimanaLinguaItaliana lets place the spotlight on where and how #Italian is spoken in #Switzerland!
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