Since 2014, the States General of the Italian Language have been a moment of institutional reflection on the spread of our language and the definition of strategies for promoting Italian. The first edition of the States General of the Italian Language in the World, dedicated to “Italian in a Changing World”, was held on October 21 and 22, 2014, in Florence at Palazzo Vecchio, coinciding with the Week of the Italian Language in the World. It was a two-day event of work, reflection, and study, with contributions from experts, academics, and representatives of other organizations active alongside the Farnesina in promoting the Italian language abroad, took stock of the spread and challenges of Italian internationally.
The second edition of the States General took place in 2016 and was dedicated to “Italian as a living language”, while the third was held two years later and had as its theme “Italian and the Net, Networks for Italian”.
After the interruption due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth edition in November 2021 expanded the scope of the event, which had as a title “States General of the Italian Language and Creativity in the World”: it was an opportunity to reflect on the Italian language as the driving force behind the varied expressions of our country’s creative genius.
The fifth edition of the States General of the Italian Language in the World (April 16, 2025), organized in collaboration with the Dante Alighieri Society, was titled “Toward a Global Community of Italofonia”. It served as the main event in the run-up to the First International Conference of “Italofonia”, which brought together the various international Italian-speaking communities in Rome this fall to establish the Community of “Italofonia”. The latest States General provided the natural framework for engaging the civil society in this process, adopting a bottom-up approach that incorporated recommendations from leading figures in the Italian institutional, cultural, and business worlds.