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119-504: The Sanremo Music Festival ( Italian : Festival di Sanremo [ˈfɛstival di sanˈrɛːmo, festiˈval -] ), officially the Italian Song Festival (Italian: Festival della canzone italiana ), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo , Liguria, organized and broadcast by Italian public broadcaster RAI . It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in

238-565: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when

357-471: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of

476-657: A local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has

595-596: A new competition, held entirely online, was introduced by the artistic director of the 59th edition of the contest, Paolo Bonolis . Titled Sanremofestival.59 , the contest was not held in the following years. The "Mia Martini" Critics Award, originally named the Critics Award of the Italian Song Festival and, more informally, simply the Critics Award, is a recognition given to the best song, selected by music experts (journalists and music critics) at

714-590: A panoramic view of the coast. The A10 joins the French A8 highway at the border between Ventimiglia and Menton . Together these national routes are part of the European route E80 . The A10 motorway is a toll road , and the A8 demands a toll in sections, and some sections are free of charge. When travelling from Italy into France, one does not pay until after the towns of Menton and Monaco. Other roads of importance are

833-658: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as

952-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving

1071-575: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of

1190-526: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: Sanremo While it is often stated in modern folk stories that Sanremo is named after a legendary Saint Remus , the name of the city is actually a phonetic contraction of Sant'Eremo di San Romolo ("Holy Hermitage of Saint Romulus"), which refers to Romulus of Genoa ,

1309-479: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility

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1428-513: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to

1547-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin

1666-691: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are the most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and

1785-759: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about

1904-534: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since

2023-536: Is in France , the Côte d'Azur International Airport in Nice , 45 minutes away by car. The railway connects the city to other Ligurian cities like Imperia, Genoa and to Nice, Milan , Turin and Rome . The railway line used to be along the coast, running close to the sea, and providing a view for travellers. The line has been moved further north and underground, which allows for faster trains; Sanremo railway station

2142-460: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it

2261-504: Is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and a local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of

2380-462: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around

2499-603: Is one of twelve symphony orchestras recognized by the state of Italy; it performs some 120 concerts throughout the year, most in the Municipal Casino's Opera Theatre. The city is connected to Genoa and to Ventimiglia , the border city with France , by the A10 motorway , whose last part is also known as the Autostrada dei Fiori ("Motorway of Flowers"). It has a large number of elevated sections with viaducts that give

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2618-699: Is so popular among Italians that it is often referred to simply as "Il Festival" ( The Festival). Other events include the Tenco Prize (autumn), a song contest for authors dedicated to the memory of Luigi Tenco ; the Flowers Parade in January/February in which every city of the Italian Riviera presents an original composition of flowers displayed on a Carnival/Mardi-Gras style moving car; and the summer Firework International Contest in

2737-648: Is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and

2856-549: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as

2975-509: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,

3094-991: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),

3213-604: The Doria and De Mari families. It became a free town in the second half of the 15th century, after which it expanded to the Pigna hill and at Saint Syrus Cathedral. The almost perfectly preserved old village remains. Sanremo remained independent of the Genoese Republic . In 1753, after 20 years of fierce conflicts, it rose against Genoese hegemonical attempts. At that time Genoa built the fortress of Santa Tecla, situated on

3332-816: The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 , topping the charts in Greece, Israel, and Lithuania, and reaching the top ten in five more countries. " Zitti e buoni " by Måneskin won both the Sanremo Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, topping the charts in several European countries. It peaked at number seventeen on the UK Singles Chart and reached top ten on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. In 1966, Adriano Celentano sang " Il ragazzo della via Gluck " at

3451-702: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in

3570-852: The Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian

3689-674: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in

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3808-773: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and

3927-554: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after

4046-606: The Premio David di Donatello for motion pictures). The first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, held between 29 and 31 January 1951, was broadcast by RAI's radio station Rete Rossa , and its only three participants were Nilla Pizzi , Achille Togliani , and Duo Fasano . Starting from 1955, all editions of the festival have been broadcast live by the Italian TV station Rai 1 . From 1951 to 1976,

