Italian is an official language of Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Slovenia, Vatican City and in some areas of Istria in Slovenia and Croatia with an Italian minority. It is also widely known and taught in Monaco and Malta. It is also widely spoken in Corsica and Nice (for both were former Italian possessions before being handed over to France), and Albania.
Italian is spoken in such parts of Africa as Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia and Eritrea. It is widely used by Italians living in Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia.
The presence of Italian people is very substantial above all in Latin America. In this case the presence of Italian language, most of all its northern dialects, is abundant in Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Here the Spanish and the Portuguese languages are influenced by Italian particularly in some parts of these countries (i.e. Rio Grande do Sul, Cordoba, Chipilo etc.).
In the United States, Italian speakers are most commonly found in five cities: Boston (90,000), Chicago (60,000), Miami (75,000), New York City (120,000), and Philadelphia (50,000). In Canada there are large Italian-speaking communities in Montreal (100,000) and Toronto (70,000).