4165-528: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed

4284-470: The best-selling singles of all time . " Non ho l'età " by Gigliola Cinquetti (1964), " Sarà perché ti amo " by Ricchi e Poveri (1981), " Maledetta primavera " by Loretta Goggi (1981), " Felicità " by Al Bano and Romina Power (1982), " L'Italiano " by Toto Cutugno (1983), " Adesso tu " by Eros Ramazzotti (1986), " La solitudine " by Laura Pausini (1993), and " Il mare calmo della sera " by Andrea Bocelli (1994) also became international hits. In 1994,

4403-532: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From

4522-510: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and

4641-562: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian

4760-455: The 1982 Sanremo Festival, "Storie di tutti i giorni" by Riccardo Fogli , was sung by Dutch singer Marco Borsato , with the title "Dromen zijn deception"; his version became one of the most successful Dutch-language singles of all time. It remained at number one in the Dutch Top 40 for twelve weeks. The song " Quando quando quando " by Tony Renis competed in the Sanremo Festival in 1962 and

4879-616: The Catholic-inspired Italian Center for Sexology. Sanremo's Mediterranean climate and attractive seacoast setting on the Italian Riviera make it a popular tourist destination. Besides tourism, the city is active in the production of extra virgin-grade olive oil , whose regional "designation of origin" is protected (D.O.P., Denominazione di Origine Protetta ). It is one of the agricultural commodities in western Liguria and in particular within

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4998-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has

5117-489: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,

5236-415: The Italian market, including Louis Armstrong , Ray Charles , Stevie Wonder , Cher , Gloria Gaynor , Dionne Warwick , Jose Feliciano , Roberto Carlos , Paul Anka , Miriam Makeba , Bonnie Tyler , Shirley Bassey , Mungo Jerry , Kiss , Laura Branigan , Alla Pugacheva , and many others. In the aftermath of World War II , one of the proposals to revitalize the economy and the reputation of Sanremo

5355-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from

5474-433: The Newcomers section at the Sanremo Festival in 1992. It became an international hit, being covered as " No Me Ames " by American singers Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony . The song peaked at number one in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. It received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo/Group with Vocals. At the Billboard Latin Music Awards of 2000, the song received an award for Hot Latin Track of

5593-405: The Roman settlement of Matutia or Villa Matutiana , Sanremo expanded in the early Middle Ages when the population moved to the high grounds. The nobility built a castle and the walled village of La Pigna to protect the town from Saracen raids. At first subjected to the countship of Ventimiglia , the community later passed under the dominion of the Genoese bishops. In 1297 they sold it to

5712-444: The SS1, the "Aurelia Bis", which connects Sanremo to Taggia . This is a non-toll bypass route . The coast road is the via Aurelia or SS1 and follows the route of a Roman road. This can be heavily congested when it passes through towns, as it has only one lane in either direction for most of the way around Sanremo. A trolleybus line along the via Aurelia links Sanremo with both Taggia and Ventimiglia. The closest airport to Sanremo

5831-577: The Sanremo Festival and the Critics Award jury, decided to name the prize after the Calabrian artist, specifically because she was the artist who, until then, had won the award the most frequently (three times), as well as having been its first winner. Notable guest artists of that time were, among others: Various songs presented during the Sanremo Music Festival over the years have become international hits, including " Nel blu, dipinto di blu " and " Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina) " by Domenico Modugno . "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" spent five non-consecutive weeks atop

5950-408: The Sanremo Festival. American singer Verdelle Smith sang an English version of the song, titled "Tar and Cement", which made it to number one in Australia and became one of the year's biggest sellers. The song also reached number 32 in Canada. In the US, it peaked at number 38. In Sweden, Anna-Lena Löfgren sang it with Swedish lyrics as "Lyckliga gatan", making the biggest hit of her career. The song

6069-542: The Sanremo Music Festival. The prize was created in 1982 specifically to award Mia Martini 's interpretation of her song "E non finisce mica il cielo". Since 1996, the award has been named after Mia Martini, following her sudden death. A petition was launched by the founder of Mia Martini's official club, Chez Mimi, alongside Alba Calia and Dori Ghezzi and supported by numerous Italian artists, including Mina , Luciano Pavarotti , Fabrizio De André , Lucio Dalla , and Franco Battiato . Pippo Baudo , then-artistic director of

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6188-399: The US Billboard Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and subsequently became Billboard 's number-one single for the year. In 1959, at the inaugural Grammy Awards , "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" became the first-ever Grammy winner for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year . The song "Io che non vivo (senza te)", sung at the fifteenth edition of the Sanremo Festival by Pino Donaggio ,

6307-420: The Year by a Vocal Duo and two nominations for Tropical/Salsa Track of the Year and Hot Latin Track of the Year. The song " Che sarà " was sung by Ricchi e Poveri and José Feliciano at the Sanremo Festival in 1971. Feliciano's recorded version was successful in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and Latin America. The Spanish version of "Che sarà" peaked at number one in Spain and Latin America. The winning song of

6426-411: The administrator of the Sanremo Casino, Piero Bussetti, and the conductor of the RAI orchestra, Giulio Razzi, rediscussed the idea, deciding to launch a competition among previously unreleased songs. Officially titled Festival della Canzone Italiana (literally "Festival of the Italian song"), the first edition of the show was held at the Sanremo Casino on 29, 30, and 31 January 1951. The final round of

6545-649: The beach near the port. The fortress was used as a prison until 2002. It is now used as a museum. After the French domination and the Savoy restoration in 1814, Sanremo was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia . From the middle of the 18th century, the town grew rapidly, in part due to the development of tourism, which saw the first grand hotels built and the town extended along the coast. The Empress "Sissi" of Austria , Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia took vacations in Sanremo, while Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel made it his permanent home. The San Remo conference , 19–26 April 1920, of

6664-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside

6783-431: The celebrated annual Sanremo Music Festival , which has been held in the city since 1951. This festival inspired the Eurovision Song Contest , which started in 1956, and has often been used to select the Italian entry for the European contest. The internationally notable song " Nel blu, dipinto di blu ", popularly known as "Volare", was performed at this festival for the first time by Domenico Modugno in 1958. The festival

6902-455: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian

7021-403: The competition was broadcast by Rete Rossa , the second most important RAI radio station. Twenty songs took part in the competition, performed by three artists only– Nilla Pizzi , Duo Fasano, and Achille Togliani . Starting from the third edition of the festival, held in 1953, each song was performed by two different artists with different orchestras and arrangements. Two years later, in 1955,

7140-438: The contest. In 1982, accredited music journalists decided to create an award to recognise the best song competing in the festival. Starting from 1983, the prize was officially awarded during the event. The critics' prize was later named after Mia Martini , who was the first artist receiving it in 1982 for her entry "E non finisce mica il cielo". Moreover, starting from 1984, the separation between newcomers and established artists

7259-405: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of

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7378-408: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to

7497-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during

7616-415: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in

7735-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date

7854-420: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of

7973-420: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until

8092-421: The entries in the "Young artists" category had to go through an elimination round, while "Big artists" were directly admitted to the final round. In 1977, the Sanremo Casino, which hosted all the previous editions of the contest, was closed for renovations, therefore the show moved to the Teatro Ariston . The theater later became the usual location for the annual contest, hosting it every year except in 1990, when

8211-409: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by

8330-451: The event between 2020 and 2024, Amadeus joined Baudo and Bongiorno in the record for the most consecutive editions hosted, i.e., five, and established himself as the presenter with the highest number of consecutive nights hosted, at 25. Full list of festival hosts: Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] )

8449-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in

8568-587: The festival made its first appearance on television, since part of the final night was also broadcast by RAI's channel Programma Nazionale . The last night of the show was also broadcast in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. In 1964, Gianni Ravera , who organized the 14th Sanremo Music Festival, slightly changed the rules of the contest, requiring each song to be performed once by an Italian artist and once by an international singer, who

8687-679: The festival took place in the Sanremo Casino , but starting from 1977, all the following editions were held in the Teatro Ariston , except in 1990, which was held at the Nuovo Mercato dei Fiori  [ it ] . The songs selected in the competition are in Italian or in any regional language , and the three most voted songs are awarded. Other special awards are also given, including the Critics' Award, created ad hoc by

8806-571: The five most important one-day races of the cycling season. Milan – San Remo is traditionally held in March and is one of the first major fixtures of the cycling season. It is usually the longest professional one-day race in the cycling season, giving the race a unique character. The most important local football club is the Sanremese which has played also in Serie B and in Serie C . Sanremo

8925-476: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in

9044-489: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as

9163-577: The language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During the Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak

9282-640: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of

9401-498: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in

9520-534: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian

9639-567: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of

9758-534: The musical event. In 2003, Pippo Baudo hosted for the eleventh time, matching the record previously held by Mike Bongiorno . He later overtook this record, hosting the Sanremo Music Festival in 2007 and in 2008. Only seven women have hosted the festival as main presenters. The first women ever to host the event alone were Lilly Lembo and Giuliana Calandra in 1961, followed by Maria Giovanna Elmi in 1978, Loretta Goggi in 1986, Raffaella Carrà in 2001, Simona Ventura in 2004, and Antonella Clerici in 2010. Hosting

9877-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity

9996-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on

10115-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of

10234-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:

10353-458: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it

10472-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to

10591-663: The post-World War I Allied Supreme Council determined the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for the administration of the former Ottoman-ruled lands of the Middle East by the victorious powers. The most notable of these was the British Mandate of Palestine . In 1972, the first public demonstration for the defence of the dignity and rights of gay people in Italy took place in Sanremo in protest against an international congress on sexual deviance organized by

10710-662: The press in 1982 to reward the quality of Mia Martini 's song, and named after the singer in 1996, after her death. The Sanremo Music Festival has often been used as a method for choosing the Italian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. It has launched the careers of some of Italy's most successful musical acts, including Toto Cutugno , Gigliola Cinquetti , Laura Pausini , Eros Ramazzotti , Andrea Bocelli , Giorgia , Il Volo , and Måneskin . Between 1953 and 1971 (except in 1956), in 1990, and 1991, each song

10829-469: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of

10948-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to

11067-549: The province of Imperia . Sanremo is known as the City of Flowers ( la Città dei Fiori ), this being another important aspect of the economy of the city. The nearby towns of Arma di Taggia , Bordighera and Ospedaletti are also involved in the cultivation of flowers for the international flower market. The Municipal Casino , built in 1905, is an example of Art Nouveau building. The Ariston Theatre offers an annual series of concerts, operas and theatre plays. The Symphony Orchestra

11186-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed

11305-542: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome

11424-405: The second week of August also called Ferragosto . The culinary specialities of Sanremo and its environs include Sardenara , Focaccia, Focaccia alle Cipolle, Torta Verde, Farinata and Taggiasca olives. The Sanremo Casino ( Casino Municipale di Sanremo ) opened in 1905 and has operated continuously since then with the exception of the years of World War II . For much of its history, the casino

11543-477: The show was held at the Nuovo Mercato dei Fiori, also known as Palafiori. In 1980, pre-recorded backing tracks replaced the orchestra, while playback performances were allowed in 1983 during the final round. In 1984 and 1985, all the artists were forced to perform in playback, while live performances with the orchestra were reintroduced in 1990. During the same years, several other changes were introduced in

11662-744: The song "La mia storia tra le dita", which Gianluca Grignani sang at Sanremo, became a hit in South America, selling two million copies. Nek sang " Laura non c'è " at the Sanremo Festival in 1997, with the song becoming a hit in Europe and Latin America; the Spanish version charted in the US and peaked at number 21 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart. " Soldi " by Mahmood won the 69th Sanremo Festival and placed second in

11781-510: The successor to Syrus of Genoa . In Ligurian , his name is San Reumoo . The non- univerbated spelling San Remo features on ancient maps of Liguria and maps of the Republic of Genoa , Medieval Italy, the Kingdom of Sardinia , and the Kingdom of Italy ; it was used in 1924 in official documents under Mussolini . This form of the name, now superseded by Sanremo both officially and in common usage, still appears on some road signs and, more rarely, in unofficial tourist information. Once

11900-473: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,

12019-469: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and

12138-542: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),

12257-659: The working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian

12376-560: The world on a national level (making it one of the world's longest-running television programmes ) and it is also the basis and inspiration for the annual Eurovision Song Contest . Unlike other awards in Italy, the Sanremo Music Festival is a competition for new songs, not an award to previous successes (like the Premio regia televisiva  [ it ] for television, the Premio Ubu  [ it ] for stage performances, and

12495-432: Was abolished again in 2004. The following year, the contest included five different categories—Newcomers, Men, Women, Groups, and Classics. The winner of each category competed for the final victory of the contest. The category Classic was abolished in 2006, while starting from 2007, the festival came back to the rules used in the 1990s, with two completely separate competitions for established artists and newcomers. In 2009,

12614-461: Was allowed to perform the song in any language. The same rule was applied in the following year's contest. Between 1967 and 1971, entries were not forced to be interpreted by foreign artists, but double performances were kept. Starting from 1972, each entry was sung by one artist only. The competing artists were split for the first time into "Big artists" and "Young artists" during the Sanremo Music Festival 1974. The competition had one winner only, but

12733-561: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only

12852-525: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on

12971-691: Was covered by many international artists, becoming a best-selling single: Bobby Curtola 's version charted at number ten in Canada, Engelbert Humperdinck 's reached number forty in the UK, and Pat Boone 's version achieved number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song " Con te partirò " was first performed by Andrea Bocelli at the 1995 Sanremo Festival, topping the charts in several European countries. A partial English version, released in 1996 as "Time to Say Goodbye", achieved greater success, selling more than twelve million copies worldwide and making it one of

13090-595: Was marked, introducing two different competitions with separate winners. In 1989, a third category, the Upcoming Artists Section, was introduced, but it was removed the following year. Only in 1998 were the top three artists in the newcomer section allowed to compete in the main competition. This led to the victory of the debuting Annalisa Minetti , which generated some controversy and led to the reintroduction of completely separate competitions starting from 1999. The distinction among different categories

13209-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of

13328-628: Was on the Svensktoppen weekly chart for fourteen weeks and won a Gold record in Sweden; in Norway, the song achieved Diamond and subsequently Platinum status. The song became successful in France when it was covered by Françoise Hardy , under the title "La maison où j'ai grandi". The first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival was hosted by Nunzio Filogamo . He also hosted the next three editions of

13447-584: Was recorded in English by Dusty Springfield under the title " You Don't Have to Say You Love Me ". It became Springfield's most successful single, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley recorded a cover version in 1970, which was a hit in both the US and the UK. Other covers have charted in the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Finland. The song "Non amarmi" by Aleandro Baldi and Francesca Alotta won

13566-559: Was relocated next to the City Hall. The city has refurbished the old railway line and converted it into a bike route and pedestrian area. There are several bike hire kiosks along the route and a choice of beaches to visit in either direction from San Remo. The path stretches 24 km (15 mi) between Ospedaletti in the west and San Lorenzo al Mare in the east. Sanremo experiences a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ). The Ariston Theatre hosts

13685-461: Was replaced by Rally d'Italia Sardegna on the island of Sardinia , in hosting the Italian round of the WRC. It is now part of European Rally Championship . Formerly a mixed surface event (tarmac and gravel), the rally has later been an all-tarmac event and takes place around the mountains. Sanremo is the finish of the classic Milan–San Remo cycle race. It is considered to be a " monument " – one of

13804-658: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by

13923-454: Was sung twice by two different artists, each one using an individual orchestral arrangement, to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers' competition, not a singers' competition. During this era of the festival, it was custom that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist. This became a way for many international artists to debut their songs on

14042-464: Was to create an annual music festival to be held in the city. In 1948 and 1949, the first two editions of the Italian Song Festival ( Festival della Canzone Italiana ) were held in Viareggio, from an idea developed in 1947 by Aldo Valleroni. The competition was discontinued in 1950 due to financial problems, but it became the basis for the future Sanremo Music Festival. During the summer of 1950,

14161-609: Was tolerated or granted exceptions to Italian gambling laws in order to allow the resort to compete with the casino towns in nearby France and Monaco . Sanremo hosts an annual poker tournament as part of the European Poker Tour . The city is widely accepted as the origin of the five-card stud variant telesina . The Rallye Sanremo is a rally competition that was part of the FIA World Rally Championship from 1973 to 2003 , when it

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